When the Bible speaks of "Jehovah," it is representing love itself, the inmost love that is the essence of the Lord. That divine love is one, whole and complete in itself, and Jehovah also is one, a name applied only to the Lord. The divine love expresses itself in the form of wisdom. Love, then, is the essence of God -- His inmost. Wisdom -- the loving understanding of how to put love into action -- is slightly more external, giving love a way to express itself. Wisdom, however, is expressed in a great variety of thoughts and ideas, what the Writings collectively call divine truth. There are also many imaginary gods, and sometimes angels and people can be called gods (the Lord said Moses would be as a god to Aaron). So when the Bible calls the Lord "God," it is in most cases referring to divine truth. In other cases, "God" has reference to what is called the divine human. The case there is this: As human beings, we cannot engage the Lord directly as divine love. It is too powerful and too pure. Instead, we have to approach Him by understanding Him through divine truth. Divine truth, then, is the Lord in human form, a form we can approach and understand. Thus "God" is also used in reference to this human aspect, because it is an expression of truth.

9389. 'And twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel' means a representative sign of the Lord's Divine Human in respect of God's truth which springs wholly and completely from Him. This is clear from the meaning of 'a pillar' as a representative sign of the Lord's Divine Human in respect of truth, the reason why 'a pillar' has this meaning being that 'an altar' means a representative sign of the Lord's Divine Human in respect of good, and 'a pillar' in the representative sense means the holiness of truth that comes from the Lord, 4580, 4582; and from the meaning of 'twelve' and 'the twelve tribes' as all truths and forms of good in their entirety, dealt with in 577, 2089, 3858, 3913, 3926, 3939, 4060, 6335, 6337, 6397, 6640, 7973, thus those which spring from the Lord. The reason why the Lord's Divine Human is meant by 'an altar' and by 'pillars' is that all the Church's representative signs which are spoken of in the Word have regard in the highest sense to the Lord Himself. This being so, the subject of the Word in its inmost or highest sense is solely the Lord, in particular the glorification of His Human. This is what gives the Word all its holiness. But that sense presents itself chiefly in the inmost or third heaven, where those are who are governed by love to the Lord, and consequently possess wisdom more than all others.