4387. 'And Esau returned on that day on his own way, to Seir' means the state at that time of Divine Natural Good to which the goods of truth had been linked. This is clear from the meaning of 'day' as state, dealt with in 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462 - hence 'he returned on that day' means the state which it assumed at that point; from the representation of 'Esau' as Divine Natural Good, dealt with above in 4340; from the meaning of 'way' as truth, dealt with in 627, 2333, in this case the good of truth, which is truth in will and action, 4337, 4353; and from the meaning of 'Seir' as the joining of truth to good, dealt with above in 4384. These different meanings when drawn together to give one overall sense show that the words used here mean the state at that time of Divine Natural Good to which the goods of truth had been linked.

[2] It is not at all apparent from the historical sense of these words that such ideas are meant by them. All the same, it is just these ideas that those words hold within them in the spiritual or internal sense. For heaven, which is within man - that is, the angels who reside with him - do not have the slightest interest in details to do with the history of the world. Neither do they know who or what Esau was, who or what Seir was. Nor do they have any thought of the day when Esau returned or of the way to Seir; instead they gather ideas of the spiritual things which correspond to those historical facts, instantly deriving such a spiritual meaning from them. For correspondences work in the following way: They are very much like a person talking in a foreign language to someone else who instantly understands what is meant as if in his own language, the sounds and pronunciation of the words actually used being no hindrance to him. So it is with the internal sense of the Word, which sense is in perfect agreement with the universal language which angels use, that is, with the spiritual speech which is expressive of their thought. Their speech is spiritual because their thought is a product of the light of heaven which shines from the Lord.

When the Bible speaks of "Jehovah," it is representing love itself, the inmost love that is the essence of the Lord. That divine love is one, whole and complete in itself, and Jehovah also is one, a name applied only to the Lord. The divine love expresses itself in the form of wisdom. Love, then, is the essence of God -- His inmost. Wisdom -- the loving understanding of how to put love into action -- is slightly more external, giving love a way to express itself. Wisdom, however, is expressed in a great variety of thoughts and ideas, what the Writings collectively call divine truth. There are also many imaginary gods, and sometimes angels and people can be called gods (the Lord said Moses would be as a god to Aaron). So when the Bible calls the Lord "God," it is in most cases referring to divine truth. In other cases, "God" has reference to what is called the divine human. The case there is this: As human beings, we cannot engage the Lord directly as divine love. It is too powerful and too pure. Instead, we have to approach Him by understanding Him through divine truth. Divine truth, then, is the Lord in human form, a form we can approach and understand. Thus "God" is also used in reference to this human aspect, because it is an expression of truth.