6226. 'And sat on the bed' means which was turned towards the natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'the bed' as the natural, dealt with in 6188. The reason why 'Israel sat on the bed' means that spiritual good was turned towards the natural is that in the last verse of the previous chapter, Chapter 47, 'Israel bowed himself over the head of the bed' meant that spiritual good turned itself towards things of the interior natural, see 6188, and therefore moving himself from the head and sitting on the bed means that spiritual good turned itself towards the natural. Nothing intelligible can be said to show what turning itself to the interior natural is, or to the exterior natural, because very few people know of the existence of the interior natural and the exterior natural, or that thought takes place at one time in the first, at another in the second. And people who do not know these things do not stop to reflect on them and consequently cannot have gained any knowledge of this particular matter by anything they have experienced. Yet this turning to one and then to the other goes on in everyone, though with variations; for at one time a person's thought is raised to things on a higher level, and at another it comes down to those on a lower level, so that at one time his thought looks upwards, at another time downwards.

[2] Apart from all this anyone can see that 'Israel bowed himself over the head of the bed' and that after that 'he sat on the bed' are matters which would have been too trivial for mention in the most holy Word unless they had held some arcanum within them. That arcanum cannot be brought to light except by means of the internal sense, except therefore through a knowledge of what each individual word means in the spiritual sense, that is, the sense that angels understand. For angels thoughts are not based, as men's are, on worldly, bodily, and earthly objects, but on heavenly ones. The nature of the difference between those two kinds of objects is particularly evident from correspondences, which are the subject at the ends of a number of chapters.

2904. 'The life of Sarah was' means all the preceding times and states of the Church as regards Divine truths. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'the life' here, and from the representation of 'Sarah'. 'The life' here - since it refers to the whole span of life and to the periods that constitute it, namely early childhood, youth, adult years, and old age means states, as do all periods of time in general, see 2625, 2788, 2837. And since the subject in what follows is the Church, 'the life' therefore means times and states of the Church. 'Sarah' represents Divine truth, see 1468, 1901, 2063, 2172, 2173, 2198, 2507. From this it follows that here 'the life of Sarah was' means in the internal sense all the preceding times and states of the Church as regards Divine truths. When she lived as Abraham's wife Sarah represented the Lord's Divine Truth joined to His Divine Good, as may be seen in the paragraphs just quoted. And as she represented the Lord's Divine Truth, so she also means the Church's Divine truth, for in the Church no other truth exists than that which is the Lord's. Truth that does not come from Him is not truth, as is also clear both from the Word itself and from the doctrine of faith drawn from it. It is clear from the Word itself in John,

Man cannot receive anything unless it is given him from heaven. John 3:27.

And elsewhere in John,

Without Me you can do nothing. John 15:5.

The same is also clear from the doctrine of faith, which teaches that the whole of faith, that is, all truth, comes from the Lord.

[2] The representatives and the meaningful signs in the Word are such that every single one in the highest sense has regard to the Lord; and from this springs the life itself of the Word. And because they have regard to the Lord, they also have regard to His kingdom, since the Lord is the All in His kingdom. Divine things from the Lord within His kingdom are what make it the kingdom. To the extent therefore that an angel, spirit, or man receives good and truth from the Lord, and believes that these come from Him, he is in His kingdom. But to the extent that he does not receive them, and does not believe that they come from the Lord, he is not in His kingdom. Thus Divine things from the Lord are what constitute His kingdom or heaven; and this is what is meant when it is said that the Lord is the All in His kingdom.