404. Verse 14. And the heaven departed as a book rolled up, signifies that the spiritual man became closed up. This is evident from the signification of "heaven," as being the church in general and in particular; for the church is the heaven of the Lord on the earth; moreover, the church makes one with heaven by conjunction; therefore when "heaven and earth" are mentioned in the Word, the church internal and external is meant, for the internal of the men of the church is heaven with them, and their external is the world with them; and as "heaven and earth" signify the church internal and external so they signify the internal and external man, or the spiritual and the natural man; for as man in whom is the good of love and of faith is a church, so the church, in general exists from the men in whom the church is. This makes clear why it is that "heaven" here means the internal or spiritual man. It is said "the spiritual man," by which is meant the spiritual mind, which is the higher or interior mind of man, while the lower or exterior mind is called the natural man. The above is evident also from the signification of "departed as a book rolled up," as meaning that it became closed up; for the spiritual mind, which is, as was said, the higher or interior mind with man, is opened by truths applied to life, thus by goods, but it is closed up by falsities applied to life, thus by evils; and the closing up is as the rolling up of the scroll of a book. That this is so was made very clear by the appearances in the spiritual world when the Last Judgment was accomplished; for the mountains and the hills there then appeared sometimes to be rolled up as the scroll of a book is rolled up, and those that were upon them were then rolled down into hell. The cause of this appearance was this: that the interiors of their minds, through which somewhat of light from heaven had before flowed in, were then closed up. What takes place in general with many, takes place with everyone in particular of a like character, for in the spiritual world such as the general is, such is the particular (See in the work on Heaven and Hell 73). By "book" is meant a scroll, because in ancient times there were no types and thus no books like those at the present day, but there were scrolls of parchments; so "books" in Revelation mean scrolls, and "heaven departed as a book rolled up" means as a scroll rolled up; the same as in Isaiah:

All the host of the heavens shall waste away, and the heavens shall be rolled up as a book (Isaiah 34:4).

1988. 'Abram was a son of ninety-nine years' means the period of time before the Lord fully joined the Internal Man to the Rational Man. This is clear from the meaning of 'nine' when thought of as one less than ten, or what amounts to the same, of 'ninety-nine' when thought of as one less than a hundred; for when Isaac was born to him Abram was a hundred years old. The nature of the internal sense of the Word is made especially clear by the numbers that are used, as it is by the names. Any numbers whatever, as also any names, that are mentioned in the Word mean real things; for nothing ever exists in the Word that does not have that which is Divine within it, that is, which does not have an internal sense within it. How remote this sense is from the sense of the letter is especially evident from the names and numbers, for in heaven they pay no attention whatever to names and numbers but to things meant by the names or numbers. For example, whenever the number seven occurs, holiness instantly suggests itself to angels instead of the number seven, for 'seven' means holiness from the fact that the celestial man is the seventh day or the sabbath, and so the Lord's rest, 84-87, 395, 433, 716, 881. The same applies to all other numbers, for example, to the number twelve. Whenever twelve occurs the idea of everything belonging to faith suggests itself to angels, for the reason that the twelve tribes of Israel meant everything belonging to faith, 577. That numbers mean real things in the Word has been shown in Volume One; see 482, 487, 488, 493, 575, 647, 648, 755, 813, 893.

[2] It is similar with the number 'ninety-nine'. That this number means the period of time before the Lord fully joined the Internal Man to the Rational Man is clear from the meaning of 'a hundred years', Abram's age when Isaac was born to him, for Isaac represents and means the Lord's Rational Man which was joined to His Internal, that is, to the Divine. In the Word 'a hundred' has the same meaning as ten, for that number is the product of ten multiplied by ten, and 'ten' means remnants, as shown in Volume One, in 576. For what remnants residing with man are, see 468, 530, 561, 660, 1050, and for what remnants residing with the Lord were, 1906. These arcana cannot be explained any further, but anyone can find out for himself once he has acquainted himself with what remnants are - for nowadays what they are is not known - provided it is realized that by remnants residing with the Lord are meant the Divine Goods which He acquired to Himself by His own power, and by which He united the Human Essence to the Divine Essence.

[3] These considerations show what is meant by 'ninety-nine'. Being one less than a hundred, that number means the period of time before the Lord fully joined the Internal Man to the Rational Man. 'Ishmael' represented the first rational with the Lord, the nature of which has been shown adequately enough above in the previous chapter. But 'Isaac' represents the Lord's Divine Rational, as will be clear later on. Anyone may see that an arcanum is embodied within the following circumstance: Abram having remained such a long time in the land of Canaan - twenty-four years now, ten before Ishmael's birth, and thirteen after - and not as yet having had a son by Sarai his wife, he then first received the promise of a son, when he had now reached ninety-nine and would be a hundred when this son was born. The arcanum is that by means of these experiences he might represent the union of the Lord's Divine Essence with His Human Essence, and in fact of His Internal Man, which was Jehovah, with His Rational.