When 'islands' are contrasted to 'earth' or 'mountains,' they signify the truths of faith, because they are in the sea. They signify doctrinal things which are rituals. 'Islands' signify peoples who are more remote from the worship of God. People who are steeped in the internal sense of the Word, such as angels, do not know what islands are, because they no longer have any concept of such places. Instead they have a perception of more remote worship, like the gentiles outside the church.

'Islands,' in Ezekiel 27:6, signify people in the church in a natural, materially-oriented state but still rational.

(References: Apocalypse Explained 406; Isaiah 1, Isaiah 49, 49:1)

2203. 'Saying, After I have grown old, shall I have this pleasure?' means that the affection possessed by that truth had no inclination to change its state. This is clear from the meaning of 'growing old' as casting off the human and so as changing its state, dealt with above in 2198, and from the meaning of 'shall I have this pleasure?' as not desiring it, thus that this affection was not so inclined. The implication of these matters becomes clear from what has been stated above in 2196 about Sarah standing at the tent door, and this being behind him, namely that the human rational as regards truth is such that it is not able to understand what the Divine is, for the reason that that truth is immersed in appearances, and consequently that which it cannot understand it does not believe, and that which it does not believe does not affect it. The appearances in which the rational is immersed are such that they do affect it, for the appearances themselves bring delight and therefore if deprived of appearances the rational imagines that no delight is left, whereas heavenly affection is not immersed in appearances but in good and truth themselves. But as rational truth is of this nature, it is also excusable and permissible for it to be immersed in appearances and to take delight in them. Such truth immersed in appearances is represented here by 'Sarah' when the Lord joined Himself to the Divine. This explains why it is said that she stood at the tent door and that she laughed and said, 'After I have grown old shall I have this pleasure?' by which is meant that the affection possessed by rational truth had no inclination to change its state.