Swedenborg says that on the most internal level, the stories of Abraham tell us about the Lord’s development in his own childhood as Jesus, with Abraham representing the Lord’s spiritual aspects, the growth and change going on in the highest parts of his mind. Lot, meanwhile, represents the Lord’s body and the sensations, delights and thoughts associated with his body and his bodily senses.
There is nothing inherently wrong with bodily sensations and pleasures, as long as they are focused on good and are guided and controlled by the higher parts of our minds. And Lot represents good things when he is with Abraham and led by Abraham.
But physical pleasures can lure us away from what is good if we’re not careful, and Lot got in trouble after he left Abraham for the well-watered plains of the Jordan and the pleasure-seeking cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
In Sodom, Lot’s meaning is somewhat different. Swedenborg says that there he represents the remnants of mankind’s second great church, known as the Ancient Church. The church had fallen into evil and idolatry, but a few remained who had a desire to be good, even though their worship had become ritual, external, and filled with falsities. The Lord preserved these in the destruction of that church, even as he preserved Lot from the destruction of Sodom.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 1428
- ‘And Lot went with him’ means sensory perception. That ‘Lot’ represents the Lord as regards His sensory and bodily man becomes clear from the representation of ‘Lot’ in what follows, where his being separated from Abram and being saved by angels is described. Later on however, once the separation had taken place, Lot takes on another representation, which will in the Lord’s Divine mercy be dealt with later on. It is clear that the Lord was born like any other, though from a woman who was a virgin, and that He had sensory perception and bodily desires like any other, but that He differed from any other in that sensory perception and bodily desires were eventually united to celestial things and made Divine. The Lord’s actual sensory perception and bodily desires are represented by Lot, or what amounts to the same, His sensory and bodily man as it was during His state of childhood and not as it became once it had been united to the Divine by means of celestial things.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 1547
- ‘And Lot with him’ means the power of sensory perception. A brief description of this meaning has been given already in 1428. Because a specific reference is made here to Lot, one needs to know exactly what he represents in the Lord. ‘Pharaoh’ represented facts, which at length ‘sent away’ the Lord, whereas ‘Lot’ represented things of the senses, by which are meant the external man and the pleasures he derives from sensory things, thus the most external things which usually captivate the mind in childhood and lead it away from the things that are good. For to the extent a person indulges in pleasures arising from evil desires he is drawn away from the celestial things that belong to love and charity. Indeed, present within those pleasures there is love originating in self and in the world, and with those loves celestial love cannot accord. Besides these however there are pleasures which, despite having similar external appearance, do accord completely with celestial things. For these see what has been stated already in 945, 994, 995, 997. Pleasures however that have their origins in evil desires must be brought under control and wiped out because they block the approach to celestial things. It is these pleasures, not those that accord with celestial things, that are meant in this chapter by Lot’s separation from Abram, the presence of those pleasures being meant here by ‘Lot with him’. In general however Lot means the external man, as will be evident from what follows.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 1576
- That ‘Abram said to Lot’ means that the internal man so addressed the external is clear from the representation of ‘Abram’ here as the internal man and from the representation of ‘Lot’ as the external man that was to be separated. The reason ‘Abram’ represents the internal man is that he is so relative to Lot, who is that element in the external man that was to be separated. In the external man, as has been stated, there are things that agree and those that do not. Here ‘Lot’ is those that do not agree, and therefore those that do are ‘Abram’, including those in the external man, for the latter form a single entity with the internal man and belong to the internal.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 1603
- ‘After Lot had been separated from him’ means when the desires of the External Man had been removed so that they did not obstruct. This is clear from the representation of ‘Lot’ as the External Man, and from what has been said already about his being separated, that is, those things that would cause obstruction. When these had been removed the Internal Man, or Jehovah, acted as one with the External Man, or the Lord’s Human Essence. It is the external things that disagree – these alone – which have been spoken of already, that obstruct and so prevent the internal man, when operating into the external, from making it one with itself. The external man is no more than a kind of implement or organ, and does not in itself possess any life at all. From the internal man however it can receive life, and then it seems as though the external man does possess life from itself.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 1718
- ‘And also Lot his brother and his acquisitions he brought back’ means the External Man and all that belonged to it. This is clear from the meaning of ‘Lot’ as the external man, dealt with frequently. What the external man is, scarcely anyone knows at the present day, for people imagine that solely the things belonging to the body constitute the external man, such as its sensory powers of touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight, and also its appetites and pleasures. But these constitute the outermost man, which is merely bodily. The external man proper consists of the factual knowledge belonging to the memory and of the affections belonging to the love with which the person has been imbued, as well as consisting of the sensory powers which belong properly to the spirit, together with the pleasures which also reside with the spirit. The fact that these things properly constitute the external or exterior man becomes clear from human beings in the next life, that is, from spirits. These likewise have an external man, an interior man, and consequently an internal man. The body is merely a perishable covering or shell so to speak, which exists so that the person may truly live and so that all that constitutes his being may become more excellent.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 2324
- ‘And Lot was sitting in the gateway of Sodom’ means those people with whom the good of charity exists but whose worship is external – people represented by ‘Lot’ here – who are among and yet separate from the evil, which is meant by his ‘sitting in the gateway of Sodom’. This becomes clear from the representation of ‘Lot’, and from the meaning of ‘a gateway’ and also of ‘Sodom’:
From the representation of Lot: When Lot and Abraham were together he represented the Lord’s sensory perception, and so His External, as shown in Volume One, in 1428, 1434, 1547. But now that he has separated from Abraham he ceases to represent the Lord any longer and instead represents those who are with the Lord, namely the external member of the Church – those with whom the good of charity exists but whose worship is external.
[2] Indeed in the present chapter Lot represents the external member of the Church, or what amounts to the same, the nature of the external Church, not only as it is at the outset, but also as it is in its development, and as it is at the latter end too. The latter end of that Church is what is meant by Moab and the son of Ammon, as will be clear, in the Lord’s Divine mercy, from the sequence of events described in what follows. In the Word it is common for one person to represent many consecutive states, which are described as consecutive actions in his life.