3126. Verses 28-30 And the girl ran and told [those of] her mother's house all about these things. And Rebekah had a brother, and his name was Laban; and Laban ran to the man outside, to the spring. And so it was - when he saw the nose-jewel and the bracelets on his sister's hands, and when he heard the words of Rebekah his sister, who said, Thus the man spoke to me - that he went to the man, and behold, he was standing with the camels at the spring.

'The girl ran' means the inclination of that affection. 'And told [those of] her mother's house all about these things' means towards whatever natural good enlightenment was able to reach. 'And Rebekah had a brother' means the affection for good in the natural man. 'His name was Laban' means the essential nature of that affection. 'And Laban ran to the man outside, to the spring' means its inclination towards truth that was to be introduced into Divine truth. 'And so it was, when he saw the nose-jewel and the bracelets on his sister's hands' means when it recognized Divine Good and Divine Truth within the power of the affection for truth, meant by 'a sister'. 'And when he heard the words of Rebekah his sister' means the inclination of it. 'Who said, Thus the man spoke to me' means the leanings of truth in the natural man. 'And he went to the man' means that it attached itself. 'And behold, he was standing with the camels' means presence in general facts. 'At the spring' means the enlightenment of them from Divine truth.

Time is an aspect of the physical world, but it is not an aspect of the spiritual world. The same is true of space: There is no space in heaven. This is hard for us to grasp or even visualize, because we live in physical bodies with physical senses that are filled with physical elements existing in time and space. Our minds are schooled and patterned in terms of time and space, and have no reference point to imagine a reality without them. Consider how you think for a second. In your mind you can immediately be in your past or in some speculative future; in your mind you can circle the globe seeing other lands and faraway friends, or even zoom instantly to the most distant stars. Such imaginings are insubstantial, of course, but if we could make them real we would be getting close to what spiritual reality is like. Indeed, the mind is like a spiritual organ, which may be why physicians and philosophers have had such a hard time juxtaposing its functions to those of the brain. What this means in the Bible is that descriptions of time -- hours, days, weeks, months, years and even simply the word "time" itself -- represent spiritual states, and the passing of time represents the change of spiritual states. Again, we can see this a little bit within our minds. If we imagine talking to one friend then talking to another, it feels like going from one place to another, even though we're not moving. The same is true if we picture a moment from childhood and then imagine something in the future; it feels like a movement through time even though it's instantaneous. Changing our state of mind feels like a physical change in space and time. The Bible simply reverses that, with marking points in space and time representing particular states of mind.