3161. 'Behold, Rebekah is before you; take her and go, and let her be your master's son's wife, as Jehovah has spoken' means consent inspired from the Lord. This too could be shown by an explanation of all the individual words, the general import of these in the internal sense being the meaning that has just been stated. The implications are as follows: When the Lord lived in the world He made the Human within Himself Divine by His own power, the human with everyone having its beginnings in the inmost part of the rational, 2106, 2194. This verse describes how He made it Divine, that is to say, already so as of good and of truth. The good there came from His essential Divinity, that is, from Jehovah the Father from whom He had been conceived; but the truth there had to be acquired by the ordinary way, as with every other human being.

[2] It is well known that nobody is born rational but merely into the ability to become so, and that he becomes rational by means of factual knowledge, that is to say, by means of cognitions which divide up into many genera and species, the first of which are the means leading on to those next to them, and so on in order to the last of all which are cognitions of the spiritual things of the Lord's kingdom and are called matters of doctrine. These latter cognitions are learned in part from the doctrine of faith, in part directly from the Word, and in part therefore by a person's own efforts, as is also well known. As long as these matters of doctrine remain solely in the memory they are merely factual truths and have not as yet been made over to the individual as his own. They first become made over to him when he starts to love them for the sake of life, and more so when he applies them to life. When this happens truths are raised up from the natural memory into the rational part of the mind and are there joined to good. And when they have been joined they are no longer matters of knowledge but of life, for in that case a person is no longer learning from truths how to live but actually living by them. In this way truths come to be his own and become matters of the will. He accordingly enters the heavenly marriage, for the heavenly marriage consists in good and truth joined together in the rational. With men these things are accomplished by the Lord.

[3] But in Himself the Lord did this by Himself, unaided. From the Divine itself He not only begot the Rational as regards Good, but also through this the Natural as regards Truth, which He joined to Good. For it is good that chooses truth for itself and also gives form to it, for good acknowledges nothing else as truth but that which is compatible with it. Thus Divine good that was the Lord's moulded Truth for itself. Nor did it acknowledge as Truth anything else than that which would be compatible with Divine Good, that is, which would be Divine of Itself. Thus He achieved every single thing by His own power. These are the things that are meant by 'acknowledgement that it was the Lord's alone' and by 'consent inspired from the Lord'.

1032. That 'and I will establish My covenant with you' means the Lord's presence with all people who have charity, and refers to 'those going out of the ark' and to 'every wild animal of the earth', that is, to people inside the Church and to those outside of it, is clear from what has been stated just above. With regard to the Lord also entering into a covenant with, that is, joining Himself by means of charity to people outside of the Church who are called gentiles, the position is this: The member of the Church imagines that all outside of the Church who are called gentiles cannot be saved because they do not possess any cognitions of faith and do not therefore know the Lord at all. Churchmen say that without faith and without knowledge of the Lord there is no salvation, and so all who are outside of the Church stand condemned. Indeed many such persons possessing some doctrine, even those embracing heresy, imagine that all outside of the Church, that is, all who do not feel as they do, are not saved. But the reality is altogether different. The Lord has mercy towards the whole human race, and wishes to save and draw to Himself all people throughout the universe.

[2] The Lord's mercy is infinite and will not let itself be limited to the few who are inside the Church. Instead it reaches out to all in the whole wide world. No one can be blamed because he has been born outside of the Church and so has no knowledge of matters of faith. Nor is anybody in any way condemned for having no faith in the Lord because he does not know Him. What right-thinking person is ever going to say that the greater part of the human race will perish in eternal death just because they have not been born in Europe whose inhabitants are relatively few? And what right-thinking person is going to say that the Lord would allow such a large number of people to be born so as to perish in eternal death? That would be contrary to the Divine and contrary to mercy. And in any case people outside of the Church, called gentiles, lead a far more upright life than those inside the Church do, and they embrace far more readily that which true faith teaches. This matter becomes clearer still from souls in the next life.

[3] From the so-called Christian world come the worst people of all, those in whom deadly hatred of the neighbour and deadly hatred of the Lord prevail. More than anybody else in the whole world they are adulterers. But this is not true of all other parts of the world; for a large number of those who have worshipped idols have an attitude of mind that finds hatred and adultery abhorrent, and they fear Christians for being such and for wishing to subject everybody else to torture. Indeed gentiles are such that when taught by angels about truths of faith and that the Lord rules over all, they have no difficulty in listening and have no difficulty in being endued with faith, and so casting aside their idols. Consequently those gentiles who have led an upright life, and have done so in mutual charity and in innocence, are regenerated in the next life. While they are living in the world the Lord is present with them in their charity and innocence, for no charity or innocence exists at all except that which comes from the Lord. The Lord also confers on them, according to the religion they have, a conscience for what is right and good, and instills innocence and charity into that conscience. And when innocence and charity exist in conscience they allow themselves without difficulty to be endued with the truth of faith deriving from good. The Lord Himself has said all this in Luke,

Someone said to Jesus, Lord, are those who are saved few? He said to them, You will see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrust out. On the other hand men will come from the east and from the west, and from the north and from the south, and sit at table in the kingdom of God. And, behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last. Luke 13:23, 28-30.

'Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob' here are used to mean all who dwell in love, as shown already.