In general, men are driven by intellect and women by affections, and because of this men in the Bible generally represent knowledge and truth and women generally represent love and the desire for good. This generally carries over into marriage, where the man's growing knowledge and understanding and the woman's desire to be good and useful are a powerful combination. In many cases in the Bible, then, "husband" refers to things of truth and understanding, much as "man" does. Magnificent things can happen in a true marriage, though, when both partners are looking to the Lord. If a husband opens his heart to his wife, it's as though she can implant her loves inside him, transforming his intellectual urges into a love of growing wise. She in turn can grow in her love of that blooming wisdom, and use it for joy in their married life and in their caring for children and others in their life. Many couples, even in heaven, stay in that state -- called "Spiritual" -- growing deeper and deeper to eternity. There is the potential, though, for the couple to be transformed: through the nurturing love of his wife the husband can pass from a love of growing wise to an actual love of wisdom itself, and the wife can be transformed from the love of her husband's wisdom into the wisdom of that love -- the actual expression of the love of the Lord they have built together. In that state -- called "Celestial" -- the husband represents love and the desire for good, and the wife represents truth and knowledge.

10041. Verses 15-18 And you shall take one ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the ram's head. And you shall slaughter the ram, and take its blood and sprinkle it over the altar round about. And you shall cut the ram into its pieces, and wash its intestines and its legs, and put them on top of its pieces and of its head. And you shall burn the whole ram on the altar ¹ . It is a burnt offering to Jehovah; it is an odour of rest, a fire offering to Jehovah.

'And you shall take one ram' means the good of innocence in the internal man. 'And Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands' means the transmission of power ... 'On the ram's head' means, to the whole of it. 'And you shall slaughter the ram' means preparation for purification of the internal man. 'And take the blood' means Divine Truth. 'And sprinkle it over the altar round about' means a joining to Divine Good. 'And you shall cut the ram into pieces' means that the interior things must be arranged into order, distinct from one another. 'And wash the intestines' means purification of the lowest things. 'And its legs' means purification of the more external things belonging to the natural man. 'And put them on top of its pieces and of its head' means the arrangement into order of the more external things under the interior and under the inmost ones. 'And you shall burn the whole ram on the altar' means the internal of the Lord's Divine Human united to the Divine Good of His Divine Love, which was within Him. 'It is a burnt offering to Jehovah' means the glorification of the Lord's Human. 'It is an odour of rest' means the perception of peace. 'A fire offering to Jehovah' means all things springing from Divine Love.

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