4839. 'And what he had done was evil in the eyes of Jehovah' means that it was contrary to Divine order. This is clear from the meaning of 'evil in the eyes of Jehovah', or evil contrary to Him, as that which is contrary to the order originating in Him. This is evident both from what Onan actually did and from what was laid down regarding a husband's brother - the sister-in-law was required to remove the shoe from his foot and to spit in his face; and his name in Israel was to be called, The house of him that has his shoe taken off, Deut 25:8-10. These actions meant that he was devoid of good, external and internal; and those who are devoid of that good and are governed by evil are contrary to Divine order. All evil that wells up or flows from evil present interiorly - that is, which, like Onan's, is intentional or has an evil end in view- is contrary to Divine order. But that which does not well up or flow from evil present interiorly - that is, which is unintentional or has no evil end in view - may sometimes look like evil but is not in fact this if the end in view is not an evil one; for it is the end that determines the true nature of every action. The end holds a person's life within it; that is to say, what a person loves and consequently thinks he has as his end in view. The life of his soul is nothing else.
[2] Everyone realizes that evil is contrary to Divine order and good is in keeping with it. Divine Order is the Lord Himself in heaven, for Divine Good and Truth received from Him constitute order. They do this so completely that they are order, Divine Good being the essential element of it and Divine Truth the form given to this. When represented in a visible shape Divine order is seen as a Human Being, for the Lord alone who is the producer of it is Man, 49, 288, 477, 565, 1871, 1894, 3638, 3639. And insofar as angels, spirits, and men are recipients of Him, that is, insofar as good and accompanying truth are present in them, thus insofar as His Divine order is present there, they are human beings. This is the reason why the whole of heaven represents one complete human being, called the Grand Man, and every single thing in the human being corresponds to it, as has been shown at the ends of chapters. It also explains why all the angels in heaven are seen in a human shape; but evil spirits on the other hand are deluded into seeing one another as human beings, whereas in the light of heaven they look like monsters, ever more dreadful and horrid, depending on the evil which governs them, 4533. The reason for this is that evil itself is contrary to order and so contrary to the human form. For as has been stated, when represented in a visible form, Divine order looks like a human being
This page is part of 
© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church