3302. 'And they called his name Esau' means its essential nature, that is to say, of the Natural as regards good. This is clear from the meaning of 'calling the name' or calling by name, as knowing the essential nature of a person or thing, and so knowing that nature itself, dealt with in 144, 145, 440, 768, 1754, 1896, 2009, 2724, 3006, and from the fact that names in the Word, however many these may be, in the internal sense mean spiritual realities, 1224, 1888, so that 'Esau' is some spiritual reality. That reality is the Lord's Divine Natural as regards Divine Good when first conceived, as is clear from what has been stated and from what follows concerning Esau, as well as from other places in the Word. But as Esau and Edom are very similar in meaning - the difference being that 'Edom' is the Divine Natural as regards good to which doctrinal matters concerning truth have been allied - confirmation from places in the Word will in the Lord's Divine mercy therefore be provided at verse 30 below, where Esau is called Edom.

1776. Though it may seem paradoxical it is nevertheless perfectly true that angels have a better and fuller understanding of the internal sense of the Word when very young boys and girls are reading it than when adults do so with whom there is no faith grounded in charity. I have been told the reason why, and it is this: Very young boys and girls live in a state of mutual love and innocence, and so their most tender vessels are almost heavenly, being simply capacities for receiving which are able to be made ready by the Lord to receive. No awareness however of what He is doing enters into their perceptions except through a certain delight in keeping with their character and disposition. The angels said that the Word of the Lord is a dead letter, but that in everyone, when he is reading it, it is given life by the Lord, each according to his capacity to receive it, and that it is made alive according to the life in his charity and according to his state of innocence. This happens in countless and varied ways.