477. First, however, we must repeat what was said above [n. 370-371, 380, 382a-83, 472 seq.], namely, that by the land of Canaan in the inmost sense is signified the kingdom of God; and by the various places in the land of Canaan the propinquities and approaches to this kingdom of God. For there are many propinquities or approaches. In the kingdom itself, that is, in the superior heaven, are only those who are chosen by the Messiah, such as Abraham, and many others. All the rest are removed from these or draw near to them, according to degrees; for there are many degrees of happiness and power in that kingdom, but all according to the nearness of the approach by faith and love to the Messiah, who is the King. Such also is the case with those who are further removed from him and yet are in the consortship of the great society. The middle or center of this kingdom is signified by the city of David, mount Zion, Beer-sheba, Jerusalem; the other degrees are signified [by various places] according to their distance from the above, both in the land of Canaan and also in a widely extended region outside Canaan, as will be seen a little later on in the present chapter.
It is now said that Jacob left Beer-sheba to go to the house of Laban; as the words read: And when Jacob had departed from Beer-sheba to go to Haran (vs. 10). We read of Abraham that he planted a grove in Beer-sheba, and called there on the name of the God of eternity (chap. 21:33); and of Isaac, that at a later time Jehovah appeared to him in Beer-sheba, and that after the blessing had been given him he built there an altar and called on the name Jehovah (chap. 26:23-25). From this it becomes very clearly apparent that Beer-sheba was a holy place in the land of Canaan where the name of Jehovah was invoked; which could never have been the case unless this place had signified what was stated above, namely, the kingdom of God; indeed, Beer-sheba signifies the closest proximity to the kingdom itself. Nothing whatever could happen in the lives of these patriarchs which did not deeply involve something that was purely divine, and signify something in heaven itself; for their lives were led by the Messiah himself. That [in the universe] earthly things signify heavenly, may be evident from the human body itself, as from a like [universe]; for there is nothing existent therein, namely, in the body, that does not have its own correspondent in the mind and soul of that body. The mind and soul are the heavens of the man, and there is the kingdom of God, wheresoever the man lives.
But let us return to the land of Canaan. Jacob was now in the land where the kingdom of God was to be instituted; and because of this, it was necessary that there be no place there that did not signify something which, in its own way, regarded that kingdom. Thus Beer-sheba signified that which came nearest to the kingdom; therefore Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all dwelt there, and also Esau. But now, since the kingdom of God exists not only in heaven but also on earth, that is, in man while living in the body (as already shown [n. 384, 475]), and also after death when his better or superior part, within which is life itself, passes into heaven, therefore by these places in the land of Canaan is signified that kingdom of God which shall be on earth. Thus, by these same places is signified a doctrine which either approaches more nearly to the true church of the Messiah, or recedes further away therefrom; consequently by them is signified faith and obedience arising from love towards God and the neighbor, in whom and in which, consists all the doctrine of the true church. According to their observance of the precepts of this doctrine, so men come nearer to the true church of the Messiah, that is, to his kingdom on earth. So with the propinquities and approaches which are signified by the various places in the land of Canaan; for it amounts to the same thing. Beer-sheba, therefore, is the church both on earth and in the heavens, which comes nearest to that kingdom where the Messiah will be King. We read that Jacob now departed from this place; but, unlike his posterity, he did this for the sake of taking a wife from his nearest kindred, to the end that by marriage contracted within this closest relationship, he might insert the entire house of Terah and his sons inter the Abrahamic stem, and so might introduce that house into the truly Christian church and into the kingdom of God promised to Abraham.
