3702. 'And behold, Jehovah was standing above it' means the Lord at the highest point. This becomes clear from the fact that the Lord is called Jehovah so many times in the Old Testament Word, see 1736, 3023, 3035, and that in the New Testament Word He is not referred to anywhere as Jehovah but as the Lord instead, 2921. As regards the meaning of 'standing above it' as being at the highest point, this is clear without explanation. The arcanum concealed in the internal sense of these words is that every good and truth come down from the Lord and go up to Him, that is, He is the First and the Last. For the human being has been so created that Divine things that are the Lord's may come down through him even to the lowest things of the natural order, and from the lowest things of the natural order may go up to Him. Thus the human being was created to be the means through which the Divine was linked to the natural world, and the natural world was linked to the Divine, and in this way through the human being as the means linking the two together, the lowest degree of the natural order might receive life from the Divine - which would be a reality if mankind had lived in accordance with Divine order.

[2] The creation of the human being in this particular form is evident from the fact that his body is a world in miniature, because every arcanum that is part of the natural world is also stowed in the body. Each arcanum present in the ever-changing sky is also stowed in the eye; and each one in the air is also stowed in the ear. Anything floating unseen and active in the air is stowed - where it is detected - in the organ of smell, anything unseen that is present in water or any other fluid is stowed in the organ of taste. And actual changes of state likewise occur in the sense of touch throughout the body. Besides these even further arcana are stored away in the body which could be detected by a person within his interior organs if his life accorded with order. From this it is evident that a descent of the Divine through the human being into the lowest degree of the natural order would take place, and from the lowest degree of the natural order an ascent to the Divine, if only the human being with heartfelt faith, that is, with love, acknowledged the Lord as his Final and Primary end.

[3] A state such as this existed with the most ancient people, who were celestial, for whatever they discerned with any of their senses was to them a means to thought about things which are the Lord's, and so about the Lord and His kingdom. This was the source of the delight they gained from worldly and earthly things, see 1409, 2896, 2897, 2995. Furthermore whenever these people contemplated in this fashion the lower and the lowest things of the natural order, such things appeared to them to have life in them; for the life from which these came down existed in those people's internal sight and perception. The objects which they saw with their eyes were so to speak images of that life, and although those images were inanimate they were nevertheless animate to those people. This is the kind of perception that celestial angels have of every thing in the world, as I have often been allowed to perceive, and it is also the source of the kind of perception which young children have, see 2297, 2298. This shows what those people are like through whom Divine things that are the Lord's come right down to the lowest things of the natural order, and from the lowest things of the natural order rise up to Him - people that represent Divine communication and the consequent joining together, meant in the highest sense by 'the angels going up and coming down the stairway set up on the earth, and its top reaching to heaven, with Jehovah standing above it'.

1901. 'Perhaps I shall be built up from her' means the possibility of the rational being born in that way. This becomes clear from the meaning, when it has reference to human generation, of 'being built up', and so needs no further explanation. 'Sarai', as stated, means intellectual truth which has been allied as a wife to good. Intellectual truth which resides inmostly is totally lacking in offspring or is like a childless wife, ¹ if there is not as yet any rational into which and through which it may flow, for without the rational as a go-between it cannot flow with any truth at all into the exterior man, as becomes clear in the case of small children. The latter can have no knowledge at all of truth until cognitions have been bestowed on them; but as has been stated the better and more perfectly they have cognitions bestowed on them, the better and more perfectly can intellectual truth which resides inmostly, that is, within good, be communicated.

[2] This intellectual truth represented by Sarai is the spiritual itself which flows in by way of heaven, and so by an internal route. It resides in everyone and is continually coming to meet the cognitions that are introduced by means of perceptions gained by the senses and implanted in the memory. No one is conscious of that intellectual truth within himself as it is too pure to be perceived by a general idea. It is like a kind of light which enlightens the mind and imparts the ability to know, think, and understand. Since the rational cannot come into being except also by means of the influx of intellectual truth, represented by Sarai, it inevitably exists in relation to that truth as its son. When the rational is formed from truths that have been allied to goods, more so when it is formed from goods from which truths derive, it is a true son. Previous to that also it is recognized as a son, yet not as a true son but as one born from a servant-girl. All the same, it is adopted as such, and for the reason here stated, that it was 'to be built up from her'.

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