Swedenborg Arcana Caelestia Vol. III (1750)

not yet complete; but the third and the triune is complete, and this is evil for the wicked and good for the good.

2789. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw, that this signifies thought and intuition from the Divine, is evident from the signification of eyes, which is intelligence (n. 2701); hence, to lift up the eyes is to elevate it, thus to think; and from the signification of seeing, which is to behold from the Divine, because it is predicated of the Lord.

2790. The place from afar, that this signifies in a state which He foresaw, is evident from the signification of place, which is state (n. 1273-1277, 1376-1381, 2625); and from the signification of seeing from afar, which is to foresee.

2791. Verse 5. And Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go yonder, and we will worship, and we will return to you." Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey," signifies the separation of the prior Rational from the natural at that time: "And I and the lad will go yonder," signifies the Divine Rational in a state of truth, girded with the most severe and intimate combats of temptations; the lad is the Divine Rational in such a state: "and we will worship," signifies submission: "and we will return to you," signifies conjunction thereafter.

2792. Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey," that this signifies the separation of the prior Rational from the natural at that time, is evident from the signification of "stay here," which is to be separated for a while; from the signification of the young men, which is the prior Rational (as mentioned above, n. 2782); and from the signification of the donkey, which is the natural man or the natural (as also mentioned above, n. 2781).

2793. And I and the lad will go yonder, that this signifies the Divine Rational in a state of truth, girded with the most severe and intimate combats of temptations; and that the lad is the Divine Rational in such a state, can be evident from the representation of Isaac, which is the Divine Rational. Here, however, because it is not called Isaac, nor "my son," as before, but "the lad," it signifies the Divine Rational in such a state, which follows immediately.

2794. And we will worship, that this signifies submission, can be evident without explanation.

2795. And we will return to you, that this signifies conjunction thereafter, can also be evident without explanation. Because this Chapter treats of the most severe and intimate temptations of the Lord, all the states which He underwent are described as He endured them. The first state is described in Verse 3; another state in this Verse; a third state in the verse immediately following; and others thereafter. But these cannot be explained to a common understanding unless many things are known first: not only concerning the Divine of the Lord, which is represented here by Abraham, but also concerning His Divine Human, which is represented by Isaac, and the state of this Rational when He entered into and underwent the combats of temptations, which is here "the lad." Beyond this, one must know what and of what quality the prior Rational is, as well as the Natural which is joined to it, then what the state is when one is joined to the other, and what the state is when they are more or less separated; furthermore...