3507. 'Rebekah was listening to Isaac while he spoke to [Esau] his son' means the affection for truth and the life from that affection. This is clear from the representation of 'Rebekah' as the Lord's Divine Rational as regards Divine Truth joined to Divine Good there, and so as the affection itself for truth; and from the meaning of 'listening to Isaac while he spoke' as the life from that affection. For in the internal sense 'listening to someone speaking' means influx, and it does so because in the representative sense 'listening to' means being obedient, 2542, and 'speaking' means willing and flowing in, 2626, 2952, 3037; so that in the highest sense 'listening to someone speaking' is the life from that affection, that is to say, the life of Divine Truth received from Divine Good. 'To his son' in the internal sense has reference to the good of the natural and from this to the truth of the natural. Being far removed from the sense of the letter, which is the historical sense, the meaning held within these words is scarcely apparent; but such a meaning is nevertheless present there.

[2] Indeed angelic ideas are not at all like human ideas. Angelic ideas are spiritual; and when they become more interior they are celestial, whereas human ideas are natural, and when formed from things that happened in history are sensory impressions. The Lord however has effected through the Word such a correspondence between spiritual things which belong to heaven and natural ones which belong to the world that natural ideas are converted in an instant into spiritual ones. Consequently heaven is joined to the world through mankind, and in particular through the Word, and so through the Church in which the Word is present. The fact that the correspondence of natural things and spiritual exists in every single thing that can be grasped and perceived mentally will in the Lord's Divine mercy be clear from what is to be stated from experience about the Grand Man at the ends of chapters below.

2542. 'And spoke all these words in their ears' means an exhortation made to confirmations from this source, even until they should become obedient. This becomes clear from the train of thought in the internal sense, and also from the meaning of 'ears'.

From the train of thought: There are many matters of a confirmatory nature that lend support to whatever the rational acknowledges; indeed its acknowledgement is due entirely to those confirmatory matters. This is why, when rational concepts are brought into a condition of obedience, an exhortation is made to things that confirm, for these are for ever at hand and so to speak rising up.

From the meaning of 'ears': 'Ears' in the internal sense of the Word means obedience because of the correspondence that exists between hearing and obeying. Furthermore, this correspondence lies hidden within the very word 'hearing', more so in 'hearkening'. This correspondence has its origin in the next life where those who are obedient and willing belong to the province of the ear. Indeed they correspond to the faculty of hearing itself, an arcanum unknown as yet. But these matters will be seen more easily when correspondence will be dealt with in the Lord's Divine mercy later on. The fact that 'ears' has this meaning becomes clear from very many places in the Word; but for the time being let only the following in Isaiah be quoted,

Make the heart of this people fat and their ears heavy, and plaster over their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and their heart understands. Isaiah 6:10.

Here 'seeing with the eyes' means understanding, and 'hearing with the ears' means perceiving with affection and therefore means obeying. And nothing else is meant when the Lord says,

He who has an ear to hear, let him hear. Matthew 11:15; 13:9, 43; Luke 8:8; 14:35.