999. The symbolism of flesh as human volition is established by the symbolism of flesh in its proper sense, having to do with our depraved self. [In the Word,] flesh symbolizes all people in general and those in particular who are oriented toward their bodies. (See the earlier demonstration of this in §574.) Since flesh symbolizes all people and particularly body-oriented ones, it also symbolizes selfhood and consequently volition.

Our volition or will is nothing but evil. This being so, when the term flesh refers to people, it symbolizes every craving or all greed. Our will consists wholly of cravings, as shown several times already [§§105, 568, 594, 634, 801:1, 977:2]. Since this is what flesh symbolizes, the same thing was represented by the flesh that the people craved in the wilderness, described by Moses in these words:

The rabble that was in their midst had a strong craving. So they wept again and said, "Who will feed us flesh?" (Numbers 11:4)

Clearly flesh is being called a craving, since it says, "They had a strong craving. Who will feed us flesh?" The words that follow these also illustrate the meaning:

The flesh was still between their teeth, before it was shredded, and Jehovah's anger blazed out against the people, and Jehovah struck a very strong blow among the people. And he called the name of that place the Graves of Greed, because there they buried the people who had had a greedy craving. (Numbers 11:33-34)

[2] Anyone can see that such a blow [or plague] would never have been brought on the people just because they craved flesh; it was not their longing for meat that was to blame. Such a longing is only natural, when people used to eating meat are deprived of it for a long time, as was then true for the people in the wilderness. The real reason — a spiritual one — ran deeper: the people were such that they felt utter disgust for what the manna symbolized and represented (as verse 6 of that chapter [Numbers 11] also shows), and they longed only for the kind of things that flesh symbolized and represented. ¹ Those things are the self-centered impulses of the will, the stirrings of greed, which in themselves resemble dung and are inherently profane. It was because that church was a representative one (as a consequence of such representations) that a plague of these proportions was inflicted on the people. The events that took place among them, you see, were represented in a spiritual way in heaven, where manna represented what is heavenly and the flesh the people craved represented a sordid urge of the will. The result, because they were the kind of people described, was punishment.

These and other places in the Word demonstrate that flesh symbolizes the will — in this case, human will. ² Review the discussion concerning the beast of the earth at verse 2 of this chapter [§987] to see how unclean that will is.

Footnotes:

987. The fact that on every beast of the earth means over cravings in the lower mind is established by the symbolism of a beast in the Word. There beasts symbolize passions, or cravings. Beasts that are tame, useful, and clean symbolize passions for something good. Beasts that are savage, useless, and unclean symbolize passions for evil, or cravings. ¹ For more on this, see §§45, 46, 142, 143, 246, 776.

Because they symbolize cravings here, they are called beasts of the earth, not beasts of the field.

In respect to the mastery exercised by regenerate people over their cravings, everyone needs to realize the tremendous error and totally unregenerate nature of people who imagine that they can subdue evil by their own efforts. Human beings are nothing but evil. We are a mass of evils. Our whole will is unmitigated evil. That is why Genesis 8:21 said, "What human hearts fabricate is evil from their youth."

Personal experience has shown me that people and spirits — and even angels, viewed in themselves (that is, their whole selfhood) — are the most worthless excrement. It has also shown me that when left to themselves, all they meditate is hatred, vengefulness, cruelty, and the foulest adulteries. These are their own impulses; these are their will.

[2] Anyone can see the same thing simply by musing on this, that at birth we are the basest living creatures among all the wild animals and beasts. After growing up and coming into our own, we would plunge into atrocities of every kind if various restraints did not stop us — external legal restraints, and restraints we place on ourselves in seeking to grow as influential and rich as possible. We would not stop until we had overpowered every person in the universe and raked up everyone's wealth. We would spare none but those who submitted to us as lowly slaves. That is what each of us is like, although we do not perceive it when we have no opportunity or power to achieve it, and when we are under restraint, as mentioned. If opportunity and ability presented themselves and the restraints were loosened, we would run just as wild as we could.

Animals are not at all the same. They are born into a kind of preordained system of nature. The savage predators among them do hurt other animals, but only to protect themselves; and when they eat other animals, they are satisfying their hunger. Once satisfied, they inflict no more harm. Humans are completely different.

These things demonstrate what human selfhood and human will are like.

[3] Since we are such a horrible, massive heap of wickedness and dung, we obviously have no ability whatever to conquer evil on our own. It is absolutely self-contradictory to say that evil can control evil, and not only that it can control evil but that it can control hell. Each of us communicates with hell by means of evil spirits, and it is this contact that arouses the evil in us.

From this anyone can see or (if sane) come to the conclusion that only the Lord can control the evil and the hell we harbor within.

In order to subdue the evil in us — or in other words, to subdue hell, which spends every second trying to attack and destroy us forever — the Lord regenerates us and gives us the gift of a new will, which is conscience. Through it, the Lord alone achieves every positive result.

Faith teaches that we are nothing but evil and that everything good is from the Lord, so we must not only learn it but also acknowledge and believe it. If we do not acknowledge and believe it in this life, it will be vividly demonstrated to us in the other life.

Footnotes: