1844. In a land that is not theirs symbolizes places where it would not seem as if the church belonged to those who had charity and faith. This can be seen from the symbolism of the earth as the church, as discussed in §§566, 662, 1066, 1068.

Today people describe the church solely in terms of religious teachings, which they use as a means of distinguishing among the Lord's churches. ¹ They do not care how adherents of those churches live — whether they nurse hatred for each other, rip each other apart like wild animals, rob each other, strip each other of reputation and status and wealth, or privately deny all that is holy. Yet the church can never exist in such people. It exists instead in people who love the Lord, love their neighbor as themselves, have a conscience, and oppose the kinds of hatred mentioned. These people, though, are like foreigners among the others, who skewer and harass them as often as they can, or else look on them as sorry, contemptible simpletons. This, then, is what it means to say, "Your seed will be immigrants in the land."

Footnotes:

662. All that is on the earth will pass away symbolizes the people who were part of that church and who adopted its nature. As demonstrated earlier [§§566-567, 620], the earth does not mean the whole inhabited world, only the part that constituted the church. So the verse is not referring to any kind of flood, let alone a worldwide one. It is talking about the death, the "drowning," of those in the church who were cut off from the remnant within them and consequently from any comprehension of truth or will to do good; which is to say that they were cut off from the heavens.

Scriptural passages quoted earlier attest to the symbolism of the earth or land as the area where the church existed, and so as the inhabitants of that area. ¹ The following verses also confirm the symbolism. In Jeremiah:

This is what Jehovah has said: "The whole earth will be stripped bare, yet I will not make a full end. Because of this the earth will mourn and the heavens above will be draped in black." (Jeremiah 4:27-28)

The earth stands for residents in the area where the church, which had been devastated, existed. In Isaiah:

I will shake heaven, and the earth will quake out of its place. (Isaiah 13:13)

The earth here stands for an individual in the church's territory who is to suffer devastating experiences. In Jeremiah:

The people stabbed by Jehovah will on that day reach from the ends of the earth to the ends of the earth. (Jeremiah 25:33)

The ends of the earth here do not mean the entire globe but only the tract of land where the church was. So they symbolize the people who belonged to the church. In the same author:

I am calling for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the land. Upheaval has come all the way to the ends of the earth, because Jehovah has a quarrel against the nations. (Jeremiah 25:29, 31)

Again it is not the whole globe that is meant but only the territory of the church and so the inhabitant there, that is, a person who belongs to the church. In this passage the nations stand for falsities. In Isaiah:

Watch: Jehovah is leaving his place to exact punishment for wickedness in the inhabitant of the land. (Isaiah 26:21)

The meaning here is similar. In the same author:

Are you not listening? Has it not been pointed out to you from the beginning? Do you not understand the foundations of the earth? (Isaiah 40:21)

In the same author:

Jehovah is creating the heavens; he is God, forming the earth and making it; he is also establishing it. (Isaiah 45:18)

The earth stands for a member of the church. In Zechariah:

This is the saying of Jehovah as he stretches out the heavens and founds the earth and forms the human spirit in the middle of it. (Zechariah 12:1)

Plainly the earth stands for a person in the church.

The earth (or land) is distinguished from the ground, just as a person in the church is distinguished from the church itself, or as love is distinguished from faith.

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