1607. Because all the land that you see — to you I will give it symbolizes the kingdom of heaven and the fact that it would be the Lord's. This can be seen from the symbolism of the land — here the land of Canaan, since it says the land that you see — as the kingdom of heaven. The land of Canaan represented the Lord's kingdom in the heavens (heaven) and his kingdom on earth (the church), a symbolism that has been discussed several times earlier [§§1, 115, 620, 1025:4, 1066, 1413, 1437, 1585].

Many places in the Word indicate that the Lord was given a kingdom in heaven and on earth. In Isaiah, for example:

A child has been born, a son has been given to us, and sovereignty will be on his shoulder; and his name will be called Miraculous, Counselor, God, Hero, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

In Daniel:

I was seeing in visions at night, and there! In the clouds of the heavens, it was as if the Son of Humankind was coming. And he came to the Ancient One, ¹ and they brought him before the [Ancient One]. And he was given power to rule, and glory, and kingship; and all peoples, nations, and tongues will serve him. His ruling power is eternal power that will not pass away, and his kingship one that will not perish. (Daniel 7:13-14)

The Lord himself also says this; in Matthew:

Everything has been turned over to me by my Father. (Matthew 11:27; and Luke 10:22)

In another place in Matthew:

Authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. (Matthew 28:18)

In John:

You have given your Son authority over all flesh, so that to all that you have given him he may give eternal life. (John 17:2-3)

The same thing is meant by sitting on his right side, as in Luke:

From this time now, the Son of Humankind will be sitting on the right side of God's strength. (Luke 22:69)

[2] All authority in the heavens and on earth was given to the Son of Humankind, but it is important to realize that the Lord had authority over everything in the heavens and on earth before he came into the world. He was God from eternity, and Jehovah, as he himself clearly says in John:

Now make me glorious — you, Father, in your own self — with the glory that I had in you before the world existed. (John 17:5)

And in the same author:

Truly, truly, I say to you: before Abraham existed, I existed. ² (John 8:58)

After all, he was Jehovah and God to the people of the earliest church (the church before the Flood) and was visible to them. He was also Jehovah and God to the ancient church (the church after the Flood). And he was the one whom all the rituals of the Jewish religion represented and whom the Jews would worship. The reason he says that all authority in heaven and on earth was given to him, as if it was then happening for the first time, is that "Son of Humankind" means his human quality. Once this quality had become one with his divine quality, it too was Jehovah and at that same time possessed authority. This could never have happened before he had acquired his glory — that is, before his human nature had also come to have life in itself, through union with his divine nature, and so had likewise become divine, had become Jehovah. He says so in John:

Just as the Father has life in himself, he has also granted the Son to have life in himself. (John 5:26)

[3] His human nature, or outer self, is also what Daniel calls Son of Humankind in the passage quoted above; and Isaiah in the passage quoted refers to it with the words "A child has been born and a son has been given to us."

He now saw and was promised that he would be given the kingdom of heaven and all power in the heavens and on earth, which is symbolized by the words "All the land that you see — to you I will give it, and to your seed after you forever." This was before his human quality had become one with his divine quality, which happened when he completely overcame the Devil and hell. That is to say, it happened when he rid himself of all evil — the only incompatible element — by his own power and his own strength.

Footnotes:

1585. And saw the whole plain of the Jordan symbolizes the goodness and truth that existed in his outer self, as can be seen from the symbolism of a plain and the Jordan. In an inner sense, the plain surrounding the Jordan symbolizes the outer self, with everything in it that is good or true.

The reason the Jordan basin symbolizes these things is that the Jordan was a boundary for the land of Canaan. As previous remarks have shown, the land of Canaan symbolizes the Lord's kingdom and church, and specifically its heavenly and spiritual attributes [§§1, 566-567, 585, 620, 662, 1413, 1437, 1441], which is why it is also called the Holy Land and the heavenly Canaan. And since it symbolizes the Lord's kingdom and church, in the highest sense it symbolizes the Lord himself, who is the all-in-all of his kingdom and church.

[2] As a consequence, everything in the land of Canaan carried a representative meaning. Sites in the middle of the land — its most central parts, in other words — represented the Lord's inner self. Mount Zion, for instance, represented his heavenly qualities, and Jerusalem, his spiritual ones. More distant locations represented traits more remote from internal ones. The most distant points — the borders — represented his outer self. Canaan had many borders; in general they were the two rivers of the Euphrates and the Jordan, and the sea as well. ¹ So the Euphrates and the Jordan represented his outward aspects. Here, then, the Jordan basin symbolizes — just as it represents — all the properties of his outer being. The case is similar when the land of Canaan stands for the Lord's kingdom in the heavens; similar when it stands for the Lord's church on earth; similar when it stands for the individual member of his kingdom or church; similar when it stands abstractly for the heavenly attributes of love; and so on.

[3] This is why almost all the cities and in fact all the mountains, hills, valleys, rivers, and other features of the land of Canaan played a representative role.

Because the river Euphrates was a boundary, it represented the sense impressions and facts that belong to the outer self, as shown earlier, in §120. The Jordan and the Jordan plain did too, as the following passages demonstrate. In David:

My God, my soul is bowing down upon me. Therefore I will remember you from the land of Jordan, and [I will remember] the Hermons from the little mountain. (Psalms 42:6)

The land of Jordan here stands for something lowly and accordingly something remote from heavenly qualities, like our superficial traits, which are remote from our deep ones.

[4] The children of Israel crossed the Jordan when they entered the land of Canaan, and at their crossing the river parted. This also represented entry to the inner self through the outer, and an individual's entry into the Lord's kingdom as well, among other things (Joshua 3:13-17; 4:1-9).

Because our outer self constantly attacks our inner self and tries to gain control over it, "the boast of the Jordan," or "the swelling pride of the Jordan," became a standard phrase among the prophets. In Jeremiah, for instance:

How will you prove yourself the equal of horses? And in a land of peace you are smug; but how do you behave in the swelling pride of the Jordan? (Jeremiah 12:5)

The swelling pride of the Jordan stands for aspects of our outer self that rise up and try to dominate our inner self, as attempts at rationalization (the horses here) and a consequent smugness do.

[5] In the same author:

Edom will become a ruin. Look: like a lion he will go up from the boast of the Jordan to the dwelling of Ethan. (Jeremiah 49:17, 19)

The boast of the Jordan stands for pride lifted up by our outer self against the goodness and truth of our inner self. In Zechariah:

Howl, fir tree, because the cedar has fallen, because the majestic ones have been ravaged; wail, oaks of Bashan, because the walled forest has come down. The sound of the wailing of the shepherds, because their majesty has been ravaged! The sound of the roaring of young lions, that the boast of the Jordan has been ravaged! (Zechariah 11:2-3)

Numbers 34:12 shows that the Jordan was a boundary of the land of Canaan, and Joshua 15:5 shows that it was the eastern border of the land of Judah.

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