2798. That 'Abraham took the pieces of wood for the burnt offering' means the merit of righteousness is clear from what has been stated and shown above in 2784, and so without further explanation.

[2798a] 'And laid them on Isaac [his son]' means that it, that is to say, the merit of righteousness, was joined to the Divine Rational. This becomes clear from the representation of 'Isaac' as the Lord's Divine Rational, often dealt with already, and from the meaning of 'laying it on him' as allying it. The expression 'his son' is used because the Lord's Divine Human was not only conceived but was also born from Jehovah. The Lord's conception from Jehovah is very well known from the Word of the Lord, and therefore He is called 'Son of the Most High', 'Son of God', and 'Only Begotten of the Father' in Matthew 2:15; 3, 16, 17; 16:13-17; 17:5; 27:43, 54; Mark 1:11; 9:7, 9; 14:61-62; Luke 1:31-32, 35; 3:21-22; 9:35; 10:22; John 1:14, 18, 49; 3:13, 16-18; 5:20-27; 6:69; 9:34-35, 38; 10:35-36; 20:30-31, and besides these in very many other places where He calls Jehovah His Father.

[2] It is also well known that He was born of a virgin Mary, yet even so like any other. But when He was born again, that is, became Divine, this was from Jehovah who dwelt within Him and who was Himself as to the very Being (Esse) of life. The union of the Divine Essence and the Human Essence was effected mutually and reciprocally, so that He united the Divine Essence to the Human Essence, and the Human Essence to the Divine Essence, see 1921, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2018, 2025, 2083, 2508, 2523, 2618, 2628, 2632, 2728, 2729. From this it may become clear that the Lord made the Human within Himself Divine from His own power and in so doing became Righteousness. That which was allied to the Divine Rational when He underwent inmost temptation was the merit of righteousness; and it was from the Divine Rational that He fought, and it was against it that evil genii fought, until He glorified that Divine Rational also. These are the things meant in the internal sense by Abraham's laying the pieces of wood for the burnt offering on Isaac his son, and they are the things which angels perceive when these words are being read.

1585. 'And he saw all the plain of Jordan' means the goods and truths that resided with the external man. This is clear from the meaning of 'a plain' and of 'the Jordan'. In the internal sense 'the plain surrounding the Jordan' means the external man as regards all his goods and truths. The reason the plain of Jordan has this meaning is that the Jordan was a boundary of the land of Canaan. 'The land of Canaan', as stated and shown already, means the Lord's kingdom and Church, and in particular its celestial and spiritual things; this also explains why it was called the Holy Land, and the heavenly Canaan. And because it means the Lord's kingdom and Church, it means in the highest sense the Lord Himself, who is the All in all of His kingdom and of His Church.

[2] For this reason all things in the land of Canaan were representative. Those in the midst of the land, or that were inmost, represented His internal Man - Mount Zion and Jerusalem, for example, representing respectively celestial things and spiritual things. More outlying districts represented things more remote from internals. And the most outlying districts, or those which formed the boundaries, represented the external man. There were several boundaries to the land of Canaan, but in general they were the two rivers Euphrates and Jordan, and also the Sea, ¹ for which reason the Euphrates and the Jordan represented external things. Here therefore 'the plain of Jordan' means, as it also represents, all things residing in the external man. The meaning of the land of Canaan is similar when used in reference to the Lord's kingdom in heaven, to the Lord's Church on earth, to the member of that kingdom or Church, or abstractly to the celestial things of love, and so on.

[3] Almost all the cities therefore, and indeed all the mountains, hills, valleys, rivers, and other features in the land of Canaan, were representative. The river Euphrates, being a boundary, represented, as shown already in 120, sensory evidence and facts that belong to the external man, and so too did the Jordan and the plain of Jordan, as becomes clear from the following places: In David,

O my God, my soul bows itself down within me; ² therefore I remember You from the land of Jordan, and the Hermons from the little mountain. Psalms 42:6.

Here 'the land of Jordan' stands for that which is lowly and so is distant from the celestial, as a person's externals are from his internals.

[4] The crossing of the Jordan when the children of Israel entered the land of Canaan and the dividing of its waters at that time also represented the approach to the internal man by way of the external, as well as a person's entry into the Lord's kingdom, and much more besides, Joshua 3:14 on to the end of Chapter 4. And because the external man is constantly hostile towards the internal and strives for domination over it, the arrogance or the pride of the Jordan came to be phrases used by the Prophets, as in Jeremiah,

How will you compete with horses? And confident in a land of peace how do you deal with the pride of the Jordan? Jeremiah 12:5.

'The pride of the Jordan' stands for those things belonging to the external man which rear up and wish to have dominion over the internal, such as reasonings, meant here by 'horses', and 'the confidence' they give.

[5] In the same prophet,

Edom will become a desolation. Behold, like a lion it will come up from the arrogance of the Jordan against the habitation of Ethan. Jeremiah 49:17, 19.

'The arrogance of the Jordan' stands for the pride of the external man against the goods and truths of the internal. In Zechariah,

Howl, O fir tree, for the cedar is fallen, for the magnificent ones have been laid waste! Howl, O oaks of Bashan, for the impenetrable forest has come down. The sound of the howling of shepherds [is heard], for their magnificence has been laid waste; the sound of the roaring of young lions, that the pride of the Jordan has been laid waste. Zechariah 11:2-3.

The fact that the Jordan was a boundary of the land of Canaan is clear from Numbers 34:12, and the eastern boundary of the land of Judah, in Joshua 15:5.

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