The Bible

 

Genesis 1:14

Study

       

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

Commentary

 

Land

  

'Land' in the Word, denotes the church, for the things which signify the church also signify the things relating to the church, for these constitute the church. The reason why 'land' denotes the church in the Word is because the land of Canaan was the land in which the church had been since the most ancient times. Hence, when 'land' is named in the Word, it means the land of Canaan, which then means the church. For when the expression 'the land' appears there, people in the spiritual world do not concern themselves with the idea of a land, only with the idea of the nation inhabiting it. And yet not with an idea of that nation but with an idea of the essential nature of it.

'Land' or 'earth,' as in Genesis 20:15, signifies the doctrine of love and charity.

'Land' signifies the celestial principle of love in Genesis 24:4.

In Genesis 26:12, 'land' signifies rational things.

In Genesis 28:13, this signifies the good of the natural.

The 'land' represents the divine of the rational principle in Genesis 30:25.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 5577)


From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #2750

Study this Passage

  
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2750. I have been informed by angels that when anyone commits adultery on earth heaven becomes closed to him instantly and then he lives immersed solely in worldly and bodily interests. When this has happened, although he hears about things of love and faith, these nevertheless do not enter into him interiorly; and what he says about them himself does not come from within him interiorly but merely from his memory and lips, with self-exaltation or the love of material gain actuating him. For his interiors are closed and these cannot be opened up except by earnest repentance.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.