3381. Because that Abraham hearkened to My voice. That this signifies the union of the Lord’s Divine Essence with the Human Essence through temptations, is evident from the representation of Abraham, as being the Lord as to the Divine Human also (see n. 2833, 2836, 3251) and from the signification of “hearkening to My voice,” when predicated of the Lord, as being to unite the Divine Essence to the Human through temptations, for in the Word it is from these that obedience is predicated of the Lord. What is here said has reference to that which is related concerning Abraham in chapter 22, namely, that God tempted him, and said unto him that he should take his son and offer him for a burnt-offering (verses 1-2); and when he hearkened to this voice, it is said:

Now I know that thou fearest God, and thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only one, from Me.

In Myself have I sworn saith Jehovah, because thou hast done this word, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only one, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heavens (Genesis 22:12, 16-17).

That by “not withholding thy son, thine only one, from Me” (which was “hearkening to the voice”) is signified the unition of the Human with the Divine through the last of temptation, may be seen above (n. 2827, 2844). That this is meant by “hearkening to the voice of Jehovah,” or “the Father,” is evident also from the words of the Lord in Gethsemane:

My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless not My will but Thine be done: again a second time, My Father, if this cup cannot pass from Me except I drink it, Thy will be done (Matthew 26:39, 42 Mark 14:36 Luke 22:42).

But inasmuch as Jehovah or the Father was in Him, or He in the Father and the Father in Him (John 14:10-11), by “hearkening to the voice of Jehovah” is meant that the Lord united the Divine to the Human through temptations, by His own power; as is also evident from the words of the Lord Himself in John:

As the Father knoweth Me, and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. Therefore doth the Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I may take it again. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received from My Father (John 10:15, 17-18). (That the Lord by His own power united His Divine Essence to His Human Essence through temptations, may be seen above, n. 1663, 1668, 1690, 1691, 1725, 1729, 1733, 1737, 1787, 1789, 1812, 1820, 2776, 3318)

1914. My wrong be upon thee; I gave my handmaid into thy bosom. That this signifies unwillingness to take blame upon itself, is evident without explication. In the internal sense there is involved in these words that the Lord perceived this first rational to be such as to lightly esteem intellectual truth, on which account He rebuked it. For the Lord thought from intellectual truth, as before said (n. 1904); and because this truth is above the rational, it could perceive and see the quality of this rational, namely, that it held that truth in low esteem.

[2] That the Lord could perceive and see from the interior man what was the quality of the new rational in Himself, may be seen from the fact that the interior can perceive what takes place in the exterior, or what is the same, that the higher can see what is in the lower; but not the reverse. Moreover they who have conscience can do this and are accustomed to do it, for when anything contrary to the truth of conscience flows into the thought, or into the endeavor of the will, they not only perceive it, but also find fault with it; and it even grieves them to be of such a character. Still more can those do this who have perception, as perception is more interior in the rational. What then could not the Lord do, who had Divine celestial perception, and thought from the affection of intellectual truth, which is above the rational! Therefore He could not but be indignant, knowing that nothing of evil and falsity was from Himself, and that from the affection of truth He took the greatest pains that His rational should be pure. This shows that the Lord did not lightly esteem intellectual truth, but that He perceived the first rational in Himself to be thinking lightly of it.

[3] What it is to think from intellectual truth cannot be explained to the apprehension, and the less so because no one but the Lord ever thought from this affection and from this truth. He who thinks therefrom is above the angelic heaven, for even the angels of the third heaven do not think from intellectual truth, but from the interior of the rational. But so far as the Lord united His Human Essence to His Divine Essence, He thought from the Divine good itself, that is, from Jehovah.

[4] The fathers of the Most Ancient Church who had perception, thought from the interior rational. The fathers of the Ancient Church, who had not perception but conscience, thought from the exterior or natural rational. But all who are without conscience do not think at all from the rational, since they have not the rational, although they appear to have it; but they think from the sensuous and corporeal natural. The reason why they who have no conscience cannot think from the rational, is that they have no rational, as just said. The rational man is he who thinks the good and truth of faith, and by no means he who thinks contrary thereto. They who think evil and falsity are insane in their thought, and therefore the rational can by no means be predicated of them.