664. And after three days and a half.- That this signifies when completed, thus the end of the old church, and the beginning of a new church, is evident from the signification of three days and a half, as denoting fulness or completion at the end of the old church, when there is the beginning of a new church, concerning which see above (n. 658). The reason why it is said, after three days and a half, is, that days, in the Word, signify states, here, the last state of the church. For all times, in the Word, as hours, days, weeks, months, years, and ages, signify states in the Word, as in this case, the last state of the church, when there is no longer any good of love or truth of faith remaining. Because days signify states, and since in the first chapter of Genesis the establishment of the Most Ancient Church is treated of which was accomplished successively from one state to another, therefore it is said there that there was evening and there was morning the first, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, and sixth days, unto the seventh, when it was completed (Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31), and the days there do not mean days, but the successive states of the regeneration of men at that time, and the consequent establishment of the church with them. So also elsewhere in the Word.

2618. 'And Jehovah did to Sarah' means a state when the two existed united together - the Lord's Divine spiritual within His Divine celestial. This is clear from the meaning of 'doing', when it has reference to the Lord's Divine, as the entire realization of the effect and consequently of the state; and from the meaning of 'Jehovah', and also of 'Sarah', dealt with just above in 2616. As regards the state when the two existed united together - the Lord's Divine spiritual within His Divine celestial - this is the marriage itself of good and truth, which is the origin of the heavenly marriage. The heavenly marriage is the Lord's kingdom in heaven and on earth, and that is why so many times in the Word the Lord's kingdom is called a marriage, and is compared to a marriage. The reason, which is an arcanum, is that the marriage of Divine Good and Truth, and of Divine Truth and Good, within the Lord is the source of all conjugial love, and through that love the source of all celestial and spiritual love. What further arcana are embodied in these words - 'Jehovah visited Sarah as He had said, and Jehovah did to Sarah as He had spoken' - cannot be made known as they lie beyond description. For these words comprehend the state itself when the Lord's Divine exists united to His Human. Appearances of this state are presented by the Lord to the eyes of the angels by means of heavenly lights, and are illustrated also by means of indescribable representations. But those appearances cannot be presented to men because they would have to be presented by means of objects such as belong to the light of the world, which objects cannot serve to express them. Indeed a description that relies on such things makes them all the more obscure.