3203. 'And dropped down from upon the camel' means the separation of this affection from facts within the natural man, at the point when rational good was seen. This is clear from the meaning of 'dropped down' as being separated, and from the meaning of 'camels' as facts within the natural man, dealt with in 3048, 3071. That the separation took place when rational good, represented by Isaac, was seen is self-evident. What is meant by being separated from the natural man has been stated and shown above in 3161, 3175, 3182, 3188, 3190. There one may see that the affection for truth is separated from the natural man at the point when truth ceases to be merely something known and becomes a matter of life. For when it becomes a matter of life, then - through the person's habitual reliance on it - that truth permeates his whole being in the way that his innate disposition or character does. And when it permeates him in this way it flows so to speak spontaneously into action - without his thinking about any fact he has learned regarding that truth. Indeed when it becomes a matter of life, that truth can command those facts, drawing on innumerable ones as confirmations. The situation with all truth is that at its earliest stage it is merely something known, but as it develops with a person it becomes a matter of life. It is as it is with young children when they learn to walk, to talk, to think, and to use their intelligence and make sensible judgements. Once these activities - through habitual engagement in them - have become unpremeditated and so spontaneous, they disappear from among the facts they possess about how to do those things, because they are now instinctive.

[2] A similar situation also exists with the things that constitute the cognitions of spiritual good and truth among people whom the Lord is regenerating or causing to be born again. At first they are exactly like young children, in that at that time the spiritual truths which they possess exist as facts, for when matters of doctrine are learned and introduced into the memory they are nothing other than facts. But then the Lord summons those facts from the memory one after another and implants them in the person's life, that is, in good; for good is his life. Once this has happened a conversion so to speak takes place, that is to say, the person starts to act from good, that is, from life, and no longer from knowledge as he had done previously. Accordingly, anyone who is being born anew is like a young child in this respect; but they are matters to do with spiritual life that he absorbs, so that he does not act from doctrine, or truth, but from charity, or good. When this happens a state of blessedness begins with him and wisdom begins to exist with him. These considerations show what separation from facts within the natural man is, meant by Rebekah's dropping down from upon the camel, which she did before she knew that it was Isaac. These details, as anyone may see, embody arcana within them.

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'.