2827. 'And have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me' means the union of the Human to the Divine which was effected by means of the final degree of temptation. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'your son', that is to say, Isaac, as the Divine Rational, dealt with already, or the Divine Human since this has its beginnings in the Rational, 2106, 2194, the expression 'only' being used because it was the only begotten, see 2773; and from the meaning of 'not withholding from Met as causing it to be united, namely to the Divine itself. As regards this union being effected by means of the final degree of temptation, this is evident from all that has gone before.

2106. That 'Abraham was a son of ninety-nine years' means the state and the period of time prior to the union of the Lord's Divine Essence with His Human Essence is clear from the meaning of 'ninety-nine years' as the period of time before the Lord fully joined the Internal Man to the Rational, dealt with above in 1988. The Lord's Internal Man, as stated frequently already, was Jehovah Himself, that is, the Divine Itself which, once united to the Human, is the Rational, for the human begins in the inmost part of the rational and from there extends itself to one's external.