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.

4246. Verses 6-8 And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to your brother, to Esau, and he also is coming to meet you, and four hundred men with him. And Jacob was exceedingly afraid, and was distressed; and he split up the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps. And he said, If Esau comes towards one camp and smites it, the camp that is left will escape.

'The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to your brother, to Esau, and he also is coming to meet you' means that good flows in constantly so as to make [truths] its own. 'And four hundred men with him' means its state now, set to take up the first position. 'And Jacob was exceedingly afraid, and was distressed' means the state when it is being changed. 'And he split up the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps' means the preparation and arrangement of truths and goods within the natural so as to receive the good represented by 'Esau'. 'And he said, If Esau comes towards one camp and smites it, the camp that is left will escape' means to meet every eventuality.