The Bible

 

Genesis 24:51

Study

       

51 Behold, Rebekah is before you. Take her, and go, and let her be your master's son's wife, as Yahweh has spoken."

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #3061

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

3061. Jehovah God of my lord Abraham. That this signifies of the Divine Itself which is the Father, with the Divine Human which is the Son (that is, communication), is evident from what has been so often said and shown above, namely, that “Jehovah God” is the Divine Itself of the Lord, which is called the “Father;” and that by Abraham is represented His Divine Human (n. 2833, 2836). It may be seen above, that in the Word of the Old Testament “Jehovah” is the Lord Himself (n. 1736, 1815, 2921); and that the Most Ancient Church before the flood and the Ancient Church after the flood understood by “Jehovah” no other than the the Lord, (n. 1343, 1676, 1990, 2016, 3035). Also that in the Lord is the Trinity-the Divine Itself, the Divine Human, and the proceeding Divine Holy-and these are a one (n. 1999, 2149, 2156, 2288, 2329, 2447). That all the Trinity in the Lord is Jehovah (n. 2156, 2329); and that each and all things in the Lord are Jehovah (n. 1902, 1921). That the Lord is one with the Father, and that no other is understood in heaven by the Father (n. 14, 15, 1725, 1729, 1733, 1815, 2005, 2018, 2025, 2803, 3038). That the Lord is the universal heaven, for He is the all there; and that from Him is the all of innocence, of peace, of love, of charity, of mercy, of conjugial love; and all good and truth. That Moses and the Prophets, thus the Word in every particular, is concerning Him; and that all the rites of the church represented Him (n. 2751). That the Lord as to the Divine Human is called the “Son” (n. 2628). That the Divine Human of the Lord was not only conceived, but was also born of His Divine Essence, which is Jehovah (n. 2798); and that thereby the Lord as to the Human was made Jehovah, and Life of Himself (n. 1603, 1737).

[2] That the Lord was from eternity, is plainly evident from the Word (see n. 2803), although He was afterwards born in time; for He spoke by Moses and the Prophets; He likewise had appeared to many, and it is there said that He was Jehovah. But this deepest of arcana could be revealed to none but those who are in Divine perception, thus to scarcely any but the men of the Most Ancient Church, who were celestial and in this perception. From these I have heard that Jehovah Himself was the Lord as to the Divine Human when He descended into heaven and flowed in through heaven; for heaven represents one man as to all his members, and is therefore also called the Grand Man (n. 684, 1276, 2996, 2998, 3021). The Divine Itself in heaven, that is, in the Grand Man, was the Divine Human, and was Jehovah Himself thus clothed with the Human.

[3] But when mankind became such that the Divine Itself, clothed as the Divine Human, could no longer affect them (that is, when Jehovah could no longer come to man, because man had so far removed himself), then Jehovah, who is the Lord as to the Divine Essence, descended and took upon Himself a Human, by conception Divine, and by birth from a virgin such as is that of another man; but this He expelled, and by Divine means made Divine the Human that was born, from which proceeds all the Holy. Thus the Divine Human became an essence by itself which fills the universal heaven, and which also makes it possible for those to be saved who could not be saved before. This then is the Lord, who as to the Divine Human is alone Man, and from whom man has it that he is man (n. 49, 288, 477, 565, 1894).

  
/ 10837  
  

Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for the permission to use this translation.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1990

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

1990. Jehovah appeared unto Abram. That this signifies manifestation, is evident without explication, for as before said the Lord is represented by Abram. No man in the whole world has seen Jehovah, the Father of the Lord; but the Lord alone saw Him, as He Himself has said in John:

No one hath seen God at any time; the Only-Begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath set Him forth (John 1:18).

Again:

Ye have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His shape (John 5:37).

And again:

Not that anyone hath seen the Father save He that is with the Father; He hath seen the Father (John 6:46).

[2] The Infinite Itself, which is above all the heavens, and is over the inmost things that appertain to man, cannot be made manifest, except through the Divine Human which appertains to the Lord alone. No communication of the Infinite with those who are finite is possible from any other source, and this is also the reason that when Jehovah appeared to the men of the Most Ancient Church, and afterwards to the Ancient Church that was after the flood, and then again to Abraham and the prophets, He was manifested to them as a man. That this was the Lord, He teaches openly in John:

Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it, and was glad; verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am (John 8:56, 58).

Also in the Prophets-as in Daniel, by whom He was seen as the Son of man (Daniel 7:13).

[3] From these passages it may be seen that the Infinite Esse, which is Jehovah, could not possibly be manifested to man except through the Human Essence, thus except through the Lord; and therefore that it has been manifested to no one save the Lord alone. That He might also be present and be conjoined with man, after man had completely removed himself from the Divine, and had immersed himself in foul cupidities, and thereby in mere bodily and earthly things, He assumed in actuality the Human Essence itself by birth, that so He might still adjoin the Infinite Divine to man now so far removed; otherwise men would have perished to eternity with the death of the damned. The other arcana concerning the manifestation of Jehovah in the Lord’s Human, when He was in a state of humiliation, before He had fully united the Human Essence to the Divine Essence, and had glorified it, will of the Lord’s Divine mercy be set forth in what follows, so far as they can be comprehended.

  
/ 10837  
  

Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for the permission to use this translation.