414. I have had various conversations with angels on the subject of innocence; and they have said that innocence is the essence of all good, and that good is good to the extent that it has innocence in it. Moreover, because wisdom has to do with life, and thus with good, wisdom is wisdom in the measure of the character it derives from innocence. The same is true of love, charity, and faith, they said; and for that reason no one can enter heaven unless he possesses innocence. This, too, is meant by these words of the Lord:

Let little children come to Me, do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of heaven as a little child will not enter it. (Mark 10:14-15, Luke 18:16-17) ¹

Here, as also elsewhere in the Word, by little children are meant those who are in innocence.

Good is good to the extent that it has innocence in it, because all good is from the Lord, and to be led by the Lord is innocence.

Mga talababa:

Dust, in Ezekiel 26:12, signifies the lowest things which are of the sensual principle of man. They can be either good or bad, depending on the context.

In Isaiah 40:12, the dust signifies exterior or natural truths and goods of heaven and the church.

In Genesis 2:7, the dust is good, and we see some interesting nuances:

First, there's this: 'To form the man, dust from the ground' is to form his external man, which had not previously been man... (Arcana Coelestia 94)

Here, this formation of our external body and mind is a precursor, setting the stage for God to "breathe into our nostrils".

In Arcana Coelestia 1610, we find this passage, where again, dust has a good signification:

'Dust of the earth' has regard to those things that are celestial, for, as shown already, 'the earth' means the celestial aspect of love; 'dust of the sea' has regard to those things that are spiritual, for 'the sea', as has also been shown, means the spiritual aspect of love; while 'as the stars of heaven' means both but in a higher degree. And because these things cannot be numbered they therefore became common expressions to describe growth and multiplication beyond measure.

Then, in Arcana Coelestia 3707, these ideas get pulled together:

The reason the dust of the earth symbolizes goodness is that the earth, [or land,] symbolizes the Lord’s kingdom and therefore goodness, as shown just above in §3705. The dust of that land, then, means goodness, but earthly goodness, since the land symbolizes what is lowest in the Lord’s kingdom....

But there are bad connotations, too. In Micah 7:14-17, licking dust symbolizes being only sensual - bodily and external, worldly, and selfish. It's much the same in Psalms 72:9, where "Barbarians will bow down before God, and His enemies lick the dust...". See Arcana Coelestia 249, 3413 for interesting explanations of this.

(Mga Sanggunian: Apocalypse Explained 1145)