1044. And it will serve as a sign of the pact between me and the earth means an indication of the Lord's presence in charity, and the earth here means human selfhood, as statements above show [§§1036, 1038]. The symbolism of the earth as human selfhood can be seen from the inner meaning, too, and also from the sequence of thoughts. Earlier the text said, "This is the sign of the pact between me and you and every living soul that is with you," which symbolizes whatever has been reborn. Here, however, the phrasing changes: "It will serve as a sign of the pact between me and the earth." The change — and the repetition of the sign of the pact as well — shows that the present verse has another meaning. It shows, in fact, that the earth is that which has not been reborn and cannot be reborn, and this is human self-will.

[2] So far as their intellectual side goes, regenerate people are the Lord's, but so far as their voluntary side goes, they are their own. These two sides in a spiritual person are opposed to each other, but although a person's voluntary part is opposed, its presence is still unavoidable. All the darkness in spiritual people's intellectual part, all the thickening of their cloud, comes from the will side. The darkness constantly streams in from their will side, and the more it does, the more the cloud in their intellectual part thickens. On the other hand, the more the darkness withdraws, the more the cloud thins. That is the reason the earth in this case symbolizes human selfhood. (It was shown earlier that the earth symbolizes our bodily concerns and much else besides [§§16, 17, 28, 29, 82, 566, 620, 662, 800, 895].)

[3] The situation resembles that of two people who were once bound together in a pact of friendship, as will and intellect were among the people of the earliest church. When the friendship breaks down and enmity arises — as it did when humanity completely perverted its power of will — and a new pact is entered into, the hostile party then takes center stage, as if it were the party with which the pact had been struck. The pact is not with this side of our mind, however (since it is diametrically opposed and contrary), but with what streams from it, as noted earlier [§1023] — with intellectual selfhood, that is. The sign or indication of the pact is this: the larger the Lord's presence in our intellectual selfhood, the more remote our self-will.

The case is just like that of heaven and hell. A regenerate person's intellectual half is heaven because of the charity in which the Lord is present. But such a person's will side is hell. The more present the Lord is in heaven, the more hell moves away. When we depend on ourselves, we are in hell. When we depend on the Lord, we are in heaven and are always being lifted up from hell into heaven. The higher we rise, the greater the distance between us and our hell.

The sign or indication that the Lord is present, then, is the withdrawal of our own will. Times of trial and many other means of regeneration work to distance it.

566. The symbolism of the face of the ground as that whole area where the church existed can be seen from the symbolism of the ground, since the Word carefully distinguishes ground from the earth or the land. Wherever it appears, ground symbolizes the church, or some aspect of the church. This is the origin of the human's name — Adam, which means ground. ¹ Often when the earth or the land is mentioned in the Word, it means the absence of the church or of anything having to do with the church. The first chapter is an example. In it, only the earth or land is mentioned, ² since the church — the regenerate person — did not yet exist. The ground is first mentioned in the second chapter, because by then the church did exist. Something similar occurs here and in the next chapter:

All substance would be destroyed from the face of the ground. (Genesis 7:4, 23)

This means in the territory where the church was. In the same chapter:

... to keep their seed alive on the face of the earth. (Genesis 7:3)

This is about a church yet to be created. The same holds true everywhere in the Word, as in Isaiah:

Jehovah will have mercy on Jacob and will yet choose Israel and will put them on their ground; and the peoples will take them and lead them to their place, and the house of Israel will inherit them upon the ground of Jehovah. (Isaiah 14:1-2)

This is about a church that has been formed; but a place where there was no church is called the earth in verses 9, 12, 16, 20-21, 25, and 26 of the same chapter.

[2] In the same author:

And the ground of Judah will make Egypt quake. On that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt speaking the tongue of Canaan. (Isaiah 19:17-18)

The ground is where the church is and the land is where the church is not. In the same author:

The earth will wander, wander, like a drunkard. Jehovah will punish the army of the heights on high, and the monarchs of the ground down on the ground. (Isaiah 24:20-21)

The meaning is similar. In Jeremiah:

Because of the chastened ground, since there was no rain on the land, the farmers were put to shame, they covered their head; for even the doe in the field gave birth. (Jeremiah 14:4-5)

The land means the area surrounding the ground, and the ground means the area surrounding the field.

[3] In the same author:

He brought the seed of the house of Israel out from the north land and from all the lands to which I drove them, and they will live on their ground. (Jeremiah 23:8)

The land and lands are where there are no churches; the ground is where the church or true worship is. In the same author:

I will make the survivors of Jerusalem — those left in this land and those living in the land of Egypt — I will make them a disturbance, an evil to all the kingdoms of the earth. And I will send against them sword, famine, and contagion to the point of devouring them off the ground that I gave to them and their ancestors. (Jeremiah 24:8-9, 10)

The ground stands for theology and for the worship it gives rise to. The same holds true for Jeremiah 25:5. ³

[4] In Ezekiel:

I will gather you from the lands to which you have been scattered, and you will acknowledge that I am Jehovah, when I have returned you onto Israel's ground, onto the land in which I lifted my hand to give it to your ancestors. (Ezekiel 20:41-42)

The ground stands for inner worship; it is called land when there is no inner worship. In Malachi:

I will harangue against the devouring pest for you, and it will not spoil the fruit of the ground for you; and the grapevine in the field will not be bereft for you. And all nations will call you fortunate, because you will be a land of pleasure. (Malachi 3:11-12)

The land stands for the whole surrounding area and so, quite obviously, for a person, who is called "a land." The ground surrounded by that land stands for the church, or theology.

[5] In Moses:

Sing, you nations, his people. He will expiate the guilt incurred by his ground, his people. (Deuteronomy 32:43)

Clearly this stands for the church among non-Jewish nations, which is called the "ground." ⁴ In Isaiah:

Before the child knew to spurn evil and choose good, the ground that you despise in the presence of its two monarchs would be deserted. (Isaiah 7:16)

This speaks of the Lord's Coming, saying that the ground prepared for the church — the true doctrine concerning faith — would be deserted. It is clear that the words ground and field are used in connection with planting, as in Isaiah:

He will give rain for the seed with which you would sow the ground. Oxen and young donkeys are working the ground. (Isaiah 30:23-24)

And in Joel:

The field was devastated and the ground mourned, because the grain was devastated. (Joel 1:10)

From this it can now be seen that the human — called adam in Hebrew, from the word for ground — symbolizes the church.

Footnotes:

29. Genesis 1:11-12. And God said, "Let the earth cause the sprouting on the earth of the tender plant, of the plant bearing its seed, of the fruit tree making the fruit that holds its seed, each in the way of its kind;" and so it was done. And the earth produced the tender plant, the plant bearing its seed in the way of its kind, and the tree making the fruit that held its seed in the way of its kind. And God saw that it was good.

When the earth (a person) is so well prepared as to be able to accept heavenly seed from the Lord and to produce good and truth in some degree, that is the time when the Lord first causes the sprouting of something tender, called the tender plant or grass. Next he stimulates something more useful that reseeds itself — the plant bearing its seed. Finally he germinates something good, which reproduces fruitfully — the tree making the fruit that holds its seed, each of these in the way of its kind.

During regeneration we naturally suppose at first that the good we do and the truth we speak come from ourselves, when the reality is that all good and truth come from the Lord. If we imagine they come from ourselves, then, we are not yet in possession of the life force belonging to true faith (although we can receive it later). We cannot believe yet that they come from the Lord, because we are being prepared to receive the living power of faith. This stage is represented in the story by things that have no living soul; animate creatures represent the stage of living faith to come.

[2] The Lord is the sower of seeds, the seed is his Word, and the earth is the human being, as he saw fit to say in Matthew 13:19-23, 37-38, 39; Mark 4:14-20; and Luke 8:11-15. A similar description:

So God's kingdom is like one who tosses seed into the earth and sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; how it happens, the person does not know. For the earth bears fruit readily — first a shoot, then an ear, then the full grain in the ear. (Mark 4:26-27, 28)

"God's kingdom" in its broadest sense means the whole of heaven. Less broadly it means the Lord's true church. In its narrow sense it refers to everyone with true faith, which is to say, all who become reborn by living out their faith. Each of these people is also called a heaven (since they have heaven in them) and God's kingdom (since they have God's kingdom in them). The Lord himself teaches this in Luke:

Jesus was asked by the Pharisees, "When is God's kingdom coming?" He answered them and said, "God's kingdom does not come in an observable way, nor will they say, ‘Look here!' or ‘Look there!' because — look! — God's kingdom is within you." (Luke 17:20-21)

This is the third step in our regeneration and the stage at which we repent. The process continues to advance from shadow to light, from evening to morning, and so it says:

[3] Genesis 1:13. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.