5897. To put for you remains in the land. That this signifies the midst and inmost of the church, is evident from the signification of “remains,” as being goods joined to truths stored up within man by the the Lord, (n. 468, 530, 560, 561, 660, 1050, 1906, 2284, 5135, 5342), here in the midst and inmost of the church. It is said “the midst and inmost,” because what is inmost with man does occupy the midst in the natural where inmost and interior things are together. In general, those things which are inmost in those which follow one another in succession, the same are also in the midst or center in those which, from these, are simultaneous, as is the case in the natural; thus do inmost things arrange themselves in the exterior ones. “To put for you remains in the land” implies that the inmost of the church must be with the sons of Jacob; not that they would be in the inmost, but that the representative of the church in all its form might be instituted with them, and that the Word might be there. These things are signified by the “remains” relatively to the church, abstractedly from the nation.

[2] “Remains,” and also “residue,” are occasionally mentioned in the Word, but by both these expressions there have been understood merely the remains and residue of a people or a nation according to the letter; while it has been heretofore quite unknown that in the spiritual sense they signify the goods and truths stored up in the interior man by the Lord; as in the following passages.

In Isaiah:

In that day shall the shoot of Jehovah be for honor and for glory, and the fruit of the earth for magnificence and adornment to them that are escaped of Israel. And it shall come to pass that he that remaineth in Zion, and he that is left [residuus] in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, everyone that is written unto life in Jerusalem (Isaiah 4:2-3);

“they that remained in Zion, and they that were left in Jerusalem” were in no wise made holy nor more than others written unto life; whence it is clear that by “those who remained and who were left” are meant the things that are holy and that are written unto life. These are goods conjoined with truths and stored up in the interior man by the Lord.

[3] In the same:

In that day the remains of Israel, and they that are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more lean on their smiter, but shall lean on Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. The remains shall return, the remains of Jacob, unto the mighty God (Isaiah 10:20-21).

That the “remains” are not the remains of any people or nation may be seen from the fact that in the Word, especially the prophetic Word, by “Israel” was not meant Israel, nor by “Jacob” Jacob, but by both the church and what is of the church. And this being the case, by the “remains” are not meant the remains of Israel and Jacob, but the truths and goods which belong to the church. Yea, neither do the “remains of a people,” and the “residue of a nation” (when it is so said), signify the remains of any people or the residue of any nation, because by “people” in the internal sense are signified truths (n. 1259, 1260, 3295, 3581), and by “nation” goods (n. 1259, 1260, 1416). That it has been unknown, and appears strange, that by “remains” are signified truths and goods, is because the literal sense, especially where it is historical, withdraws and forcibly withholds from thinking things like these.

[4] In the same:

Then there shall be a path for the remains of the people, which shall be left [residuae] from Asshur; as there was for Israel through the sea, when he came up out of the land of Egypt (Isaiah 11:16); where the meaning is similar; “they that are left from Asshur” being those who have not been destroyed through perverse reasonings (that “Asshur” is such reasonings, see n. 1186).

Again:

In that day shall Jehovah Zebaoth be for a crown of ornament, and for a diadem of comeliness, to the remains of His people (Isaiah 28:5).

Again:

Moreover the escape of the house of Judah which is left [residua], shall again take root downward, and yield fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem shall go forth remains, and out of Mount Zion they that escape (Isaiah 37:31-32).

Again:

Butter and honey shall everyone eat that is left [residuus] in the midst of the land (Isaiah 7:22).

In Jeremiah:

I will gather together the remains of My flock out of all the lands whither I have scattered them, and I will bring them back to their fold, that they may bring forth and be multiplied (Jeremiah 23:3).

Again:

The people of those left [residuorum] by the sword found grace in the wilderness in going to give rest to him, to Israel (Jeremiah 31:2);

“the people of those left by the sword in the wilderness” were they who were called “infants,” who the rest being dead, were brought into the land of Canaan. These “infants” were the residue, and by them were signified the goods of innocence, and by their introduction into the land of Canaan was represented admission into the Lord’s kingdom.

[5] In Ezekiel:

I will make a residue, when ye shall have some that escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered in the earth. Then they that escape of you shall remember Me among the nations where they shall be captives (Ezekiel 6:8-9).

The reason why the goods and truths stored up by the Lord in man’s interiors were represented by the “residue and the remains among the nations whither they were scattered and where they were made captives,” is that man is continually among evils and falsities, and is held in captivity by them. Evils and falsities are what are signified by the “nations.” The external man, when separated from the internal, is altogether in these, and therefore unless the Lord were to gather up the goods and truths which as occasion offers are insinuated into a man during the progress of life, the man could not possibly be saved, for without remains there is salvation for none.

[6] In Joel:

It shall come to pass that everyone who shall call on the name of Jehovah shall escape; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as Jehovah hath said, and among the residue whom Jehovah doth call (Joel 2:32).

In Micah:

There shall be remains of Jacob among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, as a lion among the beasts of the forest (Mic. 5:8).

In Zephaniah:

The remains of Israel shall not do perversity, nor speak a lie; neither shall a tongue of deceit be found in their mouth: they shall feed and be at rest, none making afraid (Zeph. 3:13);

in this passage are described remains in respect to their quality, and it is known that this quality never belonged to the people called “Israel.” From this also it is manifest that by “remains” are meant other things; and that these are goods and truths is clear, because these are what do no perversity, nor speak a lie, neither is a tongue of deceit found in their mouth.

[7] In Zechariah:

The streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof; which shall be marvelous in the eyes of the remains of My people: now, not as in former days, am I to the remains of this people, for it is a seed of peace; the vine will yield its fruit, and the earth will yield its increase, and the heavens will yield their dew; and I will make the remains of this people heirs of all these things (Zech. 8:5-6, 11-12).

The remains are here called a “seed of peace,” but it is they who are in truths of good whose fruitfulness is described by “the vine shall yield its fruit, the earth its increase, and the heavens their dew.”

[8] The remains which are meant in the spiritual sense, are closed up by evils of life and by persuasions of falsity, so as no longer to appear; and by the denial of truth which had previously been acknowledged (both of these acts being from affection), they are consumed, for this is the commingling of truth and falsity which is called profanation. Of these things we read in the Word, in Isaiah:

He shall remove man, and the deserts shall be multiplied in the midst of the land: scarcely any longer is there in it a tenth part, and yet it shall be for exterminating (Isaiah 6:12-13).

That “ten” denotes remains, see n. 276, 1906, 2284. Again:

I will kill thy root, and he shall kill them that are left of thee (Isaiah 14:30);

speaking of the Philistines, who are those in the mere knowledge of knowledges, and not in life (n. 1197, 1198, 3412, 3413); those who are left are called a “root,” because from them, as from a root, grow forth goods and truths, which make man to be man. Wherefore “he shall remove man” (as just above in Isaiah) denotes to destroy remains.

[9] In Jeremiah:

The young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine; and there shall be no remains unto them (Jeremiah 11:22-23);

speaking of the men of Anathoth. Again:

I will take the remains of Judah, who have set their faces to come into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, that they be all consumed; and there shall not be an escaper, or one left to the remains of Judah, who have come to dwell in the land of Egypt (Jeremiah 44:12, 14, 28).

The reason why they who were of Judah should not sojourn in Egypt, nor dwell there, and that this was so severely forbidden them, was that the tribe of Judah represented the Lord’s celestial church, and the celestial are utterly unwilling to know about the memory-knowledges which are signified by “Egypt;” for they know all things from the celestial good in which they are, which good would perish if they were to betake themselves to memory-knowledges. Nay, they who are of the Lord’s celestial kingdom, being in celestial good (and celestial truth being charity, while spiritual truth is faith), are not willing even to mention faith, lest they should “go down” from good and “look backward” (see n. 202, 337, 2715, 3246, 4448). This also is what is meant by the words:

He that is upon the house, let him not go down to take anything out of the house; and he that is in the field, let him not return back to take his garments (Matthew 24:17-18);

see just above (n. 5895); and also by these words:

Remember Lot’s wife (Luke 17:32);

who looked back and became a pillar of salt. (In regard to looking and returning back, see n. 2454, 3652.)

[10] By the nations which were so accursed that there was not even any residue left, was represented that iniquity was so consummated with them that nothing of good and truth survived, thus that there were no remains; as in Moses:

They smote Og the king of Bashan, and all his sons, and all his people, until they left no residue (Numbers 21:35; Deuteronomy 3:3).

Again:

They took all the cities of Sihon, and gave to the curse every city of man, and the women, and the little child; they left no residue (Deuteronomy 2:34).

So in other passages where it is written that they were “given to the curse.”

[11] In regard to remains, or the goods and truths stored up in man’s interiors by the Lord, the case is this. When a man is in good and truth from affection, thus from freedom, then good and truth are implanted. And when this takes place, the angels from heaven approach nearer and conjoin themselves with the man. It is this conjunction which causes the goods with truths to come forth in the man’s interiors. But when a man is in things external, as when he is in worldly and bodily things, then the angels are removed, and when they are removed, then nothing at all of these goods and truths appears. Nevertheless as conjunction has once been effected, the man is in the capacity for conjunction with the angels, thus with the good and truth appertaining to them; but this conjunction does not take place oftener and further than is well-pleasing to the Lord, who disposes these things according to every use of the man’s life.

5135. For in being carried off by theft I was carried away. That this signifies that celestial things were alienated by evil, is evident from the representation of Joseph, who says these things of himself, as being the celestial in the natural (n. 5086, 5087, 5106), consequently the celestial things therein; and from the signification of “being carried off by theft,” as being to be alienated by evil; for “to steal” is to alienate, and “theft” is the evil which alienates, and also the evil which claims the celestial things that are in the natural. “Theft” signifies alienation in respect to the abode of which it takes possession, and from which it casts out goods and truths, and which it fills with evils and falsities; “theft” also signifies the claiming of what belongs to others when it attributes to itself and makes its own the goods and truths which are in that abode, and also when it applies them to evils and falsities. That it may be known what “theft” is in the spiritual sense, it is necessary to state how the case is with evils and falsities when they enter and take possession of the abode, and also when they claim the goods and truths which are there.

[2] From infancy until childhood, and sometimes till early manhood, by instruction from his parents and teachers a man is imbued with goods and truths; for he then learns them with avidity, and believes them in simplicity. The state of innocence favors them and adapts them to the memory, but places them only at the first threshold; for the innocence of infancy and childhood is not internal innocence which affects the rational, but is external innocence which affects only the exterior natural (see n. 2306, 3183, 3494, 4563, 4797). But when the man grows older and begins to think from himself, and not as before from parents and teachers, he then takes up again and as it were ruminates the things which he had before learned and believed, and either confirms them, or doubts about them, or denies them. If he confirms them, it is a sign that he is in good; if he denies them, it is a sign that he is in evil; but if he doubts about them, it is a sign that in succeeding years he will accede either to the affirmative or to the negative.

[3] The things which man as a little child in its first age learns eagerly or believes, and which he afterward either confirms, or doubts about, or denies, are especially these: that there is a God, and that He is one; that He has created all things; that He rewards those who do well, and punishes those who do evil; that there is a life after death, in which the evil go to hell and the good to heaven, thus that there is a hell and a heaven, and that the life after death is eternal; also that he ought to pray daily, and this with humility; that the Sabbath day is to be kept holy; that parents are to be honored; and that no one must commit adultery, murder, or theft; with other like things. These things man imbibes and is imbued with from early childhood; but when he begins to think from himself and to lead himself, if he confirms such things in himself, and adds to them things which are still more interior, and lives according to them, then it is well with him; but if he begins to infringe these things, and at last to deny them, however much for the sake of civil laws and for the sake of society he may live in externals according to them, he is then in evil.

[4] This evil is what is signified by “theft,” insofar as like a thief it takes possession of the abode in which good has been before, and insofar as with many it takes away the goods and truths which had been there before, and applies them to confirm evils and falsities. The Lord insofar as possible then removes from that abode the goods and truths of early childhood, and withdrawing them toward the interiors stores them up in the interior natural for use. These goods and truths stored up in the interior natural are signified in the Word by “remains” (see n. 468, 530, 560, 561, 660, 661, 1050, 1738, 1906, 2284). But if evil steals the goods and truths there, and applies them to confirm evils and falsities, especially if it does this from deceit, then it consumes these remains; for it then mingles evils with goods and falsities with truths till they cannot be separated, and then it is all over with the man.

[5] That such things are signified by “theft,” may be seen from the mere application of “theft” to the things of spiritual life. In spiritual life there are no other riches than the knowledges of good and truth, and no other possessions and inheritances than the felicities of life arising from goods and their truths. As before said, to steal these things is “theft” in the spiritual sense; and therefore by “thefts,” in the Word, nothing else is signified in the internal sense; as in Zechariah:

I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, when behold a flying roll. Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth upon the faces of the whole earth; for everyone that stealeth hence, like it is innocent; and everyone that sweareth, like it is innocent. I have cast it forth that it may enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth by My name for lying; and it shall pass the night in his house, and shall consume it and the wood thereof and the stones thereof (Zech. 5:1, 3-4

the evil which takes away the remains of good is signified by “him that stealeth,” and by the “house of the thief;” and the falsity which takes away the remains of truth is signified by “him that sweareth,” and by the “house of him that sweareth for lying;” the “faces of the whole earth” denote the universal church; therefore it is said that “the curse shall consume the house and the wood thereof and the stones thereof.” The “house” is the natural mind or man as to this mind (n. 3128, 3538, 4973, 5023); “wood” is the goods therein (n. 2784, 2812, 3720, 4943); and the “stones” are truths (n. 643, 1298, 3720).

[6] Profanation and hence the taking away of good and truth are signified in the spiritual sense by the deed of Achan, who took of the accursed things a mantle of Shinar, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold, and hid them in the earth in the midst of his tent, and who therefore was stoned, and all the things were burned; as is related in Joshua:

Jehovah said unto Joshua, Israel hath sinned, they have transgressed My covenant which I commanded them; and they have taken of the accursed thing, and have stolen, lied, and have put it among their vessels (Josh. 7:10-11, 21, 25);

by “accursed things” were meant falsities and evils, which were in no wise to be mixed up with holy things; the “mantle of Shinar, shekels of silver, and wedge of gold” are in the spiritual sense species of falsity; “hiding them under the earth in the midst of the tent” signified a commixture with holy things. (That a “tent” denotes what is holy may be seen above, n. 414, 1102, 1566, 2145, 2152, 3312, 4128, 4391, 4599.) These things were signified by Israel’s “stealing, lying, and putting it among their vessels;” for “vessels” are holy truths (see n. 3068, 3079, 3316, 3318).

[7] In Jeremiah:

I will bring the issue of Esau upon him, the time that I shall visit him. If grape gatherers came to thee, would they not leave some grape gleanings? If thieves by night, would they not destroy a sufficiency? I will strip Esau, I will uncover his secret things, and he shall not be able to hide, his seed is devastated, and his brethren, and his neighbors, and he is not (Jeremiah 49:8-10); where “Esau” denotes the evil of the love of self to which falsities are adjoined (n. 3322). That this evil consumes the remains of good and truth is signified by “thieves in the night destroying a sufficiency;” and by “his seed, his brethren, and his neighbors being devastated, and he is not.” “Seed” denotes the truths which are of faith from charity (n. 1025, 1447, 1610, 1940, 2848, 3038, 3310, 3373); “brethren” denote the goods which are of charity (n. 367, 2360, 2508, 2524, 3160, 3303, 3459, 3815, 4121, 4191); “neighbors” denote the adjoined and related truths and goods which belong to him.

[8] Something similar is said of Esau in Obadiah:

If thieves come to thee, if overthrowers by night (how wilt thou be cut off!) will they not steal till they have enough? If grape gatherers come to thee, will they not leave some clusters? (Obad. 1:5);

“grape gatherers” denote falsities which are not from evil; by these falsities the goods and truths stored up by the Lord in man’s interior natural (that is, remains) are not consumed, but by falsities derived from evils, which steal truths and goods and also by wrong applications employ them to confirm evils and falsities.

[9] In Joel:

A great people and mighty, they shall run like heroes; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march everyone in his ways; they shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run on the wall; they shall climb up into the houses; they shall enter in through the windows like a thief (Joel 2:2, 7, 9);

a “great people and mighty” denotes falsities fighting against truths (n. 1259, 1260); and because they fight mightily in destroying truths, they are said to be “like heroes and men of war;” the “city” through which they are said to “run to and fro” denotes the doctrinals of truth (n. 402, 2268, 2449, 2712, 2943, 3216); the “houses into which they shall climb” denote the goods which they destroy (n. 710, 1708, 2048, 2233, 3128, 3652, 3720, 4982); the “windows through which they shall enter in” denote things intellectual and the derivative reasonings (n. 655, 658, 3391); hence they are compared to a “thief,” because they take possession of the abode previously occupied by truths and goods.

[10] In David:

As thou hatest discipline, and castest My words behind thee; if thou seest a thief thou runnest with him, and thy part is with adulterers. Thou openest thy mouth for evil, and with thy tongue thou weavest deceit (Psalms 50:17-19);

speaking of a wicked person, “to run with a thief” denotes to alienate truth from himself by means of falsity.

[11] In Revelation:

They repented not of their murders, nor of their enchantments, nor of their whoredoms, nor of their thefts (Revelation 9:21);

“murders” denote evils which destroy goods; “enchantments,” falsities therefrom which destroy truths; “whoredoms,” truths falsified; “thefts” goods thus alienated.

[12] In John:

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not through the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in through the door is the shepherd of the sheep. I am the door; through Me if anyone enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and shall find pasture. The thief cometh not but to steal, and to murder, and to destroy (John 10:1-2, 9-10);

here again a “thief” denotes the evil of merit; for he who takes away from the Lord what is His, and claims it for himself, is called a “thief.” As this evil closes the way and prevents good and truth from the Lord from flowing in, it is said “to murder” and “to destroy.” The same is signified by the commandment in the Decalogue:

Thou shalt not steal (Deuteronomy 5:19; see n. 4174).

From all this it is evident what is signified by the laws enacted in the Jewish Church in regard to thefts (as in Exodus 21:16; 22:1-4; Deuteronomy 24:7); for as all the laws in that church originated in the spiritual world, they correspond to the laws of order which are in heaven.