287. We can also tell that love and wisdom are human by looking at heaven's angels, who are people in full beauty to the extent that they are caught up in love, and therefore in wisdom, from the Lord. The same conclusion follows from what it says in the Word about Adam's being created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26), because he was created in the form of love and wisdom.

All earthly individuals are born in the human form as to their physical bodies. This is because our spirit, which is also called our soul, is a person; and it is a person because it is receptive of love and wisdom from the Lord. To the extent that our spirit or soul actually accepts love and wisdom, we become human after the death of these material bodies that we are carrying around. To the extent that we do not accept love and wisdom we become grotesque creatures, retaining some trace of humanity because of our ability to accept them.

2275. That 'he said, Let not now my Lord be incensed, and I will speak' means deep concern over the state of the human race becomes clear not so much from the actual words as from the affection which these words have within them. The internal sense of the Word consists of two distinct elements - the spiritual and the celestial. The spiritual involves a discernment - abstractedly, apart from the letter - of subject matter or real things, the literal sense serving these as an object, in the same way as things seen with the eye may serve as objects of thought regarding more exalted matters. The celestial involves pure perception of the affection present within the real things which belong to the internal sense. That discernment of real things exists with spiritual angels, whereas this pure perception of that affection exists with celestial angels. The latter, that is, those who are percipients of the affection, perceive immediately, purely from the affection there, what the letter embodies within itself when this is being read by man. And from this they form celestial ideas for themselves, doing so with unending variety and in an indescribable fashion in accordance with the sequence and harmony of the celestial things of love comprising the affection. This shows what the Word of the Lord contains in its inner recesses. When these words are being read therefore, 'Let not now my Lord be incensed, and I will speak', celestial angels perceive immediately a certain deep concern, and indeed that deep concern that is a manifestation of love towards the human race. At the same time countless and indescribable aspects regarding the deep concern which the Lord felt when He thought about the state of the human race are instilled into them.