1585. And saw all the plain of Jordan. That this signifies those goods and truths that were in the external man, is evident from the signification of a “plain,” and of “Jordan.” In the internal sense “the plain of Jordan” signifies the external man as to all its goods and truths. That “the plain of Jordan” signifies this, is because the Jordan was a boundary of the land of Canaan. The land of Canaan, as before said and shown, signifies the Lord’s kingdom and church, and in fact the celestial and the spiritual things thereof; on which account it has also been called the Holy Land, and the Heavenly Canaan; and because it signifies the Lord’s kingdom and church, it signifies in the supreme sense the Lord Himself, who is the all in all of His kingdom and of His church.
[2] Hence all things that were in the land of Canaan were representative. Those which were in the midst of the land, or which were the inmost, represented the Lord’s internal man-as Mount Zion and Jerusalem, the former the celestial things, the latter the spiritual things. Those which were further distant from the center, represented the things more remote from the internals. Those which were the furthest off, or which were the boundaries, represented the external man. The boundaries of Canaan were several; in general, the two rivers Euphrates and Jordan, and also the sea. Hence the Euphrates and the Jordan represented the externals. Here, therefore, “the plain of Jordan,” signifies, as it represents, all things that are in the external man. The case is similar when the expression “land of Canaan” is applied to the Lord’s kingdom in the heavens, or to the Lord’s church on earth, or again to the man of His kingdom or church, or, abstractly, to the celestial things of love, and so on.
[3] Hence it is that almost all the cities, and even all the mountains, hills, valleys, rivers, and other things, in the land of Canaan, were representative. It has already been shown (n. 120) that the river Euphrates, being a boundary, represented the things of sense and knowledge that belong to the external man. That the case is similar with the Jordan, and the plain of Jordan, may be seen from passages that now follow.
In David:
O my God, my soul is bowed down within me; therefore will I remember Thee from the land of Jordan, and the Hermons, from the mountain of littleness (Psalms 42:6); where “the land of Jordan” denotes that which is low, thus that which is distant from the celestial, as man’s externals are from his internals.
[4] That the sons of Israel crossed the Jordan when they entered the land of Canaan, and that it was then divided, likewise represented the access to the internal man through the external, and also man’s entrance into the Lord’s kingdom, besides other things. (See Josh. 3:14; 4:1 to 24 e end.) And because the external man continually fights against the internal, and desires dominion, the “pride” or “swelling” of Jordan became a prophetic expression. As in Jeremiah:
How shalt thou offer thyself a match for horses? And in a land of peace thou art confident; but how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan? (Jeremiah 12:5).
“The swelling of Jordan” denotes the things that belong to the external man, which rise up and desire to dominate over the internal man, as reasonings do—which here are the “horses”— and the confidence that is from them.
[5] In the same:
Edom shall be for a desolation; behold he shall come up like a lion from the pride of Jordan to the habitation of Ethan (Jeremiah 49:17, 19);
“the pride of Jordan” denotes the rising of the external man against the goods and truths of the internal.
In Zechariah:
Howl, O fir tree, for the cedar is fallen, because the magnificent ones are laid waste. Howl, O ye oaks of Bashan, for the defensed forest is come down. A voice of the howling of the shepherds, for their magnificence is laid waste; a voice of the roaring of young lions, for the swelling of Jordan is laid waste (Zech. 11:2-3).
That the Jordan was a boundary of the land of Canaan, is evident from Numbers 34:12; and of the land of Judah toward the east, from Joshua 15:5.
