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:

620. The symbolism of the land as the tribe of people mentioned earlier is established by places above that show the symbolism of the land (or earth) and the ground [§§268, 566].

Land is a term that surfaces repeatedly in the Word, where it means an area — such as the land of Canaan — in which the Lord's true church exists. It also means an area — such as the land of Egypt or another non-Jewish nation — in which the church does not exist. Accordingly it stands for the race of people living there; and since it stands for the race, it also stands for every member of the race there.

An expression such as the land of Canaan uses the term land for a heavenly love. The lands of non-Jewish nations are so called on account of foul loves. But ground is used in reference to faith, which is planted as a seed. As I showed [§566:2], the land means the area surrounding the ground and the ground means the area surrounding a field, just as love is what contains faith and faith is what contains the religious knowledge that is planted.

The use of land in the current verse implies a race or tribe in which every element of heavenly love and of the church died away. (How a term applies [in a given context] can be determined from the subject under discussion.)

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: