10442. 'Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants' means for heaven and the Church's sake. This is clear from the meaning of 'Abraham, Isaac, and Israel' as the Lord's Divine Human, thus that which is Divine and His in heaven and in the Church; and since that which is Divine and the Lord's composes heaven and the Church, the same three also mean heaven and the Church. For 'Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob' in the Word, that these things are meant by them, see 1965, 3305(end), 4615, 6098, 6185, 6276, 6589, 6804, 6847, and also by 'Israel', 4286, 4570, and in the places referred to in 8805, 9340. The fact that such things are meant by 'Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob' is clear from the Lord's words in Matthew,

I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 8:11.

Here 'reclining with them' means being in heaven where the Lord is. This is also evident from the consideration that names do not pass into heaven but the heavenly and Divine realities meant by them, 10216, 10282.

5551. 'In sorrow to the grave' means without hope of a restoration to life. This is clear from the meaning of 'sorrow' here as without hope, for sorrow comes when no hope exists any longer; and from the meaning of 'the grave' as resurrection and regeneration, dealt with in 2916, 2917, 3256, 4621, and so a restoration - a restoration of the Church - to life. For if neither the internal represented by 'Joseph' is present within the Church, nor the intermediary represented by 'Benjamin', nor faith in the will, which is charity, represented by 'Simeon', no hope of its restoration to life exists any longer.

[2] It does indeed seem strange that 'the grave' means a restoration to life; but that strangeness is due to man's idea about the grave. He makes no distinction between the grave and death, nor even between the grave and the corpse lying in it. But angels in heaven cannot have any such idea about the grave; theirs is an entirely different one from man's, namely the idea of resurrection and restoration to life. For when a person's corpse is committed to the grave he himself is raised into the next life. When thinking about the grave therefore the angels have no idea of death, only of life and consequently of a restoration to life.