2767. It came to pass after these words. That this signifies after the things just accomplished, is evident without explication. The things which have been treated of are those respecting Abimelech and Abraham, that they made a covenant in Beersheba, and lastly that Abraham raised up a grove in Beersheba, by which was signified that human rational things were adjoined to the doctrine of faith, which is in itself Divine. Here now the Lord’s temptation as to the rational, which is signified by Isaac, is treated of; for by temptations the Lord made His Human Divine, and thus His rational, in which the human commences (n. 2106, 2194), by chastising and expelling all in the rational that was merely human, or the maternal human. This is the connection of the things of the preceding chapter with those in this chapter; whence it is said, “It came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham.”

2194. Behold, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. That this signifies the rational that was to be Divine, is evident from the signification of a “son” and of “Sarah,” and also of “Isaac” who should be born to her. Both “son” and “Sarah,” and also “Isaac,” signify that which is of the Lord’s rational. (That a “son” is truth may be seen above, n. 489, 491, 533, 1147; also that “Sarah” signifies rational truth, n. 2173; and that “Isaac” signifies the Divine rational, n. 1893, 2066, 2083.) The human with every man begins in the inmost of his rational (as before said, n. 2106); and so also the Lord’s Human: that which was above it was Jehovah Himself, differently from any other man whatever. As the human begins in the inmost of the rational, and as the Lord made all the Human that was with Himself Divine, He first made the rational itself so from its inmost, which, when made Divine is represented and signified (as before said) by “Isaac.”