When the Bible speaks of "Jehovah," it is representing love itself, the inmost love that is the essence of the Lord. That divine love is one, whole and complete in itself, and Jehovah also is one, a name applied only to the Lord. The divine love expresses itself in the form of wisdom. Love, then, is the essence of God -- His inmost. Wisdom -- the loving understanding of how to put love into action -- is slightly more external, giving love a way to express itself. Wisdom, however, is expressed in a great variety of thoughts and ideas, what the Writings collectively call divine truth. There are also many imaginary gods, and sometimes angels and people can be called gods (the Lord said Moses would be as a god to Aaron). So when the Bible calls the Lord "God," it is in most cases referring to divine truth. In other cases, "God" has reference to what is called the divine human. The case there is this: As human beings, we cannot engage the Lord directly as divine love. It is too powerful and too pure. Instead, we have to approach Him by understanding Him through divine truth. Divine truth, then, is the Lord in human form, a form we can approach and understand. Thus "God" is also used in reference to this human aspect, because it is an expression of truth.

1000. 'Soul' means life. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'soul' in many places in the Word. In general 'soul' in the Word means life in its entirety, the internal life, or that of the internal man, as well as the external, or that of the external man. And because it means life in its entirety it means the nature of the life present in the one to whom 'soul' has reference. In this case it has reference to the life of someone who is regenerate, which is separate from the merely human will. For as stated already, the new life which a regenerate spiritual person receives from the Lord is completely separate from the person s own will or proprium, that is, from the life that is his own, which though called such is not really life but death because it is the life belonging to hell. This is why 'flesh with its soul which they were not to eat' means flesh together with its soul, that is, they were not to mix together this new life which is the Lord's with the evil or putrid life that is man's, that is, with his own will or proprium.