1610. I will make your seed like the dust of the earth means multiplying beyond measure, as can be seen without explanation. This verse says that his seed would be made like the dust of the earth; other passages in the Word say "like the sand of the sea," or "like the stars of the heavens." ¹ Each has its own particular symbolism. The dust of the earth has to do with heavenly qualities, because the earth symbolizes the heavenly aspect of love, as shown earlier [§§620, 1413, 1437, 1585]. The sand of the sea has to do with spiritual qualities, because the sea symbolizes the spiritual aspect of love, as also shown. ² "Like the stars of the heavens" symbolizes both, in a higher degree. Because these items are incapable of being counted, it became customary to use them to express the idea of immeasurable reproducing and multiplying.

[2] The multiplying of the seed — the faith that comes of love, or love itself — beyond measure symbolizes the Lord in the highest sense. Specifically, it symbolizes his human quality, because the Lord's human quality is called the "seed of a woman," as discussed in §256. ³ And since the Lord's human quality is meant, multiplication beyond measure means infinite heavenliness and spirituality.

On the other hand, when seed symbolizes the faith that comes of charity (or charity itself) in the human race, the meaning is that the seed in each individual who lives a life of charity would multiply beyond measure. This actually happens in the other world to everyone who lives a life of neighborly love. Charity and the faith that results from charity, along with happiness, increase so abundantly in such people that it can be depicted only by something immeasurable and inexpressible.

When seed symbolizes the human race itself, its multiplication in the Lord's kingdom is again beyond measure and comes not only from people inside the church and their children but also from people outside the church and their children. As a result, the Lord's kingdom, or heaven, is immeasurable, as will be discussed elsewhere, the Lord in his divine mercy willing. ⁴

Footnotes:

790. The symbolism of water here and below as falsity is established by the passages dealing with a flood of water that were cited from the Word in the prefatory section of this chapter and at verse 6 [§§705, 739]. The quotations in those two places show that floods of water symbolize times of desolation and trial, which carry the same consequences as false notions, since desolation and trial are nothing but deluges of the falsities stirred up by evil spirits. The symbolism of flood water as falsities comes from the general meaning of water in the Word as something spiritual, that is, as the things we truly understand, grasp rationally, and know about. Because water symbolizes these things, it also symbolizes their opposites, since every falsity, being a matter of thought, is a "fact," so to speak, and seems capable of being grasped rationally and understood.

The symbolism of water as things that are spiritual can be seen from many places in the Word. ¹ In support of its symbolism as falsity, though, I offer the following in addition to previous quotations. ²

[2] In Isaiah:

This people spurned the waters of Shiloah, which go gently. Therefore (look, now!) the Lord is bringing up over them the waters of a river, strong and abundant; and it will come up over all their brooks and go on all their banks. (Isaiah 8:6-7)

The waters going gently stand for things that are spiritual, waters strong and abundant for things that are false. In the same author:

Doom to a land casting shadow with its wings, ³ a land across the rivers of Cush, that sends ambassadors onto the sea and [puts them] in rattan vessels on the face of the water. Go, speedy envoys, to a nation marked out and trampled, whose land the rivers plunder. (Isaiah 18:1-2)

Here they stand for the falsities that belong to a "land casting shadow with its wings."

[3] In the same author:

When you cross through the water, I will be with you, and [when you cross] through the rivers, they will not drown you. (Isaiah 43:2)

The water and rivers stand for difficulties and for falsities. In Jeremiah:

Why should you go to Egypt to drink the waters of the Sihor? And why should you go to Assyria to drink the waters of the river? (Jeremiah 2:18)

The waters stand for the falsities produced by crooked reasoning. In the same author:

Who is this who rises like a river, whose waters churn like rivers? Egypt rises like a river, and like rivers its waters churn, and it said, "I will go up; I will cover the land; I will destroy the city and those living in it." (Jeremiah 46:7-8)

The waters stand for the falsities produced by crooked reasoning.

[4] In Ezekiel:

This is what the Lord Jehovih has said, "When I turn you into a devastated city, like cities that are not inhabited; when I bring up over you the abyss, and many waters cover you, and I make you go down with those going down into the pit ..." (Ezekiel 26:19-20)

The waters stand for evil and the falsity it engenders. In Habakkuk:

You trod the sea with your horses, the mud of many waters. (Habakkuk 3:15)

The waters stand for falsity. In John:

The dragon hurled water like a river from its mouth after the woman to cause her to be swallowed up by the stream. (Revelation 12:15-16)

The water here stands for falsities and lies. In David:

Put out your hands from high up, rescue me and free me from the many waters, from the hand of a foreigner's children, whose mouth speaks a lie, and their right hand is the right hand of falsity. (Psalms 144:7-8)

The many waters clearly stand for falsities. A foreigner's children also symbolize falsities.

Footnotes: