1663. They made war with Bera, king of Sodom; and with Birsha, king of Gomorrah; Shinab, king of Admah; and Shemeber, king of Zeboiim; and the king of Bela (which is Zoar), symbolizes just so many categories of evil desire and distorted conviction that the Lord fought against. This too can be seen from the symbolism of the kings and nations mentioned here, and from what follows as well. Again, explaining precisely which evil desire or distorted persuasion each of them symbolizes would take too long. The symbolism of Sodom and Gomorrah, of Admah and Zeboiim, and of Zoar has been touched on already [§§1212, 1589]. It is the most general or universal categories of evil and falsity that are symbolized on the inner level here, and they follow one another in order.

[2] The Lord underwent and suffered trials heavier than those of anyone else in the universe — the heaviest of all — but this is not well known from the Word, which merely notes that he was in the wilderness for forty days, where he was tested by the Devil [Matthew 4:1-2; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-2]. The actual trials that he then experienced are not described in more than a few words, but those few cover everything. In Mark 1:12-13, for instance, it says that he was with the animals there, which symbolize the worst of the hellish mob. Subsequent details — that the Devil led him onto the spires of the temple and onto a tall mountain — are nothing but images representing the terrible crises he faced in the wilderness [Matthew 4:3-11; Luke 4:3-13]. There will be more on this below, the Lord in his divine mercy willing. ¹

Footnotes:

1691. The fact that a mountain is self-love and materialism can be seen from the symbolism of a mountain as discussed just below.

All evil and falsity spring from self-love and materialism. They have no other origin. Love for oneself and love of worldly advantages are the opposite of heavenly and spiritual love, and since they are the opposite, they are personified by people who work ceaselessly to destroy anything heavenly or spiritual in God's kingdom. Self-love and materialism give rise to all hatred, hatred to all vengefulness and cruelty, and vengefulness and cruelty to all deceit — in short, to all the hells.

[2] The symbolism in the Word of mountains as self-love and materialism is illustrated by the following passages. In Isaiah:

The eyes of human pride will lower, and the loftiness of human beings will sink. The day of Jehovah Sabaoth will come over all the proud and lofty, over all the lofty mountains, and over all the tall hills, and over every high tower. (Isaiah 2:11-12, 14-15)

Clearly the lofty mountains stand for self-love and the tall hills for materialism.

[3] In the same author:

Every valley will be raised up, and every mountain and hill will be lowered. (Isaiah 40:4)

Here too they plainly stand for self-love and materialism. In the same author:

I will devastate mountains and hills, and all their grass I will wither. (Isaiah 42:15)

Again the mountains stand for self-love and the hills for the love of worldly things. In Ezekiel:

The mountains will be torn down, and the stairs will fall, and every wall will fall to the earth. (Ezekiel 38:20)

[4] In Jeremiah:

Here now, I am against you, destroying mountain, destroying the entire earth; and I will stretch my hand out against you and roll you down from the rocks ¹ and make you a mountain aflame. (Jeremiah 51:25)

This describes Babylon and Chaldea, which symbolize self-love and love of worldly advantages, as shown before [§§1326, 1368]. In the Song of Moses: ²

A fire has kindled in my anger, and it will burn all the way to the lowest hell, and it will consume the earth and its produce and torch the foundations of the mountains. (Deuteronomy 32:22)

The foundations of the mountains stand for the hells, as it explicitly says. The hells are called the foundations of the mountains because self-love and materialism reign supreme there and come from there.

[5] In Jonah:

Water surrounded me right to my soul; the abyss circled me; seaweed was bound onto my head. To the excavations of the mountains I went down. The poles of the earth lay above me forever; but you brought my life up out of the pit, Jehovah my God. (Jonah 2:5-6)

These prophetic words depict the Lord's struggles against the hells as Jonah's ordeal in the belly of the huge fish. The same struggles are described in other Scripture passages as well, especially in David. ³ Anyone in spiritual crisis is in hell. Being in hell has nothing to do with location and everything to do with state of mind.

[6] From the symbolism of mountains and towers as self-love and materialism we can deduce what it meant when the Devil took the Lord onto a tall mountain and onto the pinnacle of the Temple. It meant that he was being led into the very worst of his spiritual battles against love for himself and for the material world, or in other words, against the hells.

In the opposite sense (the usual one), mountains symbolize heavenly love and spiritual love, as demonstrated earlier in §§795, 796.

Footnotes: