1745. I have lifted my hand to Jehovah symbolizes the mind the Lord had, as can be seen from the symbolism of lifting one's hands. Lifting one's hand to Jehovah is a physical gesture corresponding to a state of mind, as everyone knows. The literal meaning is expressing intermediate characteristics (that is, characteristics of the mind) through external images that correspond to them, but it is inner things that are meant in the inner sense. The lifting of Abram's hand, then, is a mindset or state of mind.
[2] As long as the Lord was being tested, he talked to Jehovah as a separate person, but so far as his human quality became one with his divine quality, he talked to Jehovah as identical with himself. Many passages in the Gospels and many passages in the prophets and David offer evidence for this. 1 The reason for it stands out clearly from previous remarks about the Lord's heredity from his mother [§§1414, 1444:1-2, 1573]. To the extent that any of that heredity remained, he felt absent from Jehovah; but to the extent that it was rooted out, he was present with and was himself Jehovah.
[3] This can be illustrated by the bond between the Lord and the angels. Sometimes angels speak not for themselves but for the Lord. When they do, they have no idea they are not the Lord; but their superficial traits are being suppressed. It is different when their outward traits are active. Their inner self is the Lord's possession, and so far as anything of their own does not get in the way in such a situation, their inner self belongs to the Lord and in fact is the Lord.
The Lord, however, achieved full union or eternal oneness with Jehovah, so that his human nature itself is also Jehovah.
Footnotes:
1. Passages from the Gospels, the prophets, and Psalms that might be seen as prayers expressing Jesus' distress are Matthew 26:39, 42; 27:46; Mark 14:36; 15:34; Luke 22:42; 23:46; Jeremiah 15:15-18; Lamentations 3:55-56; Jonah 2:2-9; Habakkuk 1:2-4; 1:12-2:1; 3:2; and in Psalms, chapters 6; 22; 38; 69; 88. Passages that might be seen as prayers expressing oneness are Matthew 11:25-26; Luke 10:21; John 11:41-42; 17:1-26; Isaiah 38:15-20; Jeremiah 17:14-16; and in Psalms, chapters 104, 116, 145. [LHC]
