3667. And God Shaddai will bless thee. That this signifies the temptations of that truth and good through which there is conjunction, is evident from the signification of “God Shaddai,” as being temptations (concerning which signification in what follows); and from the signification of being “blessed,” as being conjunction (see n. 3504, 3514, 3530, 3565, 3584). Inasmuch as by Jacob is now represented the good of truth, as before shown (n. 3659), therefore that good and truth are here meant by “thee.” The reason why “God Shaddai” signifies temptations, is that in ancient times they distinguished the Supreme God (that is, the Lord) by various names, and this in accordance with His attributes, and in accordance with the goods which are from Him, and also in accordance with the truths, the multiplicity of which is a fact that is known to everyone. They who were of the Ancient Church by all these appellations understood only one God, namely, the Lord, whom they called Jehovah; but after the church had declined from good and truth, and at the same time from this wisdom, they began to worship as many gods as there were appellations of the one God; insomuch that every nation, and at last every family, acknowledged one of them for its own god; hence came the many gods of which mention is often made in the Word.

[2] The same thing took place in the family of Terah the father of Abraham, and also in the house of Abraham himself, who worshiped other gods (as may be seen above, n. 1356, 2559), and especially the God Shaddai (n. 1992). That the worship of this God remained in that house, is evident also from these words in Moses:

I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, in God Shaddai, but by My name Jehovah I was not known to them (Exodus 6:3).

This is the reason why it was said to Abraham: “I am God Shaddai; walk before Me, and be perfect” (Genesis 17:1); and why it is here said by Isaac to Jacob, “God Shaddai will bless thee.” That this is the case is also clearly evident from what follows in this chapter, in that after the Lord had said to Jacob in a dream, “I am Jehovah the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac” (verse 13), still Jacob afterwards said, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way wherein I walk, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, and I return in peace to my father’s house, then Jehovah shall be to me for God” (verses 20-21); from which it is evident that neither did the house of Jacob acknowledge Jehovah; but that Jacob would acknowledge Him as his God if He would be his benefactor-just as is the case at this day in Christian Gentilism.

[3] But as specifically regards God Shaddai, the Lord had been so called in the Ancient Church with respect to temptations and to blessings and benefits after temptations, as was shown in Second Part (n. 1992). This is the reason why by “God Shaddai” in the internal sense are signified temptations. That by temptations is effected a conjunction of good and truth, see what has already been stated and shown concerning temptations (n. 2819).

3599. And Isaac his father answered and said unto him. That this signifies perception concerning natural good, that it would be made Divine, is evident from the signification of Isaac, as being the Lord’s Divine rational as to the Divine good therein (n. 3012, 3194, 3210); and from the signification in the historicals of the Word of “saying,” as being to perceive, which has already been frequently treated of; and from the representation of Esau, to whom he spoke, as being natural good, concerning which also much has been already said. That it should be made Divine, is evident from the blessing, now to be considered. It was said above that Esau represents the Lord’s Divine natural as to Divine good, and Jacob His Divine natural as to Divine truth; but here, that Esau represents the natural good which was to be made Divine; and in what goes before, that Jacob represented the natural truth which also was to be made Divine. How the case herein is may be seen from what was said above (n. 3494, 3576); but that it may become still clearer, a few words shall be added.

[2] The natural good which Esau first represents is the natural good of the Lord’s infancy, which was Divine from the Father, but human from the mother; and insofar as it was from the mother it was imbued with hereditary evil; and being such, it could not be at once in an order capable of receiving the Divine that was inmostly within it; but had first to be reduced into order by the Lord. The case is the same with the truth represented by Jacob; for where there is good there must be truth in order for there to be anything; all that which is of thought, even with infants, is of truth, adjoined to the will part which is of good. Wherefore after the Lord had reduced the natural as to good and as to truth in Himself into order, so that it might receive the Divine, and that thus He Himself might inflow from His Divine, and after by successive steps He had expelled all the human that was from the mother; then Esau represents the Lord’s Divine natural as to good, and Jacob His Divine natural as to truth.

[3] But Esau and Jacob represent the Divine good and Divine truth of the Lord’s Divine natural as conjoined with each other like brothers, which Divine good and Divine truth considered in themselves are nothing else than one simultaneous power for the formation and reception of actual good and truth. This actual good and truth are treated of later. From all this it is evident what great arcana are contained in the internal sense of the Word, which arcana are such that not even their most general points fall into the understanding of man; as possibly may be the case with the things just stated; and how then can the innumerable particulars relating thereto do so? Yet are they well adapted to the understanding and apprehension of the angels, who concerning these and the like things receive from the Lord heavenly ideas illustrated by representatives of ineffable loveliness and bliss; from which some conception may be formed of the nature of angelic wisdom, yet remotely, because such things are in the shade of the human understanding.