1025. The symbolism of with your seed after you as those who are created anew can be seen from the symbolism of seed and from subsequent verses.

From the symbolism of seed: Seed on a literal level means descendants, but in an inner sense it means faith. And since no faith exists except where there is charity (as stated many times before [§§32, 34, 345, 379, 585, 590, 628, 859, 863, 880, 896:2]) charity is what seed really means in an inner sense.

From subsequent verses: The text is obviously speaking not only of people inside the church but also of people outside it and so of the entire human race. Wherever charity exists — even in the nations farthest removed from the church — seed exists, because heavenly seed is charity. After all, none of us can do good on our own; all goodness is from the Lord. The good that people of non-Christian nations do comes from him too. (These nations will be discussed below [§§1032-1033, 2589-2605, 2861, 3263:2], with the Lord's divine mercy.)

Section 255 above showed that God's seed is faith. Faith there and elsewhere means the charity that gives rise to faith, since no faith that really is faith can exist except the faith that comes of charity.

[2] This is also true in other places in the Word that mention seed. Where Abraham's, ¹ Isaac's, or Jacob's seed is spoken of, for instance, it symbolizes love, or charity. Abraham represented heavenly love, and Isaac, spiritual love, both of them belonging to the inner self. Jacob represented the same things but in the outer self. The symbolism holds true not only in the prophetic books but also in the narratives, or histories. ²

Heaven does not notice the Word's story line, only the things that the narrative details symbolize. The Word was written not just for us but also for angels. When we read the Word, taking it solely at face value, the angels grasp not the literal but the inner meaning. The mental images we form when reading the Word, tied as they are to matter, to the world, and to our bodies, turn into spirit- and heaven-oriented ideas among the angels. When we read about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for example, angels never think about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob but about the attributes they represent and therefore symbolize.

[3] The case is similar with Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Of these individuals the angels are unaware; all that comes to their minds is the ancient church. With angels who are on a deeper level, it is not even that church but its faith that comes to mind, and also the state of the affairs being discussed, as seen in context.

Likewise when the Word mentions seed. Here, for instance, in speaking of Noah [and his sons], it says that a pact would be set up with them and with their seed after them. Angels do not picture those people's posterity — since there was no Noah, this being merely a name for the ancient church — but take seed to mean love for others, which was the essential component of faith in that church. ³ Again, where the narratives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob mention their seed, angels never take it to mean their personal descendants. They take it as speaking of everyone throughout the world whether inside or outside the church in whom heavenly seed (or charity) lodges. Angels at the deeper levels, in fact, perceive the actual love that is heavenly seed, without any reference to people.

[4] The following places indicate that seed symbolizes love, as well as everyone who possesses love. In a passage speaking of Abram:

Jehovah said, "To your seed I will give this land." (Genesis 12:7)

Again:

All the land that you see, to you I will give it, and to your seed, forever. And I will make your seed like the dust of the earth. (Genesis 13:15-16)

People who focus on the literal meaning have no idea that seed does not mean Abram's descendants or that the land does not mean the land of Canaan, especially because that land was indeed given to his descendants. People who focus on the inner meaning, though, as the whole of heaven does, see nothing else in Abram's seed than love, or in the land of Canaan than the Lord's kingdom in heaven and on earth. All they see in the gift of the land to those descendants is a representative meaning, which will be treated of elsewhere [§§1445-1448, 1606-1610], by the Lord's divine mercy. Again, in another place that speaks of Abram:

Jehovah led him outside and said, "Look up, now, toward the sky and count the stars, if you can count them;" and he said to him, "So will your seed be." (Genesis 15:5)

Here too, since Abram represented love, or the kind of faith that saves us, in the inner sense his seed means no other descendants than everyone in the whole world who is under love's influence.

[5] Likewise:

I will set up my pact between me and you and your seed after you, and I will give you and your seed after you the land of your travels — all the land of Canaan — as an eternal possession; and I will become their God. This is my pact that you shall keep, between me and you and your seed after you: that every male be circumcised to you. (Genesis 17:7-8, 10)

Once more, setting up a pact symbolizes the Lord's close connection, through love, with people throughout the world, and that love was represented by Abram. This shows what Abram's seed symbolizes: everyone in the whole world who is governed by love. The pact consisted in circumcision (the subject of the passage), which heaven never takes as circumcision of flesh but as circumcision of the heart — and this is the circumcision of people governed by love. Circumcision was a practice that represented rebirth through love, as Moses clearly explains:

Jehovah God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed, [to cause you] to love Jehovah your God with all your heart and all your soul, so that you will live. (Deuteronomy 30:6)

These words show what the inner meaning of circumcision is. Wherever circumcision is mentioned, it simply means love and charity and consequently life.

[6] The symbolism of Abraham's seed as everyone throughout the world who has love is also demonstrated by the Lord's words to Abraham and to Isaac. To Abraham (after he had shown his willingness to sacrifice Isaac, as commanded):

I will surely bless you and surely multiply your seed like the stars of the heavens and like the sand that is on the seashore, and your seed will inherit the gate of your foes, and in your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed. (Genesis 22:17-18)

In these verses it is obvious that seed means everyone everywhere who has love.

[7] Just as Abraham represented heavenly love, as noted, Isaac represented spiritual love. Isaac's seed, then, symbolizes nothing else than every person in whom spiritual love (charity) is found. These words describe such a person:

Reside as an immigrant in this land and I will be with you and bless you; because to you and your seed I will give all these lands. And I will confirm the oath that I swore to Abraham your father and will multiply your seed like the stars of the heavens. And I will give your seed all these lands, and in your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed. (Genesis 26:3-4, 24)

It is evident that all the nations means those who live in charity. Heavenly love, represented by Abraham, is like the father of spiritual love, represented by Isaac, because spiritual things are born of heavenly ones, as already shown [§§775:2, 880:2].

[8] Jacob represented outward traits of the church springing from inner qualities. So he represented every trait of the outer self originating in love and charity. As a consequence, his seed symbolizes everyone in the whole world whose outward worship contains inward reverence and whose deeds of charity contain neighborly love from the Lord. This seed was mentioned to Jacob after he dreamed of the ladder:

I am Jehovah, God of Abraham your father and God of Isaac. The land on which you are lying, to you will I give it and to your seed, and your seed will be like the dust of the earth. And in you all the clans of the ground will be blessed, and in your seed. (Genesis 28:13-14; 32:12; 48:4)

[9] In addition to the passages in the Word that §255 above cites, the following indicate that seed has no other symbolism. In Isaiah:

You are Israel, my servant; Jacob, whom I have chosen; the seed of Abraham, my friend. (Isaiah 41:8)

This verse is talking about our regeneration, and it distinguishes Israel and Jacob, as so many other places do. Israel symbolizes the inner spiritual church, and Jacob, the outer part of that church. Both are called the seed of Abraham, that is, of the heavenly church, because heavenly, spiritual, and earthly elements come one after the other. In Jeremiah:

I had planted you as a superior grapevine through and through, the seed of truth. How could you turn into the degenerate [stems] of a foreign grapevine before my eyes? (Jeremiah 2:21)

This is about the spiritual church, which is the superior grapevine and whose charity — or faith rising out of charity — is called the seed of truth.

[10] In the same author:

As the army of the heavens cannot be counted and the sand of the sea cannot be measured, so will I multiply the seed of David, my servant, and the Levites waiting on me. (Jeremiah 33:22)

Clearly the seed stands for heavenly seed, because David symbolizes the Lord. Everyone recognizes that David's seed was not the uncountable army of the heavens or the immeasurable sand of the sea. In the same author:

"Look! The days are coming," says Jehovah, "when I will raise up for David a just offshoot, and he will reign as monarch. He will act with understanding and exercise judgment and justice in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live securely. And this is his name that they will call him: Jehovah our justice. So look! The days are coming," says Jehovah, "when they will no longer say, ‘As Jehovah lives, who summoned up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,' but ‘As Jehovah lives, who summoned up and who withdrew the seed of the house of Israel from the land of the north.'" (Jeremiah 23:5-6, 7-8)

In this passage, very different things are meant than those that appear in the letter. David does not mean David nor Judah Judah nor Israel Israel, but David means the Lord, Judah means a heavenly quality, and Israel means a spiritual one. Accordingly, the seed of Israel means those who have charity, or the faith that rises out of charity.

[11] In David:

You who fear Jehovah, praise him. All you seed of Jacob, give him glory. Be afraid of him, all you seed of Israel. (Psalms 22:23-24)

Here too the seed of Israel means no other kind of seed than the spiritual church. In Isaiah:

Its stump will be holy seed. (Isaiah 6:13)

This stands for remaining traces [of goodness and truth], which are holy because they are the Lord's. In the same author:

From Jacob I will bring forth seed, and from Judah, one to own my mountains; and the ones I have chosen will own it, and my servants will live there. (Isaiah 65:9)

This is about the heavenly church, both outer and inner. In the same author:

They will not bear children for turmoil. They are the seed of those blessed by Jehovah, as are their children with them. (Isaiah 65:23)

This is about the new heavens and the new earth, that is, the Lord's kingdom. The people in it, born or rather reborn of love, are called the seed of those blessed by Jehovah.

Footnotes:

590. The fact that regret has to do with wisdom, and heartfelt grief with love, cannot be explained clearly to people's understanding. It can only be explained in terms of human experience and so in terms of appearances.

Every concept in our thinking contains something of both intellect and will; to put it another way, it contains something of thought and of love for that thought. If an idea does not draw to some extent on the will, or on love in the will, it is not an idea, because without love we cannot think. There is a kind of marriage, perpetual and inviolable, between thought and will. So the contents of the will or the objects of love in the will are present within the ideas that make up our thinking, or are at least attached to them. From this human experience it seems more or less possible to know (or rather to grasp in some measure) what lies at the heart of the Lord's mercy: wisdom and love.

As a result, the prophets (especially Isaiah) almost everywhere use two terms for every concept, one involving a spiritual quality and the other a heavenly one. ¹ The spiritual aspect of the Lord's mercy is wisdom and its heavenly aspect is love.

Footnotes:

1259. To continue with the concept that nations symbolize the good and bad in a way of worshiping: As already noted [§§470-471, 483:2, 1159:3, 1238:2, 1246], humankind in the earliest times lived divided into nations, clans, and households. The purpose behind this was for the church on earth to represent the Lord's kingdom, where all the inhabitants are marked off into separate communities and the communities into larger communities and these again into still larger ones. It is differences in love and faith, both general and specific, that determine those divisions. (For more on this, see §§684, 685.) So the inhabitants are likewise divided into something like households, clans, and nations.

As a result, different kinds of goodness associated with love and so with faith are symbolized by households, clans, and nations in the Word, which carefully distinguishes between nations and peoples. A nation symbolizes goodness or evil, but a people symbolizes truth or falsity. This is consistently true, without exception, as the following passages illustrate.

[2] In Isaiah, for instance:

It will happen on that day that Jesse's root will be what is standing as a banner of the peoples; it will be what the nations seek, and its resting place will be glorious. On that day, the Lord will apply his hand another, second time to secure the remnant of his people who were left behind by Assyria and by Egypt and by Pathros and by Cush and by Elam and by Shinar and by Hamath and by the islands of the sea. And he will lift up a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel, and the scattered elements of Judah he will assemble. (Isaiah 11:10-11, 12)

The peoples stand for the church's true ideas, while the nations ¹ stand for its good qualities, and the two are obviously distinct. The theme is the Lord's kingdom, the church, and (to speak universally) every individual who has been reborn. The names symbolize the same things as before [§§1163-1165, 1183, 1185-1186, 1196, 1205, 1228]. Israel symbolizes the church's spiritual attributes; Judah, its heavenly attributes. In the same author:

This people, walking in shadow, have seen great light. You have multiplied the nation; you have enlarged the gladness in it. (Isaiah 9:2-3)

The people in this passage stand for truth, so they are said to walk in shadow and to see light. ² The nation stands for goodness.

[3] In the same author:

What answer will the messengers of the nation receive? That Jehovah has founded Zion, and the wretched of his people will trust in it. (Isaiah 14:32)

The nation again stands for goodness and the people for truth. In the same author:

Jehovah Sabaoth will swallow up on this mountain the enveloping layers enveloping all the peoples, and the mantle veiling all the nations. ³ (Isaiah 25:7)

This is about a new church — a church among gentile, or non-Jewish, nations. The people stand for its true ideas, and the nations, for its good qualities. In the same author:

Open the gates, so that an upright nation keeping faith may walk in. (Isaiah 26:2)

The nation explicitly stands for goodness. In the same author:

All the nations will assemble together, and the peoples will gather. (Isaiah 43:9)

This too is about a church among non-Jewish nations. The nations stand for its good qualities and the people for its true ideas, and because the two are distinctly different from each other, both are addressed. Otherwise it would be pointlessly repetitive. In the same author:

The Lord Jehovih has said, "Look, now, I will lift my hand to the nations, and for the peoples I will raise my signal. And they will bring your sons in their embrace, and your daughters they will carry here on their shoulder." (Isaiah 49:22)

This is about the Lord's kingdom. The nations again stand for goodness and the peoples for truth.

[4] In the same author:

To the right and left will you burst out, and your seed will inherit the nations, and deserted cities they will inhabit. (Isaiah 54:3)

The subject is the Lord's kingdom and the church called the church of the Gentiles. The nations stand for charitable goodness, or (what is the same) for individuals who display charitable goodness, as can be seen from the fact that the "seed" (faith) will inherit them. The cities stand for truth. In the same author:

Look, now, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a chieftain and lawgiver for the peoples. Look, now, you will call a nation you do not recognize, and a nation that has not known you will run to you. (Isaiah 55:4-5)

The subject here is the Lord's kingdom. The peoples stand for truth, the nations for goodness. In the church, those who are endowed with the good impulses of neighborly love are the nations, while those who are endowed with religious truth are the peoples. Goodness and truth are predicated of the individuals in whom they exist. In the same author:

The nations will walk toward your light, and monarchs toward the radiance of your dawn. Then you will see and flow toward them, and your heart will be struck with awe and expand, because the abundance of the sea will be steered toward you; the armies of the nations will come to you. (Isaiah 60:3, 5)

This passage is about the Lord's kingdom and the church of the Gentiles. In it, the nations stand for goodness, and the monarchs, who are monarchs of the peoples, stand for truth.

[5] In Zephaniah:

The remnant of my people will plunder them, and those remaining of my nation will inherit them. (Zephaniah 2:9)

In Zechariah:

Many peoples and numerous nations will come to seek Jehovah of the Legions in Jerusalem. (Zechariah 8:22)

Jerusalem stands for the Lord's kingdom and for the church. The peoples stand for those who possess religious truth, and the nations for those who exhibit the good impulses of neighborly love, which is why they are mentioned separately. In David:

You will free me from the quarrels of the people; you will put me at the head of the nations. A people I have not known will serve me. (Psalms 18:43)

Again the people stand for those who have true concepts, and nations for those who have goodness. Since these entities go to make up an individual in the church, both are mentioned. In the same author:

The peoples will acclaim you, God. The peoples will acclaim you — all of them; the nations will rejoice and exult, because you will judge the peoples with uprightness, and the nations you will lead into the land. (Psalms 67:3-4)

The peoples obviously stand for those who have religious truth, and the nations for those who possess charitable goodness.

[6] In Moses:

Remember the days of old; understand the years of generation after generation. Ask your father and he will point out to you; your elders and they will tell you: when the Highest One gave an inheritance to the nations and divided the children of humankind, he set the boundaries of the peoples by the number of the children of Israel. (Deuteronomy 32:7-8)

The theme here is the earliest church and the ancient churches, which are the days of old and the years of generation after generation. In those churches, the members who exhibited charitable goodness were called nations, to whom an inheritance was given. The children of humankind and then the peoples were members possessing religious truth that grew out of charity.

Because nations symbolize the church's good qualities and peoples symbolize its true ideas, when Esau and Jacob were still in the womb it was said that:

Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples will divide from your belly. (Genesis 25:23)

This evidence now establishes what the term church of the Gentiles (or of the nations) really means; the earliest church was the real church of the Gentiles, and after it, the ancient church was. ⁴

[7] Because those who have charity are called nations, while those who possess faith are called peoples, the Lord's role as priest is assigned to the nations (since it involves heavenly attributes, which are different kinds of goodness), while his role as monarch is assigned to the peoples (since it involves spiritual entities, which are true concepts). This was represented in the Jewish religion, whose adherents formed a nation during the time before they had monarchs but became a people after they acquired monarchs. ⁵

Footnotes: