3509. And Rebekah said unto Jacob her son. That this signifies the Lord’s perception from Divine truth concerning natural truth, is evident from the representation of Rebekah, as being the Divine truth of the Lord’s Divine rational (see n. 3012, 3013, 3077); from the signification of “saying” as being to perceive (n. 1791, 1815, 1819, 1822, 1898, 1919, 2080, 2506, 2515, 2552, 2619); and from the representation of Jacob, as being the Lord’s natural as to truth (n. 3305); from all which it is manifest that by “Rebekah said unto Jacob her son,” is signified the Lord’s perception from Divine truth concerning natural truth. That the Lord from the Divine good of the Divine rational which is represented by Isaac, willed to procure truth for Himself through the good of the natural which is represented by Esau, whereby He might glorify or make Divine His natural; but that the Lord from the Divine truth of the Divine rational which is represented by Rebekah willed to procure for Himself through the truth of the natural which is represented by Jacob the truth by means of which the rational might be glorified or made Divine, cannot be apprehended unless it is illustrated by the things that come to pass in man while being regenerated or made new by the Lord; nor indeed even by this unless it is known how the case is with the rational as to the good and as to the truth therein-which must therefore be briefly stated.

[2] The rational mind is distinguished into two faculties, one faculty being called the will, and the other the understanding. During man’s regeneration, that which proceeds from the will is called good, and that which proceeds from the understanding is called truth. Before man has been regenerated the will does not act as one with the understanding; but the former wills good, while the latter wills truth; insomuch that an effort of the will is perceived as being quite distinct from one of the understanding. This however is perceived only by those who reflect, and who know what the will is and the things that belong thereto, and what the understanding is and the things that belong thereto; but it is not perceived by those who do not know these things and therefore who do not reflect, for the reason that the natural mind is regenerated through the rational mind (see n. 3493), and this according to an order such that the good of the rational does not flow immediately into the good of the natural and regenerate it, but through the truth which is of the understanding, thus in appearance from the truth of the rational. These are the things treated of in this chapter in the internal sense; for “Isaac” is the rational mind as to the good which is of the will, “Rebekah” being the same with respect to the truth which is of the understanding; “Esau” is the good of the natural that comes forth from the good of the rational; and “Jacob” is the truth of the natural that comes forth from the good of the rational through the truth therein.

[3] From these things it may be seen what arcana are contained in the internal sense of the Word; but still there are very few which can be described to human apprehension; while those which transcend it, and cannot be described, are without limit; for in proportion as the Word penetrates more deeply, that is, more interiorly, into heaven, the more innumerable and ineffable the arcana become, not only to man, but also to the angels of the lower heaven; and when it reaches the inmost heaven, the angels there perceive that the arcana are infinite, and are altogether incomprehensible to them, because they are Divine. Such is the Word.

1815. He said unto him, I am Jehovah. That this signifies the Lord’s internal man, which is Jehovah, and from which He had perception, is evident from what has been already said, namely, that the Lord’s Internal, that is, whatever the Lord received from the Father, was Jehovah in Him, for He was conceived from Jehovah. What a man receives from his father is one thing, and what he receives from his mother is another. From his father a man receives all that is internal, his soul itself or life being from the father; but he receives from his mother all that is external. In a word, the interior man, or spirit itself, is from the father; but the outer man, or body itself, is from the mother; which everyone can comprehend merely from the fact that the soul itself is implanted by the father, and this begins to clothe itself in a little bodily form in the ovum. Whatever is afterwards added, whether in the ovum or in the womb, is of the mother, for it has no increase from anywhere else.

[2] It may be seen from this that as to His internals the Lord was Jehovah. But because the external, which the Lord received from the mother, was to be united to the Divine or Jehovah, and this through temptations and victories, as before said, it could not appear otherwise to Him in those states, than that when He spoke with Jehovah it was as it were with another; when yet He spoke with Himself, that is, so far as He was in a state of conjunction. The Lord’s perception, which He had in the highest perfection above all who have been born, was from His Internal, that is, from Jehovah Himself, which is here signified in the internal sense by the words, “Jehovah said unto him.”