4235. And the angels of God ran to meet him. That this signifies enlightenment from good, is evident from the signification of the “angels of God,” as being something of the Lord; here, the Divine which was in the Lord; for in the Lord was the Divine Itself which is called the “Father.” The very essence of life (which in man is called the soul) was therefrom, and was Himself. This Divine is what is called in common speech the Divine nature, or rather the Lord’s Divine essence. (That something of the Divine of the Lord is signified in the Word by the “angels of God,” may be seen above, n. 1925, 2319, 2821, 3039, 4085.) By “the angels of God running to meet him” is signified in the proximate sense the influx of the Divine into the natural, and the consequent enlightenment; for all enlightenment is from the influx of the Divine. As the subject treated of is the inversion of state in the Lord’s natural, in order that good might be in the first place, and truth in the second; and as the subject treated of in this first part of the chapter is the implantation of truth in good therein (n. 4232), and as this could not be effected without enlightenment from the Divine, therefore the first thing treated of is the enlightenment effected by the good into which truth was to be implanted.

662. Everything that is in the earth shall expire. This signifies those who were of that church and had become of this quality. It has been shown before that the “earth” does not mean the whole world, but only those who were of the church. Thus no deluge was meant here, still less a universal deluge, but the expiring or suffocation of those who existed there, when they were separated from remains, and thereby from the things of the understanding that are of truth and the things of the will that are of good, and therefore from the heavens. That the “earth” signifies the region where the church is, and therefore those who live there, may be confirmed by the following passages from the Word, in addition to those already cited.

In Jeremiah:

Thus hath said Jehovah, The whole earth shall be desolate; yet will I not make a consummation. For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above shall be black (Jeremiah 4:27-28).

Here the “earth” denotes those who dwell where the church is that is vastated.

In Isaiah:

I will move the heavens, and the earth shall be shaken out of her place (Isaiah 13:13).

The “earth” denotes the man who is to be vastated, where the church is.

In Jeremiah:

The slain of Jehovah shall be at that day from the end of the earth even unto the end of the earth (Jeremiah 25:33).Here the “end of the earth” does not signify the whole world, but only the region where the church was, and consequently the men who were of the church. Again:

I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth; a tumult shall come even to the end of the earth; for Jehovah hath a controversy with the nations (Jeremiah 25:29, 31).

In this passage, in like manner, the whole world is not meant, but only the region where the church is, and therefore the inhabitant or man of the church; the “nations” here denote falsities.

In Isaiah:

Behold, Jehovah cometh forth out of His place to visit the iniquity of the inhabitant of the earth (Isaiah 26:21).

Here the meaning is the same. Again:

Have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood the foundations of the earth (Isaiah 40:21)?

Again:

Jehovah, that createth the heavens, God Himself that formeth the earth and maketh it, He establisheth it (Isaiah 45:18).

The “earth” denotes the man of the church.

In Zechariah:

The saying of Jehovah, who stretcheth out the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man in the midst of him (Zechariah 12:1),

where the “earth” manifestly denotes the man of the church. The “earth” is distinguished from the “ground” as are the man of the church and the church itself, or as are love and faith.