10442. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel Thy servants. That this signifies for the sake of heaven and the church, is evident from the signification of “Abraham, Isaac, and Israel,” as being the Lord in respect to the Divine Human, thus to His Divine in heaven and in the church. And as the Divine of the Lord makes heaven and the church, therefore by these names are also signified heaven and the church. (That these things are signified in the Word by “Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” see n. 1965, 3305, 4615, 6098, 6185, 6276, 6589, 6804, 6847; and likewise by “Israel,” n. 4286, 4570, and at the places cited in n. 8805, 9340.) That such things are signified by “Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” is evident from the Lord’s words in Matthew:

I say unto you that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of the heavens (Matthew 8:11); where “to recline with them” denotes to be in heaven where the Lord is. That such is the signification is evident also from the fact that names do not enter heaven, but the heavenly and Divine things which are signified by them (n. 10216, 10282).

1965. This then is the internal sense of the things contained in this chapter concerning Abram, Hagar, and Ishmael. But how copious this sense is, that is, what illimitable things it contains, may be seen from the mere consideration that as in the internal sense all things in the Word both in general and in particular regard the Lord, and treat of the Lord-for the life of the Word, because the Word itself, is from this-they also, in the internal sense, treat at the same time of His kingdom in the heavens, and of His kingdom on earth, which is the church; and in the same way they treat of everyone in whom is the Lord’s kingdom; and besides this they treat in general of all that is celestial and spiritual, for all these are from the Lord. Hence it is that by Abram is also represented the celestial church, the celestial man, and the celestial itself, and so on. But to extend the explication to all these would make it too tedious.