Spiritual Meaning of GENESIS 19:27-29
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AC 2456. Verses 27-29. And Abraham rose up early in the morning unto the place where he had stood before Jehovah. And he looked against the faces of Sodom and Gomorrah, and against all the faces of the land of the plain; and he saw and behold the smoke of the land went up, as the smoke of a furnace. And it came to pass when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt. "Abraham rose up early in the morning," signifies the Lord‘s thought concerning the last time; Abraham here as before denotes the Lord in that state; "unto the place where he had stood before Jehovah," signifies the state of perception and thought in which He had been before; "place" denotes state. "And he looked against the faces of Sodom and Gomorrah," signifies thought concerning their interior state in respect to evil and falsity; "and against all the faces of the land of the plain," signifies all the interior states thence derived; "and he saw and behold the smoke of the land went up, as the smoke of a furnace," signifies a state of falsity (which is "smoke") from a state of evil (which is the "furnace") within the church (which is the "land"). "And it came to pass when God destroyed the cities of the plain," signifies when they perished through the falsities of evil, which are the "cities of the plain;" "that God remembered Abraham," signifies salvation through the unition of the Lord’s Divine Essence with His Human Essence; "and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow," signifies the salvation of those who are in good, and of those who are in truth in which is good, all of whom are here meant by "Lot;" "when He overthrew the cities," signifies when those who were in falsities from evils perished; "in which Lot dwelt," signifies although they who were saved were also in such falsities.

AC 2457. It is not necessary to explain these things in detail, because for the most part they have been explained in the preceding chapter, and also previously to that. They have been here added and inserted to the end that it might be evident that the good were separated from the evil, the former being saved while the latter were condemned, solely through the unition of the Lord‘s Divine Essence with His Human Essence; for if this had not taken place all those who are here represented by Lot would have perished together with the rest; which is meant by these words: "And it came to pass when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt;" which in the internal sense denote that through the unition of the Lord’s Divine Essence with His Human Essence, all who were in good were saved, and also those who were in truth in which there is good, here represented by Lot, while those who were in falsities from evils perished, although they who were saved were also in falsities and evils. In this way therefore are the things said in this chapter conjoined with those said in the preceding one; namely, that Abraham (that is, the Lord in that state) interceded for those people of Sodom and Gomorrah who are signified by the "fifty," the "forty-five," the "forty," the "thirty," the "twenty," and the "ten;" concerning whom it was there explained that these are all in their order who are in good, and also those who are in truth in which there is anything of good.

Author:  E. Swedenborg (1688-1772).

Design:  I.J. Thompson, Feb 2002.

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