287. We can also tell that love and wisdom are human by looking at heaven's angels, who are people in full beauty to the extent that they are caught up in love, and therefore in wisdom, from the Lord. The same conclusion follows from what it says in the Word about Adam's being created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26), because he was created in the form of love and wisdom.

All earthly individuals are born in the human form as to their physical bodies. This is because our spirit, which is also called our soul, is a person; and it is a person because it is receptive of love and wisdom from the Lord. To the extent that our spirit or soul actually accepts love and wisdom, we become human after the death of these material bodies that we are carrying around. To the extent that we do not accept love and wisdom we become grotesque creatures, retaining some trace of humanity because of our ability to accept them.

3672. 'To inherit the land of your sojournings' means the life acquired through receiving instruction. This is clear from the meaning of 'inheriting' as possessing the life of another, dealt with in 2658, 2851, in this case life received from the Divine, which is the meaning of the words that follow immediately after this, and from the meaning of 'sojournings' as forms of instruction, dealt with in 1463, 2025. 'The land' means where life is. A life acquired through receiving instruction, as referred to here, is the life of good springing from the truth which 'Jacob' represents here. For when a person lives according to the truths in which he receives instruction there is in him the life that is acquired through receiving instruction.