3927. 'And Rachel said, With the wrestlings of God I have wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed' in the highest sense means [the Lord's] own power, in the internal sense temptation in which a person overcomes, in the external sense resistance offered by the natural man. This is clear from the meaning of 'the wrestlings of God' and of 'wrestling' as temptations, since temptations are nothing else than the wrestlings of the internal man with the external, or of the spiritual man with the natural, for each desires to have dominion over the other. And when there is any to-do about that dominion, conflict takes place, which in this case is portrayed as 'wrestling'. As regards 'prevailing' meaning overcoming, this is clear without explanation.

[2] The reason these words in the highest sense mean His own power is that when in the world He was in the [infirm] Human the Lord suffered all temptations by His own power and overcame them by His own power, unlike any human being who never endures any spiritual temptation by his own power and overcomes in it; only the Lord residing with him does so. But see what has been stated and shown already concerning these matters:

The Lord suffered the severest temptations, much severer than those suffered by others, 1663, 1668, 1690, 1737, 1787, 1789, 1812, 1813, 1815, 1820, 2776, 2786, 2795, 2813, 2816, 3318.

The Lord fought and overcame by His own power, 1616, 1692, 1813, 3381.

And the Lord alone fights in man's conflicts, 1692.

[3] As regards 'the wrestlings of God' and 'prevailing' meaning, in the internal sense, temptations in which a person overcomes, this is clear from what has been stated immediately above. But the reason why in the external sense resistance from the natural man is meant is that no temptation is anything else. For as has been stated, in spiritual temptations there is a to-do over who is to have dominion, that is to say, who is going to have the power. Is the internal man to have it or the external - or what amounts to the same, the spiritual man or the natural? For they stand opposed to each other, 3913. Indeed when a person undergoes temptations his internal or spiritual man is governed by the Lord through angels, but his external or natural man by spirits from hell. And the conflict that takes place between these is experienced by that person as temptation. When a person both in faith and in life is such that he is able to be regenerated he overcomes in temptations, but when he is such that he is not able to be regenerated he goes under in temptations. The resistance offered by the natural man is meant by Rachel's statement that she had wrestled with her sister, for Leah, to whom 'sister' refers here, means the external man's affection, but 'Rachel' the internal man's, 3793, 3819.

2795. 'And return to you' means conjunction after that. This too becomes clear without explanation. The subject of this chapter being the Lord's severest and inmost temptations, all the states are described which He assumed when undergoing those temptations. The first state is described in verse 3, the second state in the present verse, the third state in the verse that follows next and in all the rest after that. But these states cannot possibly be explained to the ordinary mind unless many other things are known first, not only about the Lord's Divine which is represented here by 'Abraham' but also about His Divine Human which is represented by 'Isaac', and about the state - when He went into and underwent the conflicts brought about by temptations - of this Rational, meant here by 'the boy'. In addition to this one has to know what the first rational was, and the nature of it, as well as the natural that went with that rational, and also the nature of the state when one was joined to the other, and the nature of the state when they were more or less separated. What is more, one needs to know many things regarding temptations, such as what exterior and interior temptations are, and from this what were the inmost and severest temptations that were the Lord's, which are the subject in this chapter. As long as all these matters remain unknown the things within this verse cannot possibly be described intelligibly. And if they were described, even in the clearest possible manner, they would still appear obscure. To angels, since they dwell in the light of heaven flowing from the Lord, all these matters are plain and clear, and indeed blessed because these matters are supremely heavenly.

[2] This alone need be said here, that the Lord could not possibly be tempted when He was one with the Divine itself, for the Divine is infinitely above all temptation. But He could experience temptation as to His human. This is the reason why, when He was to undergo the severest and inmost temptations, He joined the first human to Himself, that is to say, the rational and the natural degrees of it, as described in verse 3, and after that separated Himself from them, as stated in the present verse, though still retaining certain traits through which He could be tempted. It is for this reason that here Isaac is not spoken of as 'my son' but as 'the boy', an expression used to mean the Divine Rational in that particular state, that is to say, in a state of truth, equipped for the severest and inmost conflicts brought about by temptations, see 2793. The truth that neither the Divine itself nor the Divine Human could be tempted may become clear to anyone merely from the fact that not even angels can approach the Divine, still less the spirits who bring temptations about, and least of all the hells. From all this it is evident why the Lord came into the world and took on the human state of being with all its weakness, for by doing so He was able to be tempted as regards the human and by means of temptations to suppress the hells. He was able to restore every single thing to obedience and to order, and to save the human race which had removed itself so far away from the Supreme Divine.