29
Thou hast moreover multiplied thy fornication in the land of Canaan unto Chaldea; and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith.
Ezekiel 16:29
Husband
In general, men are driven by intellect and women by affections, and because of this men in the Bible generally represent knowledge and truth and women generally represent love and the desire for good. This generally carries over into marriage, where the man's growing knowledge and understanding and the woman's desire to be good and useful are a powerful combination. In many cases in the Bible, then, "husband" refers to things of truth and understanding, much as "man" does. Magnificent things can happen in a true marriage, though, when both partners are looking to the Lord. If a husband opens his heart to his wife, it's as though she can implant her loves inside him, transforming his intellectual urges into a love of growing wise. She in turn can grow in her love of that blooming wisdom, and use it for joy in their married life and in their caring for children and others in their life. Many couples, even in heaven, stay in that state -- called "Spiritual" -- growing deeper and deeper to eternity. There is the potential, though, for the couple to be transformed: through the nurturing love of his wife the husband can pass from a love of growing wise to an actual love of wisdom itself, and the wife can be transformed from the love of her husband's wisdom into the wisdom of that love -- the actual expression of the love of the Lord they have built together. In that state -- called "Celestial" -- the husband represents love and the desire for good, and the wife represents truth and knowledge.
Genesis 15:5-18
5
Yahweh brought him outside, and said, "Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." He said to Abram, "So shall your seed be."
6
He believed in Yahweh; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness.
7
He said to him, "I am Yahweh who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it."
8
He said, "Lord Yahweh, how will I know that I will inherit it?"
9
He said to him, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon."
10
He brought him all of these, and divided them in the middle, and laid each half opposite the other; but he didn't divide the birds.
11
The birds of prey came down on the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.
12
When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. Now terror and great darkness fell on him.
13
He said to Abram, "Know for sure that your seed will live as foreigners in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them. They will afflict them four hundred years.
14
I will also judge that nation, whom they will serve. Afterward they will come out with great wealth,
15
but you will go to your fathers in peace. You will be buried in a good old age.
16
In the fourth generation they will come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full."
17
It came to pass that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace, and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.
18
In that day Yahweh made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your seed I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:
