6281. As regards “redeeming,” in the proper sense this signifies to restore and appropriate to Himself that which had been His; and it is predicated of slavery, of death, and of evil; when of slavery, they are meant who have been enslaved, in the spiritual sense enslaved by hell; when of death, they are meant who are in condemnation; and when of evil, as here, they are meant who are in hell, for the evil from which the angel redeems is hell (see n. 6279). As the Lord delivered man from these evils by making the Human in Himself Divine, therefore His Divine Human is called in the Word the “Redeemer,” as in Isaiah:

I aid thee, saith Jehovah, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel (Isaiah 41:14).

Again:

Thus hath said Jehovah, the Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One (Isaiah 49:7, 26).

Again:

Jehovah Zebaoth is His name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall He be called (Isaiah 54:5).

In these passages, the Divine Itself, which is called “Jehovah,” is distinguished from the Divine Human, which is called the “Redeemer the Holy One of Israel.”

[2] But that it is Jehovah Himself in the Divine Human, is evident from the following passages.

In Isaiah:

Thus hath said Jehovah, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Jehovah Zebaoth, I am the first, and I am the last, and besides Me there is no God (Isaiah 44:6).

Thus hath said Jehovah thy Redeemer, I am Jehovah thy God, that teacheth thee (Isaiah 48:17).

Again:

Thou art our Father, for Abraham knoweth us not, and Israel doth not acknowledge us; Thou Jehovah art our Father, our Redeemer; from everlasting is Thy name (Isaiah 63:16).

In David:

Jehovah who redeemed thy life from the pit (Psalms 103:4).

[3] From these passages also it is plain that by “Jehovah” in the Word no other is meant than the Lord (see n. 1343, 1736, 2921, 3035, 5663); and that “Jehovah the Redeemer” is His Divine Human. Therefore also those who have been redeemed are called the “redeemed of Jehovah” in Isaiah:

Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold thy salvation cometh; Behold His reward is with Him, and the price of His work before Him. They shall call them, The people of holiness, the redeemed of Jehovah (Isaiah 62:11-12).

That it is the Lord from whom they are called the “redeemed of Jehovah,” is very clear; for it is said of His coming: “Behold thy salvation cometh; behold His reward is with Him.” See besides Isaiah 43:1; 52:2-3; 63:4, 9; Hos. 13:14; Exodus 6:6; 15:13; Job 19:25, where it is evident that “redemption” is predicated of slavery, of death, and of evil.

5663. Your God, and the God of your father. That this signifies the Lord’s Divine Human may be seen from the fact that where “God” or “Jehovah” is mentioned in the Word, the Lord and no one else is meant (see n. 1343, 1736, 2921, 3035); and when it is said “your God and the God of your father” that is, the God of Israel and of Jacob and his sons, it means the Lord’s Divine Human, and indeed as to the Divine natural (n. 3305, 4286, 4570); for Israel represented the Lord as to the interior natural, Jacob as to the exterior, and his sons as to the truths in this natural.

[2] That the Lord was meant in the Word by “God” and “Jehovah” the Jewish Church did not know, nor does the Christian Church know it at this day. That the Christian Church has not known it is because it has distinguished the Divinity into three persons. But the Ancient Church which was after the flood, and above all the Most Ancient Church which was before the flood, understood by “Jehovah” and “God” no other than the Lord, and Him indeed as to His Divine Human. They also knew about the Divine Itself which is in the Lord, and which He calls His “Father” yet they were not able to think about that Divine Itself which is in the Lord, but about the Divine Human, and consequently could not be conjoined with any other Divine; for conjunction is effected through thought which is of the understanding and affection which is of the will, thus through faith and through love. For if we think of the Divine Itself, the thought falls as it were into a boundless universe, and thus is dissipated, whence there is no conjunction. It is otherwise when the Divine Itself is thought of as the Divine Human. And the ancients knew that they could not be saved unless they were conjoined with the Divine.

[3] Therefore it was the Divine Human that the Ancient Churches worshiped; and Jehovah also manifested Himself to them in the Divine Human. The Divine Human was the Divine Itself in heaven; for heaven constitutes one man, which is called the Grand Man, as has been heretofore shown at the end of the chapters. This Divine in heaven is none other than the Divine Itself, but in heaven it is as a Divine Man. This Man is what the Lord took on and made Divine in Him, and united it to the Divine Itself as it had been united from eternity; for from eternity there was a one. He did this because mankind could not otherwise have been saved; for it was no longer sufficient for the Divine Itself to be able, through heaven and thus through the Divine Human Itself there, to flow into human minds; wherefore the Divine Itself willed to unite the Divine Human to Itself actually by the Human taken on in the world. The one and the other is the Lord.