709. The name Jehovah is used because now the subject is charity. From verse 9 to the end of the previous chapter Jehovah is not used but God, the reason being that there the subject is the preparation of Noah, or the member of the Church called Noah, as regards things of his understanding, which are matters of faith. Here however it is the preparation of him as regards the things of his will, which are matters of love. When the subject is the things of the understanding, that is, the truths of faith, the name God is used, but when it is those of the will, that is, goods stemming from love, Jehovah is used. For it is not things of the understanding, that is, of faith, that constitute the Church but those of the will which are matters of love. Jehovah is present within love and charity, but not within faith except faith that inheres in love or charity. This also is why in the Word faith is compared to the night, but love to the daytime, as in Genesis 1 where the great lights are mentioned; the greater light, which is the sun and means love, has dominion over the day, while the lesser light, which is the moon and means faith, has dominion over the night, Genesis 1:14, 16. Similarly in the Prophets, Jeremiah 31:35; 33:20; Psalms 136:8-9; also Revelation 8:12.

6098. 'And they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers' means that it did not come up to their state of life. ¹ This is clear from the meaning of 'attaining to' here as coming up to, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'the days' and 'the years of life' as states of spiritual life, as above in 6093, 6095, 6097. The reason 'attaining to' here means coming up to is that his fathers Isaac and Abraham represented higher, that is, more internal, things than he. 'Abraham' in the highest sense represented the Lord's Divine itself, 'Isaac' the Lord's Divine Rational, and 'Jacob' His Divine Natural. For the representation of 'Abraham' as the Lord's Divine itself, see 1965, 1989, 2011, 7245, 7251, 3305 (end), 3439, 3703, 4615; for the representation of 'Isaac' as the Divine Rational, 1893, 2066, 2072, 2083, 2630, 2774, 3012, 3194, 3210, 4615; and for the representation of 'Jacob' as the Divine Natural in respect of truth and in respect of good, 3305, 3509, 3525, 3546, 3576, 3599, 4286, 4538, 4570, 4615. That being so, 'Abraham' also represents the celestial degree with man, 'Isaac' the spiritual degree, and 'Jacob' the natural, for the reason that the regeneration of man is an image of the Glorification of the Lord, 3138, 3212, 3296, 3490, 4402, 5688. From all this one may now see that 'they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers' means that it did not come up to their state of life.

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