When the Bible speaks of "Jehovah," it is representing love itself, the inmost love that is the essence of the Lord. That divine love is one, whole and complete in itself, and Jehovah also is one, a name applied only to the Lord. The divine love expresses itself in the form of wisdom. Love, then, is the essence of God -- His inmost. Wisdom -- the loving understanding of how to put love into action -- is slightly more external, giving love a way to express itself. Wisdom, however, is expressed in a great variety of thoughts and ideas, what the Writings collectively call divine truth. There are also many imaginary gods, and sometimes angels and people can be called gods (the Lord said Moses would be as a god to Aaron). So when the Bible calls the Lord "God," it is in most cases referring to divine truth. In other cases, "God" has reference to what is called the divine human. The case there is this: As human beings, we cannot engage the Lord directly as divine love. It is too powerful and too pure. Instead, we have to approach Him by understanding Him through divine truth. Divine truth, then, is the Lord in human form, a form we can approach and understand. Thus "God" is also used in reference to this human aspect, because it is an expression of truth.

10024. 'And you shall slaughter the young bull before Jehovah' means preparation for the purification of goodness and truth from God in the external or natural man. This is clear from the meaning of 'slaughtering', when the living creatures that were offered as a burnt offering or as a sacrifice are the subject, as preparation for the things that were represented by burnt offerings and sacrifices, those things being purification from evils and falsities, the implantation of goodness and truth, and the joining together of them, see above in 10022 (and since these things come from God the words 'before Jehovah' are used); and from the meaning of 'the young bull' as purification of the external or natural man, dealt with above in 9990. This explains why in the Word, when 'slaughtering' is mentioned in connection with burnt offerings and sacrifices, everything that an actual burnt offering or sacrifice represented is meant, because it then encompasses all those things.