5136. 'Out of the land of the Hebrews' means from the Church; that is to say, evil caused celestial things to be alienated from it. This is clear from the meaning of 'the land of the Hebrews' as the Church, 'the land of the Hebrews' being in this case the land of Canaan, for this was the place from which Joseph was taken away. The reason why in the Word 'the land of Canaan' means the Church is that the Church had existed there since most ancient times, first the Most Ancient Church, which came before the Flood; then the Ancient Church, which came after the Flood; after that the second Ancient Church, which is called the Hebrew Church; and at length the Jewish Church. So that the Jewish Church might be established there Abram was commanded to move from Syria to that land, where he received the promise that the land would be given as an inheritance to his descendants. This explains why in the Word 'land' or 'earth' means the Church, and 'the whole land' - an expression found in various places - the universal Church, and why 'a new heaven and a new earth' means a new Church, internal and external.

[2] The reason the Church existed there continuously since most ancient times was that the member of the Most Ancient Church, who was celestial, was the kind of person who saw within every single object in the world and on earth something representative of the Lord's kingdom. Worldly and earthly objects were the means that enabled him to think about heavenly realities. This was where all the representatives and meaningful signs known subsequently in the Ancient Church had their origin, for these had been gathered together by the people meant by 'Enoch', and preserved for the use of others descended from them, 519, 521, 2896. This was how it came about that each specific place, and also each specific mountain or river in the land of Canaan, where the most ancient people lived, came to be representative, as did all the surrounding kingdoms. Now because the Word could not be written unless representatives and meaningful signs were used, including those connected with places, those consecutive dispensations of the Church were to that end kept in existence in the land of Canaan. But after the Lord's Coming the Church was transferred elsewhere because representatives were now done away with. From all this it is evident that the land of Canaan, called the land of the Hebrews here, means the Church.

[3] But see what has been presented already on these matters - in the following places:

The Most Ancient Church, the one before the Flood, existed in the land of Canaan, 567, 3686, 4447, 4454.

Part of the Ancient Church, the Church after the Flood, existed there, 3686, 4447.

The second Ancient Church, called the Hebrew Church, also existed there, 4516, 4517.

Abram was therefore commanded to go there, and the land was given to his descendants, 3686, 4447.

Consequently the land of Canaan represented the Lord's kingdom, 1607, 3038, 3481, 3705, 4240, 4447.

This explains why in the Word 'the land' means the Church, 566, 662, 1066, 1067, 1262, 1413, 1607, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118 (end), 3355, 4447, 4535.

4174. 'That stolen by day and that stolen by night' means the evil of merit-seeking in a similar way. This is clear from the meaning of 'stolen' or theft as the evil of merit-seeking. The evil of merit-seeking exists when someone attributes good to himself and supposes that it originates in himself, and on that account wishes to merit salvation. This is the evil meant in the internal sense by 'theft'. But the situation with this evil is that at first all who are being reformed imagine that good originates in themselves and as a consequence that they merit salvation through the good which they perform. For the supposition that they merit salvation through the good which they perform is the outcome of their supposition that good originates in themselves, since the one supposition clings to the other. But people who allow themselves to be regenerated do not set their minds firmly in that way of thinking or convince themselves that such ideas are right. Instead these are gradually dispersed. Indeed as long as a person stays in the external man, as all do at the beginning of reformation, he inevitably thinks in that way. But he is thinking solely from the external man.

[2] But when the external man together with its evil urges is being removed and the internal man is starting to be active, that is, when the Lord is flowing in through the internal man with the light of intelligence and by means of it giving light to the external man, that person starts to think in a different way and to attribute good not to himself but to the Lord. From this one may see what the evil of merit-seeking is, which is meant here by evil through which good comes - the kind of evil for which one is not blameworthy, dealt with already. But if, on reaching adult years, a person firmly establishes this evil in his thinking and becomes utterly convinced that he merits salvation through the good which he performs, that evil becomes strongly rooted in him and cannot be put right. For such people claim to themselves that which is the Lord's. So they are not receivers of good which flows in constantly from the Lord; for the moment this enters them they channel it into themselves and into their proprium, and in so doing they defile it. These evils are what are meant in the proper sense by 'thefts', see 2609.