2011. 'For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations' means here, as previously, that from Him comes all truth and resulting good. This is clear from the meaning of 'father' as that which comes from Him, from the meaning of 'multitude' as truth, and also from the meaning of 'nations' as resulting good, all dealt with above in 2005-2007. The fact that these same words mean in the more universal or more remote sense the union of the Human Essence with the Divine Essence, see above, in 2004. For the union of the Lord's Human Essence with the Divine Essence is as the union of truth with good, and the union of His Divine Essence with the Human Essence that of good with truth - which is reciprocal union. Indeed within the Lord it was truth itself that united itself to good, and good that united itself to truth, for the Infinite Divine cannot be called anything else than Good and Truth themselves. Consequently the human mind is not at all mistaken when it thinks of the Lord as Good itself and Truth itself.

2005. 'Father' means that which comes from Him. This is clear from the meaning of 'father', dealt with in what has just gone before, namely this: Whatever came from the Father came from the Lord as well since They were one. The human being in every case receives that which is internal from the father and that which is external from the mother; or what amounts to the same, the soul itself is from the father, the body which clothes the soul from the mother. Body and soul nevertheless make one, for the soul goes with the body, and body with soul, and are therefore inseparable. The Lord's Internal came from the Father and so was the Father Himself. Hence the Lord's declaration that 'the Father is within Him', that 'I am in the Father and the Father is in Me', He who sees Me sees the Father', 'I and the Father are one', as is clear from the places quoted above. In the Old Testament Word as well He is called Father, as in Isaiah,

To us a Boy is born, to us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder, and His name will be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, God, Hero, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6.

It is clear to anyone that 'the Boy' born to us, and 'the Son' given to us, is the Lord, who is named 'Father of Eternity'. In the same prophet,

You are our Father, for Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O Jehovah, are our Father, our Redeemer; from eternity is Your name. Isaiah 63:16.

Here also it is the Lord who is called 'Jehovah our Father', for there is no other Redeemer. In Malachi,

Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Malachi 2:10.

'Creating' stands for regenerating, as shown in Volume One, in 16, 88, 472. Furthermore throughout the Old Testament Word Jehovah is used to mean the Lord, for He it was that all the Church's religious ceremonies represented; and He it is to whom everything that the Word contains in the internal sense has reference.