It’s pretty easy for most people to read the Bible and get a sense for what “sheep” mean without any help. They are simple, peaceful, trusting and willing to be led, and the imagery of the Lord as both a shepherd and a lamb reinforces a sense of innocence.
And indeed, Swedenborg says sheep represent people who desire what is good, desire to be good, and desire to do what is good. And on a deeper level sheep represent those desires themselves. Arriving at such a state can be the work of a lifetime – learning what’s right, setting aside what’s evil, determining to follow the Lord – but if we reach such a state, and let the Lord enter our hearts and set aside our evil desires, we can be cared for by the Lord in peace.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia 4169
[2] ‘Sheep’ means goods. This may be seen from many places in the Word, from which places let merely the following be quoted: In Isaiah,
He was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He is led like a lamb* to the slaughter, and like a sheep before its shearers, he did not open his mouth. Isa. 53:7.
This refers to the Lord, where He is compared to ‘a sheep’ not by virtue of truth but of good. In Matthew,
Jesus said to the twelve whom He sent out, Do not go into the way of the gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; go rather to the lostsheep of the house of Israel. Matt. 10:5, 6.
‘The gentiles’ to whom they were forbidden to go stands for those among whom evils exist – ‘gentiles’ meaning evils, see 1259, 1260, 1849; ‘the cities of the Samaritans’ stands for those among whom falsities are present; and ‘sheep’ stands for those among whom forms of good may be found.
[3] In John,
Jesus after the Resurrection said to Peter, Feed My lambs. A second time He said, Feed My sheep; the third time He said, Feed My sheep. John 21:15-17.
‘Lambs’ stands for those who have innocence within them. The first reference to ‘sheep’ stands for people whose practice of good stems from good, the second for those whose practice of it stems from truth. In Matthew,
When the Son of Man comes in His glory He will place the sheep at His right hand but the goats at His left. And He will say to those at His right hand, Come, O blessed of My Father, possess as an inheritance the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me. Insofar as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers you did it to Me. Matt. 25:31-40.
Here it is quite plain that ‘sheep’ stands for goods, that is, for those in whom good is present. Every kind of good flowing from charity, which will in the Lord’s Divine mercy be described elsewhere, is included here in the internal sense. ‘Goats’ means in particular those who have faith but no charity.
[4] Similarly in Ezekiel,
As for you, O My flock, said the Lord Jehovih, Behold, I am judging between one member of the flock and another, between rams of the sheep, and he-goats. Ezek. 34:17.
‘He-goats’ means in particular those whose faith is not linked to any charity. This becomes clear from the meaning of ‘he-goats’ in the good sense as those who possess the truth of faith and from this some charity, but in the contrary sense those whose faith is not linked to any charity. Such people reason about salvation from basic assumptions that faith is what saves. The same point is apparent from what the Lord says about the goats in the passage in Matthew quoted above. But people who do not possess any truth of faith, or at the same time any good of charity, are carried away into hell without undergoing any such judgement, that is to say, without any examination to prove that they are governed by falsity.
Apocalypse Explained (Tansley) n. 1154
1154. Beasts of burden and sheep.- That these signify worship from truths and goods that are from a spiritual-natural origin, profaned, is evident from the signification of beasts of burden, which denote the truths that have reference to charity, of which we shall speak presently; and from the signification of sheep, which denote the goods of charity, as is evident from all the passages in the Word where they are mentioned; as in the following: Matt. vii. 15; ix. 36; x. 5, 6, 16; xii. 10, 11, 12; xv. 21-29; xviii. 12, 13; xxv. 31-41; xxvi. 31; Mark vi. 34; xiv. 27; John x. 1-18, 26-31; xxi. 15, 16, 17; and many passages in the prophets. In these passages sheep signify those who are in the good of charity, and therefore, in the abstract sense, the goods of charity.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 294
294. That ‘a coat of skin’ means spiritual and natural good does not become clear to anybody except from the inner sense once it has been revealed, and also after that from similar usages where they occur in the Word. In this verse skin in general is referred to, and is used to mean the skin of kid, sheep, or ram. In the Word these mean affections for good; they also mean charity and things belonging to charity. The same was meant by the sheep used in sacrifices. People are called ‘sheep’ who are endowed with the good that stems from charity, that is, with spiritual and natural good. And this is why the Lord is called the Shepherd of the sheep, and why people who are endowed with charity are termed ‘sheep’, as is well known to everyone.