3153. What these three verses contain in the internal sense is indeed evident from the explanation given, that is to say, that the things belonging to the natural man were prepared for their reception of Divine things, and that thus those truths meant by Rebekah which were to be introduced into and joined to the good of the rational became Divine, and that this was effected by influx. But the contents of these verses in the internal sense are such that they seem too obscure to be able to be understood, the more so as they are not known, unless the mind sees them in one overall mental picture. Too obscure to be understood, for example, is the manner in which truths are summoned from the natural man and introduced into good in the rational man when a person is being regenerated.

[2] At the present day these matters are so unknown to the majority that such people have no conception at all of any such thing taking place. The chief reason for this is that few at the present day are being regenerated, and even those who are do not know from doctrine that it is the good of charity into which the truth of faith is introduced and joined, or that this takes place in the rational. Nor do they know that when it takes place their state is completely altered, that is to say, their thought no longer runs from the truth of faith towards the good of charity, but from that good towards truth. With the Lord however it was not regeneration but glorification, that is, from Himself all things were made Divine, both those in the rational and those in the natural. How this was effected is described in the internal sense.

The heart means love. A good heart means love to the Lord and to the neighbor, while a hard or stony heart means the love of self or the world -- riches and things. When the psalmist asks the Lord to search his heart, he wants the Lord to see what it is that he loves. And we are what we love. What we eat may form our earthly body, but it's only temporary, what we love forms our spiritual body, beautiful or ugly as we have chosen. It's interesting to note that the first multi-cellular motion of our embryo is the pulsating that starts in a twist of blood vessel that is to become our heart, and the last motion of our natural body is our heartbeat. It is there for all of our natural life. And of course there is a beating heart in our spiritual bodies when we come to put them on.