Apocalypse Explained #554
554. And their faces as men's faces, signifies that they seem to themselves to be spiritual affections of truth. This is evident from the signification of "faces," as being the interiors of the mind and affection (of which above, n. 412; and from the signification of "man," as being the spiritual affection of truth, and thus intelligence and wisdom (of which above, n. 280; and as the face is a type of man's interiors, "faces" have the same signification as the men themselves, namely, the affections of truth, but here that they seem to themselves to be affections of truth, and thus intelligent and wise, because it is said of the locusts that their faces appeared "as men's faces."
[2] The locusts appeared with such a face because of the strong persuasiveness in which sensual men are who are in falsities from evil, and who are signified by "locusts;" the persuasiveness itself presents such an appearance, but only before themselves and before such others as are also in falsities from evil, but not before the angels of heaven; and for the reason that angels are in the light of heaven, and whatever they see they see from that light, and the light of heaven, being Divine truth, dissipates everything fantastic that comes from persuasiveness. Sensual men appear thus to themselves because sensual men persuade themselves that they are more in truths from good than others are, although they are in falsities from evil; for they are unable to look inwardly from heaven at anything, but only outwardly from the world; those who see from the world alone see only from a delusive light, from which they suppose themselves to be more intelligent and wiser than others, not knowing what intelligence and wisdom are, or what they are from. From this persuasive faith is their belief that they are in the spiritual affection of truth; this therefore is signified by "the faces of the locusts seemed to be as men's faces."
[3] But this must be illustrated by experience in the spiritual world. All who are in the heavens are men in respect both to the face and to the rest of the body, for they are in the spiritual affection of truth, and the spiritual affection of truth is itself a man in form, because that affection is from the Lord, who alone is Man, and because from Him the universal heaven conspires to the human form; consequently angels are forms of their affections, and these also are apparent in their faces. (But these things are fully explained in the work on Heaven and Hell 59-102.) But those who are in hell, where all are external and sensual, because they are in falsities from evil, while they also appear to themselves in respect to the face to be men, so appear only amongst their own; but when they are looked at in the light of heaven they appear like monsters of direful face, and sometimes in place of the face only something hairy, or with a horrible grate-like set of teeth, and sometimes lurid like something dead, in which there is nothing living and human; for such are the forms of hatred, revenge, and cruelty, wherein is spiritual death, because they are in opposition to the life that is from the Lord. That among themselves they appear with a face like men is from fantasy and consequent persuasion. (But respecting these appearances see also in the work on Heaven and Hell 553.)
Genesis 7
1
And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
2
Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.
3
Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.
4
For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.
5
And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him.
6
And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
7
And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
8
Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,
9
There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
10
And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
11
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
12
And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
13
In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;
14
They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort.
15
And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.
16
And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.
17
And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth.
18
And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.
19
And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.
20
Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.
21
And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man:
22
All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.
23
And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.
24
And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.
