71. Conjugial love makes man be love

Man is created to be love and consequently wisdom, since the Lord is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. It is by creation that man is an image and likeness of the Lord,Genesis 1:26-27; and this could not happen without true conjugial love. By this man's all can be turned into love, for in marriage either may love from the heart the body too, and thus dispose the soul and consequently everything to the form of love. This is not otherwise possible; the inmost and the outermost there make one and bring about that form, which is the form of heaven.

7223. 'Behold, the children of Israel have not heard me' means that those who are spiritual have not received the things which have been declared to them. This is clear from the representation of 'the children of Israel' as those who are spiritual, that is, those who belong to the Lord's spiritual Church, dealt with in 6426, 6637; and from the meaning of 'not hearing' as not receiving in faith and obedience, dealt with above in 7216. The fact that the things which have been declared to them are meant, that is, things regarding their deliverance, is self-evident.