Arcana Coelestia # 3667
3667. 'God Shaddai will bless you' means the temptations to which that truth and good was subjected and by means of which the joining together was effected. This is clear from the meaning of 'God Shaddai' as temptations, dealt with below, and from the meaning of 'being blessed' as a joining together, dealt with in 3504, 3514, 3530, 3565, 3584. Since Jacob' now represents the good of truth, as shown above in 3659, that good and truth is here meant by 'you'. The reason why 'God Shaddai' means temptations is that in ancient times people gave the Supreme Deity, or the Lord, various illustrious names. They used these in accordance with His attributes and in accordance with the kinds of good derived from Him, as well as in accordance with the kinds of truth, which are manifold, as everyone knows. By all those descriptive names members of the Ancient Church meant none but the one God, namely the Lord, whom they called Jehovah. But after the Church fell away from goodness and truth, and at the same time from such wisdom, they started to worship as many gods as there were descriptive names of the one God - so much so that each nation, and at length each family, acknowledged one of them as its own god. This was how so many gods came into being, who are also referred to in various places in the Word.
[2] The same happened in the family of Terah, Abraham's father, and also in Abraham's house. The fact that they worshipped other gods, see 1356, 2559, and in particular God Shaddai, 1992. And the fact that the worship of that God persisted in that house is also clear from the following places in Moses,
I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Shaddai, and by My name Jehovah I was not known to them. Exodus 6:3.
This explains why Abraham was told, I am God Shaddai; walk before Me and be blameless. Genesis 17:1.
And in the present case Isaac told Jacob, 'God Shaddai will bless you'. The truth of this is also quite evident from this chapter in which, after the Lord had said in a dream, 'I am Jehovah, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac', in verse 13, Jacob then said,
If God will be with me, and guard me on this road on which I am walking, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, and I come back in peace to my father's house, then Jehovah will be my God. Verses 20-21.
From this it is evident that neither did the house of Jacob acknowledge Jehovah, but that Jacob would acknowledge Him as his God if He conferred benefits on him. It was just the same as it is in Christian Gentilism at the present day.
[3] But as regards the specific name God Shaddai, the Lord had been called by this in the Ancient Church in respect to temptations, and to the blessings and benefits following temptations, as shown in Volume Two, in 1992. This is why here in the internal sense 'God Shaddai' means temptations. Temptations are the means by which the conjunction of good and truth is effected - see what has been stated and shown already about temptations, in the paragraphs referred to in 2819.
Genesis 28
1
And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.
2
Arise, go to Padan-aram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother's father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother's brother.
3
And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people;
4
And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham.
5
And Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went to Padan-aram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother.
6
When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padan-aram, to take him a wife from thence; and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan;
7
And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padan-aram;
8
And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father;
9
Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham's son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife.
10
And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran.
11
And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.
12
And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.
13
And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;
14
And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
15
And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.
16
And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.
17
And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.
18
And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.
19
And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.
20
And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on,
21
So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God:
22
And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.
