3161. 'Behold, Rebekah is before you; take her and go, and let her be your master's son's wife, as Jehovah has spoken' means consent inspired from the Lord. This too could be shown by an explanation of all the individual words, the general import of these in the internal sense being the meaning that has just been stated. The implications are as follows: When the Lord lived in the world He made the Human within Himself Divine by His own power, the human with everyone having its beginnings in the inmost part of the rational, 2106, 2194. This verse describes how He made it Divine, that is to say, already so as of good and of truth. The good there came from His essential Divinity, that is, from Jehovah the Father from whom He had been conceived; but the truth there had to be acquired by the ordinary way, as with every other human being.

[2] It is well known that nobody is born rational but merely into the ability to become so, and that he becomes rational by means of factual knowledge, that is to say, by means of cognitions which divide up into many genera and species, the first of which are the means leading on to those next to them, and so on in order to the last of all which are cognitions of the spiritual things of the Lord's kingdom and are called matters of doctrine. These latter cognitions are learned in part from the doctrine of faith, in part directly from the Word, and in part therefore by a person's own efforts, as is also well known. As long as these matters of doctrine remain solely in the memory they are merely factual truths and have not as yet been made over to the individual as his own. They first become made over to him when he starts to love them for the sake of life, and more so when he applies them to life. When this happens truths are raised up from the natural memory into the rational part of the mind and are there joined to good. And when they have been joined they are no longer matters of knowledge but of life, for in that case a person is no longer learning from truths how to live but actually living by them. In this way truths come to be his own and become matters of the will. He accordingly enters the heavenly marriage, for the heavenly marriage consists in good and truth joined together in the rational. With men these things are accomplished by the Lord.

[3] But in Himself the Lord did this by Himself, unaided. From the Divine itself He not only begot the Rational as regards Good, but also through this the Natural as regards Truth, which He joined to Good. For it is good that chooses truth for itself and also gives form to it, for good acknowledges nothing else as truth but that which is compatible with it. Thus Divine good that was the Lord's moulded Truth for itself. Nor did it acknowledge as Truth anything else than that which would be compatible with Divine Good, that is, which would be Divine of Itself. Thus He achieved every single thing by His own power. These are the things that are meant by 'acknowledgement that it was the Lord's alone' and by 'consent inspired from the Lord'.

2388. 'Whom have you here still? Son-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters, and everyone you have in the city - bring [them] out of the place' means that all with whom the good of charity exists, and everything belonging to that good, were to be saved; also those governed by the truth of faith, provided they drew back from evil. This is clear from the meaning of 'sons-in-law', 'sons', 'daughters', 'city', and 'place', which are dealt with in the paragraphs following this.

[2] As regards the salvation of those governed by the truth of faith provided they drew back from evil, the position is that truths of faith are the vessels themselves for receiving good, 1900, 2063, 2261, 2269, and they receive good insofar as the individual draws back from evil. For good is flowing in constantly from the Lord, but it is the evil belonging to the life within that prevents the reception of that good by the truths present in a person's memory or knowledge. Consequently insofar as a person draws back from evil good enters in and inserts itself within the truths he has. When this happens the truth of faith residing with him becomes the good of faith. A person can indeed know the truth, even profess it because some worldly reason prompts him to do so; in fact he can even be persuaded that it is the truth. But this truth still does not live so long as he leads a life of evil. Such a person is like a tree that has leaves on it but no fruit; and that truth is like light in which there is no warmth, like that in winter-time when nothing grows. When however there is warmth within it, it becomes like light in spring-time when everything is growing. In the Word truth is compared to and actually called the light, while love is compared to warmth and also called spiritual warmth. In the next life moreover truth manifests itself by means of light while good does so by means of warmth. But truth devoid of good manifests itself as cold light, while truth accompanied by good does so as spring-like light. This shows what the truth of faith is when devoid of the good of charity. Here too is the reason why his sons-in-law and his sons, who meant such truths, were not saved, only Lot together with his daughters.

[3] Since it is stated here that they also are saved who are governed by the truth of faith provided they draw back from evil, it should be recognized that these people are such - on account of their having been so taught - as profess faith but think nothing of charity. They do not know what charity is, imagining that it is purely a matter of giving away what is one's own to others and of taking pity on everyone. Nor do they know what the neighbour is, towards whom charity has to be exercised; they imagine that almost everybody without discrimination is the neighbour. Nevertheless these same people do lead a life of charity towards the neighbour since the life of good is present in them. They come to no harm because they profess faith along with the rest, since their faith has charity within it; for by charity is meant all goodness of life in general and in particular. What charity is therefore, and what the neighbour, will in Lord's Divine mercy be discussed later on.