Swedenborg Arcana Caelestia Vol. III (1750)

...multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out, 'Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel!' And Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written: 'Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.' His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him" (John xii:12-16; Mark xi:1-12; Luke xix:28-41).

From these things, it is now clear that all and singular things in the Church of that time were representative of the Lord, and consequently of the Celestial and Spiritual things in His Kingdom, even down to the female donkey and the donkey’s foal, by which the natural man was represented in regard to good and truth. The reason for this representation was that the natural man ought to serve the rational, and the rational the spiritual, and this in turn the celestial, and the celestial the Lord; such is the order of subordination. Because the natural man in regard to good and truth was signified by the ox and the donkey, many laws were enacted in which oxen and donkeys are mentioned—laws which at first glance appear not worthy of being mentioned in the Divine Word. However, when they are unfolded as to their internal sense, a spiritual matter of great importance appears within them.

Examples of this include the laws of Moses: "If a man opens a pit, or if a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, the owner of the pit shall make it good; he shall give money to their owner, but the dead animal shall be his" (Exodus xxi:33, 34). "If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again. If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, and you would refrain from helping it, you shall surely help him with it" (Exodus xxiii:4, 5; Deuteronomy xxii:1, 3). "You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fall down on the road, and hide yourself from them; you shall surely help him lift them up again" (Deuteronomy xxii:4). "You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together; you shall not wear a garment of different sorts, such as wool and linen mixed together" (Deuteronomy xxii:10, 11). "Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant, and the stranger may be refreshed" (Exodus xxiii:12). In these passages, the ox and the donkey in the spiritual sense signify nothing else than natural good and natural truth.

2782. And he took two young men The Latin text uses "pueros," often translated as "servants" or "young men" in this context.—that this signifies the rational, which he first conjoined, is evident from the signification of "young men." "Young man" and "young men" in the Word signify various things, because they are predicated both of the sons of a house and the sons of a foreigner, as well as of servants. Here they refer to servants. That by servants in the Word the natural things of man are signified, which are to serve the rational, may be seen in n. 1486, 1713, 2541, 2567. But here, because they are not called "servants" but "young men," it signifies the first or merely human rational, which is to serve the Divine rational, as can also be evident from the sequence of events.

2783. And Isaac his son—that this signifies the Divine rational generated from Himself, is evident from the representation of Isaac as the Divine rational of the Lord, of which we have often spoken before. That it was generated from Himself is understood by "his son," as noted above in n. 2772.