2625. 'At the appointed time' means when the Rational was such that it was receptive. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'time'. There are two things which appear to be indispensable while a person lives in the world because they exist as essential elements of the natural order - those two things being space and time. Living in the world or natural order therefore is living in space and time. But these two cease to have any existence in the next life. They do, it is true, appear to exist to some extent in the world of spirits, the reason for this being that spirits recently arrived from life in the body bring with them mental pictures of natural things. But subsequently they perceive that space and time do not exist in that life but states instead, and that states in the next life correspond to extensions of space and of time within the natural order - states in respect to Being corresponding to those of space, and in respect to Manifestation to those of time. Regarding space or place, see 1274, 1379, 1380, 1382.

[2] From this anyone may see what kind of mental pictures a person is able to have while in the world or natural order regarding things which belong to the next life and about many arcana of faith. He may see that such a person is unwilling to believe those things unless he can take them in by means of objects that exist in the world, indeed by sensory evidence. For he cannot do other than suppose that if he were to divest himself of his mental pictures that have been formed from space and time, more so to divest himself of space and time themselves, he would cease to be anything at all and so would have nothing left to him from which he could perceive with his senses or have thoughts of anything apart from that which was unintelligible to him. But in actual fact quite the reverse is the case: the life of angels is such that it is the wisest and happiest of all.

[3] This is the reason why people's ages mentioned in the Word do not in the internal sense mean ages but states, so that in this verse 'old age' does not mean old age. Nor does any number mean a number but some specific state, as in the case of 'a hundred years' mentioned further on. From this it now becomes clear that 'the appointed time' means the state when the rational was such that it was receptive.

[4] As regards the specific teaching presented here - that the Divine Rational received being and was given manifestation from the Lord's Divine spiritual united to His Divine celestial, when the days had been completed for him to cast off the human and when the Rational was such that it was receptive (meant in the internal sense by 'Sarah conceived and bore to Abraham a son in his old age, at the appointed time') - the following needs to be known:

The human has its beginnings in the inmost part of the rational, see 2106, 2194. The Lord advanced gradually towards the union of the Human Essence with the Divine Essence, and of the Divine Essence with the Human Essence, 1864, 2033, 2523.

He did so by His own power, 1921, 2025, 2026, 2083, through continuing temptations and repeated victories, 1690, 1737, 1813, and through receiving revelations repeatedly from His own Divine, 1616, 2500, till at length He cast out the whole human from the mother, 1414, 1444, 2574.

And in this way He made His Human - as to the Rational - Divine, as taught by the things that occur in this verse.

From all this it is evident how the explanation 'when the days had been completed for Him to cast off the human and when the Rational was such that it was receptive' is to be understood.

[5] Some idea of this matter may be had from what happens to people who are being regenerated. The celestial things of love, and the spiritual things of faith, are instilled into them by the Lord not all at once but gradually; and when by means of those things a person's rational has become such that it is able to be receptive, he is for the first time becoming regenerate, mostly by means of temptations in which he overcomes. While these experiences are taking place the days are being completed to cast off the old man and put on the new. Regarding man's regeneration, see 677, 679, 711, 848, 986, 1555, 2475.

1921. 'Do to her what is good in your eyes' means complete control over. This is clear without explanation. In the internal sense these words represent and mean that by His own power the Lord overcame, subdued, and cast out the evil which from what was hereditary had wormed itself also into this first rational, for, as has been stated, the rational was conceived from the Internal Man, which was Jehovah, as a father, and born from the exterior as a mother. Whatever was born from the exterior man possessed this hereditary element within it, thus evil as well. This was what the Lord overcame, subdued, and cast out by His own power and at length made Divine. The fact that He did so by His own power is clear from every single detail in this verse - the comment, 'Your servant-girl is in your hand' which means that He had this rational under His controlling power, followed next by 'so to her what is good in your eyes' which means complete control over it; and immediately after that 'Sarai humiliated her' which means subjection.

[2] These things were said to Sarai, who represents intellectual truth which the Lord Himself had and was the source from which He thought, as stated above in 1904, 1914, and from this truth He had complete control over the rational and also over the natural that was part of the exterior man. Anyone who thinks from intellectual truth and perceives from Divine good - which good was also His because it was the Father's, for He had no other soul - cannot do other than act from the power that is his own. Since therefore by His own power He tamed and cast out the evil present by heredity, it was by His own power as well that He united the Human Essence to the Divine Essence - the one being a consequence of the other.

[3] One who is conceived from Jehovah has no other Internal, that is, has none but Jehovah as his soul; for that reason He was as regards His very life itself Jehovah Himself. Jehovah, or the Divine Essence, cannot be divided in the way a human father's soul from which a child is conceived can be divided. To the extent the offspring moves away from the likeness of its father it moves away from the father himself, more and more so as it grows older. This is why a father's love for his children diminishes as they grow older. In the Lord's case it was different. As He grew older He did not so move away as regards the Human Essence but constantly drew closer until perfect union was achieved. From this it is clear that He is identical with Jehovah the Father, as He Himself also plainly teaches in John 14:6, 8-11.