3161. 'Behold, Rebekah is before you; take her and go, and let her be your master's son's wife, as Jehovah has spoken' means consent inspired from the Lord. This too could be shown by an explanation of all the individual words, the general import of these in the internal sense being the meaning that has just been stated. The implications are as follows: When the Lord lived in the world He made the Human within Himself Divine by His own power, the human with everyone having its beginnings in the inmost part of the rational, 2106, 2194. This verse describes how He made it Divine, that is to say, already so as of good and of truth. The good there came from His essential Divinity, that is, from Jehovah the Father from whom He had been conceived; but the truth there had to be acquired by the ordinary way, as with every other human being.

[2] It is well known that nobody is born rational but merely into the ability to become so, and that he becomes rational by means of factual knowledge, that is to say, by means of cognitions which divide up into many genera and species, the first of which are the means leading on to those next to them, and so on in order to the last of all which are cognitions of the spiritual things of the Lord's kingdom and are called matters of doctrine. These latter cognitions are learned in part from the doctrine of faith, in part directly from the Word, and in part therefore by a person's own efforts, as is also well known. As long as these matters of doctrine remain solely in the memory they are merely factual truths and have not as yet been made over to the individual as his own. They first become made over to him when he starts to love them for the sake of life, and more so when he applies them to life. When this happens truths are raised up from the natural memory into the rational part of the mind and are there joined to good. And when they have been joined they are no longer matters of knowledge but of life, for in that case a person is no longer learning from truths how to live but actually living by them. In this way truths come to be his own and become matters of the will. He accordingly enters the heavenly marriage, for the heavenly marriage consists in good and truth joined together in the rational. With men these things are accomplished by the Lord.

[3] But in Himself the Lord did this by Himself, unaided. From the Divine itself He not only begot the Rational as regards Good, but also through this the Natural as regards Truth, which He joined to Good. For it is good that chooses truth for itself and also gives form to it, for good acknowledges nothing else as truth but that which is compatible with it. Thus Divine good that was the Lord's moulded Truth for itself. Nor did it acknowledge as Truth anything else than that which would be compatible with Divine Good, that is, which would be Divine of Itself. Thus He achieved every single thing by His own power. These are the things that are meant by 'acknowledgement that it was the Lord's alone' and by 'consent inspired from the Lord'.

2385. 'And these strove to find the door (janua)' means to the point at which they were unable to see any truth that would lead to good. This is clear from the meaning of 'a door' as something that introduces or affords access, and as truth itself since the latter leads the way to good, dealt with above in 2356. In this verse however 'the door' means cognitions which lead the way to truth, for 'the door (janua)', as stated above in 2356, was on the outside of the house, for it is said in verse 6 that 'Lot went out to the door (janua) and closed the door (ostia) behind him'. 'Striving to find the door' therefore means not seeing any truth that would lead to good.

[2] Such do those people become, especially in the last times, who by reasoning hatch matters of doctrine and believe nothing unless they grasp it mentally beforehand. In this case the life of evil is constantly flowing into the rational part of their mind, and an illusory kind of light obtained from the fire of affections for evil pours in and causes men to see falsities as truths, like people who are in the habit of seeing phantoms in the shades of night. Those same things are after that confirmed in a multitude of ways and made matters of doctrine, as is the case with those who assert that life, which constitutes one's affection, does not achieve anything, but only faith, which constitutes thought.

[3] Once any assumption is adopted, even if falsity itself, it can be confirmed in countless ways and so be presented to outward appearance as though it were the truth itself, as anyone may well know. This is how heresies arise from which there is no going back once they have been confirmed. But from a false assumption nothing other than falsities can flow; and even if truths are introduced among them, these nevertheless become falsified truths when that false assumption is confirmed by means of them, for they are polluted by the very nature of the falsity.

[4] It is altogether different if truth itself is the assumption that is taken, and this is confirmed; for example, that love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour are that on which the whole law hangs and about which all the prophets speak, and so are the essentials of all doctrine and worship. In this case the mind would be enlightened by countless things in the Word which would otherwise lie hidden within the obscurity of a false assumption. Indeed in that case heresies would be dispelled and one Church would result from many, no matter how differing the doctrinal teachings and also religious practices might be flowing from that Church or leading into it.

[5] Of such a character was the Ancient Church which was spread throughout many kingdoms throughout Assyria, Mesopotamia, Syria, Ethiopia, Arabia, Libya, Egypt, Philistia up to Tyre and Sidon, and the land of Canaan on both sides of the Jordan. Among these peoples doctrinal teachings and religious practices differed from one to the next, but there was nevertheless one Church because with them charity was the essential thing. At that time the Lord's kingdom existed on earth as it is in heaven, for such is the character of heaven, see 684, 690. If the same situation existed now all would be governed by the Lord as though they were one person; for they would be like the members and organs of one body which, though dissimilar in form and function, still related to one heart on which every single thing, everywhere varied in form, depended. Everyone would then say of another, No matter what form his doctrine and his external worship take, this is my brother; I observe that he worships the Lord and is a good man.