3235. 'Abraham took another wife' means a further state which the Lord, whom Abraham represents, passed through - for 'Abraham and Sarah' represented the Lord as regards the Divine Celestial, 'Abraham and Keturah' the Lord as regards the Divine Spiritual. This is clear from what has been stated and shown so far about Abraham and his wife Sarah, and from what is recorded here about Abraham and Keturah. But as it is said that Abraham here represents a further state which the Lord passed through, and that Abraham and Sarah represented the Lord as regards the Divine Celestial, whereas Abraham and Keturah did so as regards the Divine Spiritual, one needs to know what is meant by the Divine Celestial and by the Divine Spiritual. The Divine Celestial and the Divine Spiritual have to do with those people who receive the Lord's Divine, for the Lord is seen by everyone according to the character of the recipient, as becomes clear from what has been stated in 1838, 1861, and is quite evident from the fact that the Lord appears to celestial people in one way but to spiritual in another. For He appears as the sun to those who are celestial, but as the moon to those who are spiritual, 1529-1531, 1838. The Lord appears to celestial people as the sun because in them celestial love, which is love to the Lord, is present, but to spiritual people as the moon because in these spiritual love, which is charity towards the neighbour, is present. The difference is like that between the light of the sun during the daytime and the light of the moon at night, and also between the warmth of both which causes things in the ground to grow. These are what were meant in Genesis 1 by the words,

And God made the two great Lights, the greater Light to have dominion over the day, and the lesser Light to have dominion over the night. Genesis 1:16.

[2] The Lord's kingdom is in general celestial and spiritual, that is, it consists of those who are celestial and of those who are spiritual. And because the Lord's Divine appears to those who are celestial as being celestial, but to those who are spiritual as being spiritual, it is therefore said that Abraham and Sarah represented the Lord as regards the Divine Celestial, but Abraham and Keturah as regards the Divine Spiritual. But as scarcely anyone knows what the celestial is or what the spiritual, and who they are who are celestial or spiritual, please see what has been stated and shown about them already in the following places:

What the celestial is and what the spiritual, 1155, 1577, 1824, 2048, 2184, 2227, 2507.

Who celestial people are and who spiritual, 2088, 2669, 2708, 2715.

The celestial man is a likeness of the Lord and does good from love, whereas the spiritual man is an image of the Lord and does it from faith, 50-52, 1013.

Those who are celestial perceive truth from good and never indulge in reasoning about it, 202, 337, 607, 895, 1121, 2715.

With the celestial man good is implanted in the will part of his mind, but with the spiritual man in the understanding part, within which, in the case of those who are spiritual, a new will is created, 863, 875, 895, 897, 927, 1023, 1043, 1044, 2256.

From good itself those who are celestial see things without limit, but those who are spiritual, because they reason whether a thing is so, cannot reach even the furthest limit to which the light that the celestial have spreads, 2718.

Compared with those who are celestial those who are spiritual dwell in obscurity, 1043, 2708, 2715.

The Lord came into the world to save those who are spiritual, 2661, 2716, 2833, 2834.

3803. 'Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's brother' means the kinship of the good represented by 'Jacob' and of the good represented by 'Laban'. This is clear from the meaning of 'telling' as making known; from the representation of 'Jacob' as good, dealt with already; from the representation of 'Rachel', to whom it was made known, as the affection for interior truth, dealt with in 3793; from the meaning of 'brother', who in this place is Jacob, as good, dealt with in 367, 2360, 3303, 3459; and from the meaning of 'father', who in this place is Laban, as good also, dealt with in 3703. From these meanings and from the train of thought it is evident that 'Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's brother' means the kinship of the good meant by 'Jacob' and of the good meant by 'Laban'. To explain the actual kinship however and so the joining together of the two through the affection for interior truth meant by 'Rachel' would only throw the matter into obscurity, for few know what the good of the natural is and that this is distinct and separate from the good of the rational. Neither do they know what a parallel good springing from a common stock is, nor also what the affection for interior truth is. Anyone who has not by finding out for himself gathered some idea of these matters gains merely a superficial idea, if any at all, from a description of them; for a person takes in only as much of a description given by others as fits in with ideas of his own or else which he acquires by coming to see the thing in himself. All else passes him by. It is enough if one knows that countless kinships of good and truth exist, and that heavenly communities exist in accordance with those kinships, 685, 917, 2739, 3612.

[2] The reason why Jacob calls himself Laban's brother when he was in fact his sister's son is that by virtue of good all are brothers. This also is why Laban in turn calls Jacob 'brother' in verse 15. For it is good that constitutes blood-relationship and which effects any joining together, since good is an attribute of love, and love is a spiritual joining together. This also was the reason why in the ancient Churches all who were governed by good were called brothers. The same happened in the Jewish Church, but because that Church despised everybody else and imagined that they alone were the elect it spoke only of those who had been born Jews as brothers. The rest it called companions or foreigners. The primitive Christian Church also referred to as brothers all who were governed by good, but later on it confined the term to those inside its own group. But the name brother disappeared from among Christians when good did so. And when truth took the place of good, or faith the place of charity, none was able any longer to call another brother by virtue of good, only neighbour. This is also a feature of the doctrine of faith when devoid of the life of charity, in that it seems to be beneath them to exist as a brotherhood when this includes any of lower rank than themselves. For being brothers in their case does not have its origin in the Lord, and therefore in good, but in themselves, and therefore in position and gain.

[3803a] 'And that he was Rebekah's son' means the link between these kindred varieties of good. This becomes clear without explanation, for Rebekah, who was Jacob's mother and Laban's sister, was the one in whom the link existed.