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).

6589. And will make you go up out of this land unto the land which He sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. That this signifies that they will come to the state of the church in which the ancients were, is evident from the signification of the “land of Egypt,” from which they were to “go up,” as being the vastated church, which was represented by the Egyptians oppressing the sons of Israel; and its destruction, by their being overwhelmed in the sea Suph; and from the signification of the “land of Canaan,” to which the sons of Israel were to “go up,” as being the Lord’s kingdom and church (see n. 1607, 3038, 3481, 3705, 4447, 4517).

[2] That this is the Ancient Church, or the state of the church in which were the ancients, is signified by its being designated as the “land which God sware to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob;” for by these in the supreme sense is meant the Lord, and in the representative sense His kingdom in the heavens, and His kingdom on the earth, which is the church (see n. 1965, 1989, 2011, 3245, 3305, 6098, 6185, 6276). Thus “to swear to give the land to them,” is to confirm that they shall come to the state of the church in which the ancients were. Not that the posterity of Jacob were to come thereto, for they could not come to the state of that church, but only to its external, namely, to representatives, and scarcely to these; but that they should come thereto who are signified by the “sons of Israel,” who are all those who are of the spiritual church, both those who then had been, and those who were to come. (That “to swear” denotes to confirm from the Divine, may be seen, n. 2842, 3375.) The reason why the land of Canaan was promised and given to the descendants of Jacob, was that they might represent the church; and this because from ancient times the church had been in that land, and at that time all the places in it were named and made representative (n. 3686, 4447, 4516, 4517, 5135, 6516).