10156. Who have brought them out from the land of Egypt. That this signifies salvation from hell by the Lord, is evident from the signification of “being brought out from the land of Egypt,” as being to be liberated from hell (see n. 8866, 9197), thus to be saved. That by “the land of Egypt” is signified hell, is because by that land in the genuine sense is signified the natural and its memory-knowledge; and to be brought forth from the natural man and its memory-knowledge, and to be raised into the spiritual man and its intelligence and wisdom, is also to be brought forth from hell. For man is born natural, but becomes spiritual through regeneration; and if he does not become spiritual, he is in hell; for the memory-knowledge of the natural man, that is, of a man not regenerated, is in the light of the world; but the intelligence of the spiritual man, that is, of the regenerate man, is in the light of heaven. And so long as a man is only in the light of the world, he is in hell; but when he is at the same time in the light of heaven, he is in heaven.

[2] Moreover, those who are solely in natural memory-knowledge, and consequently in no other light than the light of the world, cannot possibly believe the things which are of heaven; and even if they wish to enter into them by means of their own light, which is called natural light, they meet as it were a thick darkness, which blinds them and makes what is heavenly appear as nothing; for that which appears in the mind like thick darkness is tantamount to nothing. Hence it is that the merely natural man, no matter how much he believes himself to surpass others in light, at heart denies Divine and heavenly things; which also is the reason why so many of the learned reduce themselves by their knowledges to such insanity; for many of them deny the things that belong to the faith of the church and of heaven more than the simple do. It is otherwise with those who suffer themselves to be raised by the Lord into the light of heaven; for these are first raised above the memory-knowledges that belong to the natural man; and then from the light of heaven they see the things which are in their natural man and are called memory-knowledges, and well discriminate among them, adopting those they comprehend and which are congruent, and rejecting or laying aside those they do not comprehend and which are incongruent. In a word, the case herein is this.

[3] So long as a man is merely natural, so long his interiors, which see from the light of heaven, are closed; and the exteriors, which see from the light of the world, are open; and then the man looks downward, that is, into the world and to himself, for all the things that belong to his will and thought converge thither; and wherever the man looks, there his heart turns, that is, his will and his love. But when a man becomes spiritual, then his interiors, which see from the light of heaven, are opened, and then the man looks upward, which is effected by means of an uplifting by the Lord; thus he looks into heaven and to the Lord. Thither also are raised all things that belong to his will and his thought; thus his heart, that is, his love.

[4] For man has been so created that in respect to his internal he is formed according to the image of heaven, and in respect to his external according to the image of the world (n. 6057, 9279), to the end that heaven and the world may be conjoined in man, and that thus through man the Lord can inflow out of heaven into the world, and can direct the world; in particular with each one, and in general with all; and thus can conjoin the two, and thereby cause that in the world also there may be an image of heaven. But when a man cares solely for the world, heaven is closed with him; whereas when he suffers himself to be raised by the Lord, then heaven is opened with him, and the world is subjected to him. And when this is the case, hell is separated and removed from him; and then for the first time the man knows what good is and what evil is; but not before. This is what is called “the image of God” with man (Genesis 1:27-28).

[5] These things have been said that it may be known what the spiritual man is, and what the natural man, and that unless the merely natural man is made spiritual by the Lord, he is hell; consequently that it may be known why by “Egypt” is signified hell, seeing that by it is also signified the natural and its memory-knowledge. (That memory-knowledge is signified by “Egypt,” see the places cited in n. 9340; and that from this it signifies the natural, n. 9391; and also hell, n. 8866, 9197)

1585. And saw all the plain of Jordan. That this signifies those goods and truths that were in the external man, is evident from the signification of a “plain,” and of “Jordan.” In the internal sense “the plain of Jordan” signifies the external man as to all its goods and truths. That “the plain of Jordan” signifies this, is because the Jordan was a boundary of the land of Canaan. The land of Canaan, as before said and shown, signifies the Lord’s kingdom and church, and in fact the celestial and the spiritual things thereof; on which account it has also been called the Holy Land, and the Heavenly Canaan; and because it signifies the Lord’s kingdom and church, it signifies in the supreme sense the Lord Himself, who is the all in all of His kingdom and of His church.

[2] Hence all things that were in the land of Canaan were representative. Those which were in the midst of the land, or which were the inmost, represented the Lord’s internal man-as Mount Zion and Jerusalem, the former the celestial things, the latter the spiritual things. Those which were further distant from the center, represented the things more remote from the internals. Those which were the furthest off, or which were the boundaries, represented the external man. The boundaries of Canaan were several; in general, the two rivers Euphrates and Jordan, and also the sea. Hence the Euphrates and the Jordan represented the externals. Here, therefore, “the plain of Jordan,” signifies, as it represents, all things that are in the external man. The case is similar when the expression “land of Canaan” is applied to the Lord’s kingdom in the heavens, or to the Lord’s church on earth, or again to the man of His kingdom or church, or, abstractly, to the celestial things of love, and so on.

[3] Hence it is that almost all the cities, and even all the mountains, hills, valleys, rivers, and other things, in the land of Canaan, were representative. It has already been shown (n. 120) that the river Euphrates, being a boundary, represented the things of sense and knowledge that belong to the external man. That the case is similar with the Jordan, and the plain of Jordan, may be seen from passages that now follow.

In David:

O my God, my soul is bowed down within me; therefore will I remember Thee from the land of Jordan, and the Hermons, from the mountain of littleness (Psalms 42:6); where “the land of Jordan” denotes that which is low, thus that which is distant from the celestial, as man’s externals are from his internals.

[4] That the sons of Israel crossed the Jordan when they entered the land of Canaan, and that it was then divided, likewise represented the access to the internal man through the external, and also man’s entrance into the Lord’s kingdom, besides other things. (See Josh. 3:14; 4:1 to 24 e end.) And because the external man continually fights against the internal, and desires dominion, the “pride” or “swelling” of Jordan became a prophetic expression. As in Jeremiah:

How shalt thou offer thyself a match for horses? And in a land of peace thou art confident; but how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan? (Jeremiah 12:5).

“The swelling of Jordan” denotes the things that belong to the external man, which rise up and desire to dominate over the internal man, as reasonings do—which here are the “horses”— and the confidence that is from them.

[5] In the same:

Edom shall be for a desolation; behold he shall come up like a lion from the pride of Jordan to the habitation of Ethan (Jeremiah 49:17, 19);

“the pride of Jordan” denotes the rising of the external man against the goods and truths of the internal.

In Zechariah:

Howl, O fir tree, for the cedar is fallen, because the magnificent ones are laid waste. Howl, O ye oaks of Bashan, for the defensed forest is come down. A voice of the howling of the shepherds, for their magnificence is laid waste; a voice of the roaring of young lions, for the swelling of Jordan is laid waste (Zech. 11:2-3).

That the Jordan was a boundary of the land of Canaan, is evident from Numbers 34:12; and of the land of Judah toward the east, from Joshua 15:5.