8767. 'And keep My covenant' means thus leading a good life, and as a consequence being joined [to the Lord]. This is clear from the meaning of 'keeping the covenant' as leading a life in accordance with the commandments, thus a life governed by good, and so being joined to the Lord. The reason why 'keeping the covenant' means leading a life in accordance with the commandments, thus leading a good life, is that the stipulations of the covenant were all the things that had been commanded, which were called testimonies, judgements, laws, and statutes, in particular the Ten Commandments. All these were also called the covenant because it was established through them. The fact that keeping them is leading a life in accordance with them is evident from the meaning of 'keeping' in the Word. Many times it speaks of hearing the commandments and keeping them, and in those places 'hearing' means accepting them in faith, and 'keeping' accepting them in life, that is, leading a life in accordance with them. The reason why 'keeping the covenant' also means being joined [to the Lord] is that in an overall sense 'a covenant' means being joined together, 665, 666, 1023, 1038, 1864, 1996, 2003, 2021, 6804. It has this further meaning because a person who leads a life in accordance with the commandments is joined to the Lord. For the commandments teach about life and also impart life, thereby opening the way to heaven and opening one's eyes to see the Lord.

665. That establishing a covenant' means that he would be regenerated becomes quite clear from the fact that the only kind of covenant that can exist between the Lord and man is conjunction by virtue of love and faith. And so a covenant means conjunction; indeed it is the heavenly marriage that is the supreme covenant of all. The heavenly marriage or conjunction does not show itself however except with people who are being regenerated. Regeneration itself therefore in the broadest sense is meant by a covenant. The Lord enters into a covenant with man when He regenerates him, and consequently among men of old a covenant had no other representation. From the sense of the letter no other impression is gained than that the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and so often with their descendants, concerned just those personages. But those people were by nature such as to be incapable of being regenerated, for they focused worship exclusively on things that were external, and imagined external things to be sacred without things that are internal allied to them. Consequently the covenants made with them were no more than representations of regeneration, as were all their religious ceremonies, and as were Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob themselves who represented the things of love and faith. In a similar way priests or high priests, whatever their character, including infamous ones, could represent the heavenly and most holy priesthood. In representations no attention is paid to the person who represents but to that which is represented by him. Thus all the kings of Israel and Judah, including the worst of them, represented the Lord's kingship, and so indeed did the Pharaoh who promoted Joseph over the land of Egypt. These and many other considerations which in the Lord's Divine mercy will be dealt with later on show that the covenants made so often with the sons of Jacob were nothing more than religious ceremonies which were representative.