2775. 'And get you to the land of Moriah' means a place and state of temptation. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'the land of Moriah'. It is evident that 'the land of Moriah' means a place of temptation from the fact that Abraham was commanded to go there and to offer his son there as a burnt offering, and in doing this to undergo the utmost degree of temptation. The fact that Jerusalem where the Lord Himself bore the utmost degree of temptation was situated in the land of Moriah becomes clear from the consideration that David built an altar, and subsequently Solomon the Temple, on Mount Moriah, as is evident from the Book of Chronicles,

Solomon began to build the house of Jehovah in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, which had been shown to David his father in the place which David had prepared at the threshing-floor of Ornan (Araunah) the Jebusite. 2 Chronicles 3:1. (Compare 1 Chronicles 21:16-28 with 2 Samuel 24:16-25.)

From this it may become quite clear that these details which are stated regarding the sacrifice of Isaac are representative of the Lord, otherwise everything could have taken place where Abraham was staying at the time and he would not have been commanded to make a journey from there lasting nearly three days.

1053. That 'and the bow will be in the cloud' means the state of that man is clear from what has been stated and shown already about the bow in the cloud, that is to say, in the next life a person or soul is known among angels from his sphere; and as often as it pleases the Lord that sphere is represented by means of colours like those of the rainbow, variously according to each person's state as to faith in the Lord and thus respectively as to goods and truths of faith. In the next life colours present themselves to view, which on account of their brilliance and splendour are immensely superior in beauty to colours seen with the eyes on earth. Each colour represents something celestial or spiritual.

[2] Those colours derive from the light in heaven, and from the variegation of spiritual light, as stated above. Indeed angels live in light so bright that the light of the world is in comparison no light at all. The light of heaven in which angels live, compared with the light of the world, is as the light of the sun at midday to the light of a candle that is put out and ceases to give any light at all when the sun rises. In heaven there is celestial light and there is spiritual light. Let me compare the two by saying that celestial light is as the light of the sun, while spiritual light is as the light of the moon. But all manner of variation exists depending on the state of the angel receiving the light. The same applies to colours since they are a product of the light. In the heaven of celestial angels the Lord Himself is the Sun, and in the heaven of spiritual angels the Moon. To people who have no conception of the life which souls lead after death these matters are unbelievable. They are nevertheless completely true.