2801. Verse 7. Isaac said unto Abraham his father; and he said, My father; and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood; and where is the lamb for a burnt-offering? “Isaac said unto Abraham his father; and he said, My father; and he said, Here am I, my son,” signifies a conference of the Lord from love—of the Divine Truth with the Divine Good; the Divine Truth is the “son,” and the Divine Good is the “father;” “and he said, Behold the fire and the wood,” signifies that love and righteousness are present; “where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?” signifies where are they of the human race who are to be sanctified?

2275. And he said, Oh let not my Lord be angry, and I will speak. That this signifies anxiety concerning the state of the human race, may be seen, not so much from the words, as from the affection that belongs to them. The internal sense of the Word contains within it two things, to wit, what is spiritual, and what is celestial. That which is spiritual consists in there being comprehended, abstractedly from the letter, actual things to which the literal sense serves as an object, just as do those things which the eye sees, when they serve as objects for suggesting thought about matters of a more exalted nature. That which is celestial consists in there being solely perceived the affection that belongs to the actual things that are in the internal sense. In the former are the spiritual angels, in the latter are the celestial angels. They who are in the latter, that is, in the affection, perceive at once from the affection alone what the letter involves when it is being read by man, and from it they form for themselves celestial ideas, and this with endless variety, and in an ineffable manner, in accordance with the onflowing harmony of the celestial things of love that are in the affection. From this we may see what the Word of the Lord contains within its remote recesses. When therefore these words are read: “Oh let not my Lord be angry, and I will speak,” the celestial angels at once perceive a certain anxiety, and indeed the anxiety of love toward the human race; and at the same time there are insinuated into them innumerable and ineffable things in regard to the anxiety of love which the Lord felt when He thought about the state of the human race.