799. Genesis 7:21-22. And all flesh creeping on the earth passed away — including the bird and the beast and the wild animal and every crawling thing crawling on the earth — and every human. Everything that had the breath of living spirit in its nostrils, of all that was on dry land, died.

All flesh creeping on the earth passed away means that those who belonged to the final generation of the earliest church died out. Including the bird and the beast and the wild animal and every crawling thing crawling on the earth symbolizes their self-deceptions. The bird symbolizes an attachment to falsity, the beast symbolizes corrupt desires, the wild animal symbolizes sensual pleasure, and the crawling thing symbolizes bodily and earthly yearnings. These different impulses are contained within the self-deceptions, and taken together they are called every human. Everything that had the breath of living spirit in its nostrils symbolizes those who were part of the earliest church and had the breath of living spirit in their nostrils — that is, who had lived a life of love and of a faith based on love. Of all that was on dry land symbolizes people who no longer had any of that life. They died means that this life expired.