4580. 'Jacob set up a pillar in the place where He talked to him, a stone pillar' means the holiness of truth within that Divine state. This is clear from the meaning of 'a pillar' as the holiness of truth, dealt with below, and from the meaning of 'in the place where He talked to him' as within that state, dealt with just above in 4578.

First, let something be said about the origin of erecting pillars in those times, of pouring out drink-offerings onto them, and of pouring wine onto them.

[2] The pillars which were erected in ancient times were set up to serve either as a sign, or as a witness, or for worship. Those set up for worship used to be anointed with oil and were thereby made holy; and in these places, people also held their worship - in temples, in groves, under trees in forests, and in other places. This practice of erecting pillars owed its representative nature to the fact that in most ancient times stones were set up on the boundaries between families of nations, to stop them crossing those boundaries to do one another any harm, as with the pillar set up by Laban and Jacob, Genesis 31:51. Not crossing them to do harm was the law of nations among those people. And because those stones were on the boundaries, whenever the most ancient people saw them as boundary stones they thought of the truths which exist in the ultimate degree of order; for those people saw in every object on earth the spiritual or celestial reality to which it corresponded. Their descendants however, who saw less of what was spiritual and celestial within the same objects and more of what was worldly, began to regard these in a holy way merely because they were objects venerated from of old. At length those descendants of the most ancient people who lived immediately before the Flood, and who no longer saw anything spiritual or celestial in earthly and worldly things as objects, began to make the actual stones holy, pouring out drink-offerings onto them and anointing them with oil. These were now called pillars and were used for worship. The position remained the same after the Flood - in the Ancient Church which was a representative Church - though with this difference, that pillars served these people as a means enabling them to offer internal worship. For infants and children were taught by parents what those pillars represented, and in this way they were led to know holy objects and to have an affection for the things which these represented. This explains why the ancients had pillars for worship in their temples, groves, and forests, also on hills and mountains.

[3] But once the internal existence of worship had perished completely in the Ancient Church and people began to regard external objects as being holy and Divine and in so doing began to worship those objects in an idolatrous manner, they erected pillars to particular deities. And because the descendants of Jacob were very inclined towards idolatrous practices, they were forbidden to erect pillars or have groves. They were not even allowed to offer any worship on mountains or hillsides, but were required to meet in one particular place - where the Ark was, and later on where the Temple stood, thus in Jerusalem. Otherwise each family would have had its own external objects and idols which it would have worshipped, and so no representative of the Church could have been established among that nation. See what has been shown already about pillars in 3727.

From all this one may see how the erecting of pillars originated, and what they were signs of, and that when they were used for worship, holy truth was represented by them, for which reason the expression 'a stone pillar' is also used, 'stone' meaning truth in the ultimate degree of order, 1298, 3720, 3769, 3771, 3773, 3789, 3798. It should be recognized in addition that holiness is a particular attribute of Divine Truth, for Divine Good exists within the Lord, while Divine Truth proceeds from that Good, 3704, 4577, and is called holiness.

2523. 'She is my sister' means that it was the rational which ought to be consulted, that is to say, He thought that such a consultation should take place. This is clear from the meaning of 'a sister' in this chapter as rational truth, dealt with in 1495, 2508. In the internal sense of the Word the Lord's entire life is described, as it was going to be when He was in the world, even as to His perceptions and thoughts. For these things had been foreseen and provided, since they were from the Divine. A further reason for this provision of them in the internal sense was so that the things of the Lord's life in the world might be manifested as present realities to the angels, who perceive the Word according to its internal sense. In this way the Lord was placed before them, and at the same time the manner in which He gradually cast off the human and put on the Divine. Unless these things had been manifested to the angels as present realities by means of the Word, and also by means of all the religious observances of the Jewish Church, it would have been necessary for the Lord to come into the world immediately after the fall of the Most Ancient Church, which is called 'Man' or Adam; for the Lord's Advent was foretold immediately the Fall took place, Genesis 3:15. And what is more, the human race existing at that time could not otherwise have been saved.

[2] As regards the Lord's life itself, it was a life in which the Human was constantly advancing towards the Divine, even to complete union, as stated many times already. For to fight the hells and overcome them He had to do so from the Human, since no conflict with the hells takes place from the Divine. That being so, He was pleased to put on the human as any other person; to be a small child as any other; to grow in knowledge and cognitions which were represented and meant by Abraham's sojourning in Egypt, Chapter 12, and now in Gerar. Thus He was pleased to develop the rational like any other person and to dispel the shadow enveloping it and to bring it into light, and to do so from His own power. That the Lord advanced in this manner from the Human to the Divine, no one can be in any doubt if he merely considers the fact that He was a small child, and learned to talk as any small child does, and so on. But there was this difference, that the Divine itself dwelt within Him because He had been conceived from Jehovah.