671. 'Pairs of all you shall cause to enter the ark to keep them alive means the regeneration of these. This becomes clear from what has been stated in the previous verse, to the effect that truths cannot be regenerated except by means of goods and delights. Nor therefore can things of faith be regenerated except through those of charity. Hence the statement here about pairs of all having to enter, clearly meaning that both truths, which belong to the understanding, and goods, which belong to the will, were to do so. With someone who has not yet been regenerated an understanding of truth and a will for good do not exist but merely appear to do so, and are referred to as such in everyday speech. It is possible for rational truths and for facts to exist with that person, but these have no life. It is also possible for goods which merely look like those of the will, such as those present with gentiles or even with animals, to exist there. But these have no life either; they are merely semblances. With man such things are in no sense alive until he has been regenerated and they have in this way been made alive by the Lord. In the next life what has life and what does not is perceived very distinctly. Truth that has no life is perceived instantly as something material, all tangled and closed up, while good that has no life is perceived as something wooden, bony, and stone-like. But truth or good made alive by the Lord is open, living, and full of what is spiritual and celestial - open even from the Lord Himself. This applies to every idea and action, even to the smallest of either of them. This is why the statement is here made about pairs having to enter the ark to keep them alive.

2033. 'You shall keep My covenant' means an even closer union. This is clear from the meaning of 'a covenant' as union and conjunction, dealt with already at verses 2, 4, 7, and in Volume One, in 665, 666, 1023, 1038. The further reference here to the covenant which has been mentioned so many times already denotes a closer union. In the historical sense which has to do with Abraham, nothing else may be said than that he was to keep the covenant; but in the internal sense, in which the Lord is the subject, the historical aspects disappear and things take their place which have to do with being united more closely. The union of the Lord's Human Essence with His Divine Essence was not accomplished all at once but gradually throughout the whole course of His life from early childhood to the end of His life in the world. Thus He was ascending continuously towards glorification, that is, towards union, which is what is stated in John,

Jesus said, Father, glorify Your name. A voice came from heaven, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. John 12:28.

See what has appeared already in 1690, 1864.