53. We can also see from what the Word’s prophets say about the Philistines that they represented people devoted to a faith divorced from caring. There is the following passage from Jeremiah, for example:

Against the Philistines: Behold, waters are rising up from the north that will become an overflowing river and will flood the earth and all that is in it, the city and all those who live in it. People will cry out and everyone who lives on the earth will wail. Jehovah will devastate the Philistines. (Jeremiah 47:1-2, 4)

The waters rising up from the north are falsities from hell; their becoming an overflowing river and flooding the earth and all that is in it means the consequent destruction of everything in the church; their flooding the city and all those who live in it means the complete destruction of its teachings; people crying out and everyone who lives on earth wailing means the loss of everything true and good in the church; and Jehovah devastating the Philistines means their demise. From Isaiah:

All Philistia, do not rejoice because the rod that was striking you has been broken, for out of the root of the serpent will come a basilisk, and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent. (Isaiah 14:29)

The command to all Philistia not to rejoice means that people devoted to faith divorced from caring should not rejoice in the fact that they are surviving; “for out of the root of the serpent will come a basilisk” means the destruction of everything true they have because of their pride in their own intelligence; “its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent” means rationalizations based on malevolent distortions that oppose what is true and good in the church.

War in the Word represents the combat of temptation when good loves are assaulted by evil loves or false ideas. The evil that attacks comes from one of the many societies of hell, and it operates by arousing a selfish love in our mind that is contrary to what we know is right. Then our selfish love attacks the love that nourishes the wish to be a good person, and there is war in our minds. This is represented by wars that the children of Israel fought in and around the land of Canaan, of which there is a long history in the old testament. The selfish loves abound in our minds from our heredity, and the good loves come along with our conscience as it develops. If we had no conscience we couldn't be tempted; we would immediately follow the wishes of our selfishness and give in. But then the end result is that we are in slavery to the hells and will do whatever they want.

(参考: Arcana Coelestia 1659 [3], 1664, 1683, 1788 [2])