3439. 'I am the God of Abraham your father; do not fear, for I am with you' means that the Divine also was present there, that is to say, in the literal sense of the Word. This is clear from the representation of 'Abraham' as the Lord's Divine, dealt with in 2833, 2836, 3251, 3305 (end). Consequently 'Jehovah the God of Abraham' means the Lord's Divine, which 'Abraham' represents. And as the subject is the Word, which also is the Lord since the whole Word comes from Him and the whole of the Word has reference to Him, 'I am the God of Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you' therefore means that the Divine also was present there. With regard to the Divine presence in the Word the position is that the Divine itself is present in the highest sense of the Word because that is where the Lord is. The Divine is also present in the internal sense because that is where the Lord's kingdom in heaven is, and therefore that sense is called the celestial and spiritual. The Divine is also present in the literal sense of the Word because that is where the Lord's kingdom on earth is, and therefore that sense is called the external and also the natural, for this sense contains crude appearances that are quite remote from the Divine, though every single thing there is nevertheless Divine. Those three senses are related to one another as parts of the tabernacle are related. Its inmost part, or that inside the veil where the ark containing the testimony stood, was the most holy place or the holy of holies; the internal part, or that directly outside the veil where the golden table and the lampstand stood, was the holy place; while the external part, where the court was situated, was also a holy place. This was where all the people met, and therefore it was called 'the Tent of Meeting'.

3138. These three verses deal with the preparation and enlightenment of the natural man so that the truth which was to be joined to good in the Rational might be summoned from there. With regard to that preparation and enlightenment the position is that there are two kinds of light which shape man's intellectual concepts - the light of heaven, and the light of the world. The light of heaven comes from the Lord who to angels in the next life is the Sun and Moon, see 1053, 1521, 1529, 1530. The light of the world comes from the sun and moon which a person sees with his physical eyes. The internal man receives his sight and understanding from the light of heaven whereas the external man receives his sight and understanding from the light of the world. The influx of the light of heaven into ideas formed in the light of the world produces enlightenment and at the same time recognition - the recognition of truth if a correspondence exists, the recognition of falsity instead of truth if that correspondence does not exist. But enlightenment and recognition are not possible unless affection or love is present, which is spiritual warmth and imparts life to the things illumined by the light. This may be compared to the light of the sun. It is not the light of the sun but the warmth within the light that imparts life to plants, as is evident from the seasons of the year.

[2] The verses which follow immediately after this describe the preparation further - the light of heaven, which is the Lord's Divine light, flowed into the ideas formed in the light of the world in His natural man so that He might bring forth from there the truth that was to be joined to good in the Rational. Thus it was to be brought forth in what is the ordinary way. Therefore to make His Human Divine the Lord came into the world in the ordinary way, that is, He was willing to be born as any other person is born, to receive instruction as any other does, and to be born again as any other, but with this difference: Man is born again from the Lord, whereas the Lord not only regenerated Himself from Himself, but also glorified Himself, that is, made Himself Divine; also man is made new through the influx of charity and faith, whereas the Lord was made so through the influx of Divine Love that was within Him and that was His own. From this it may be seen that man's regeneration is an image of the Lord's glorification, or what amounts to the same, that in the process of man's regeneration as the image one can envisage, though remotely, the process of the Lord's glorification.