4235. And the angels of God ran to meet him. That this signifies enlightenment from good, is evident from the signification of the “angels of God,” as being something of the Lord; here, the Divine which was in the Lord; for in the Lord was the Divine Itself which is called the “Father.” The very essence of life (which in man is called the soul) was therefrom, and was Himself. This Divine is what is called in common speech the Divine nature, or rather the Lord’s Divine essence. (That something of the Divine of the Lord is signified in the Word by the “angels of God,” may be seen above, n. 1925, 2319, 2821, 3039, 4085.) By “the angels of God running to meet him” is signified in the proximate sense the influx of the Divine into the natural, and the consequent enlightenment; for all enlightenment is from the influx of the Divine. As the subject treated of is the inversion of state in the Lord’s natural, in order that good might be in the first place, and truth in the second; and as the subject treated of in this first part of the chapter is the implantation of truth in good therein (n. 4232), and as this could not be effected without enlightenment from the Divine, therefore the first thing treated of is the enlightenment effected by the good into which truth was to be implanted.

4085. And the angel of God said unto me in the dream, Jacob; and I said, Behold me! That this signifies perception from the Divine, and presence in that obscure state, is evident from the signification of “saying,” in the historicals of the Word, as being to perceive (concerning which often above); and from the signification of the “angel of God,” as being from the Divine; for an “angel,” when mentioned in the Word, signifies something of the Lord, that is, something of the Divine (see n. 1925, 2319, 2821, 3039); for the reason that an angel does not speak from himself, but from the Lord, especially when he speaks in a dream, as here to Jacob. Moreover the angels are of such a disposition as to be indignant if anything of good and truth that they speak is attributed to them; and insofar as they can they remove such an idea from others, especially from man; for they know and perceive that all the good and truth which they think, will, and effect, are from the Lord, and thus from the Divine. From this it may be seen that by “angels” in the Word there is signified something of the Lord (that is, what is Divine)—and from the signification of “in a dream,” as denoting in obscurity (see n. 2514, 2528). Presence in the natural, and therein obscurity, is signified by Jacob’s answer.