AC 1408 - the Word of the Lord is like a body that contains within it a living soul

And Jehovah said unto Abram,
Get thee out of thy land,
and from thy birth,
and from thy father's house,
to the land that I will cause thee to see.
(Genesis 12:1)

AC 1408
These and the things which follow occurred historically as they are written;
but the historical details are representatives
and all the words are significative.
The case is the same with all the historical books of the Word,
not only with those in the books of Moses,
but also with those in the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings.
In all these, nothing is apparent but mere history;
but although it is history in the sense of the letter,
still in the internal sense there are arcana of heaven,
which lie stored up and hidden there,
and which can never be seen so long as the mind, together with the eye,
is kept in the historical details;
nor are they revealed until the mind is removed from the sense of the letter.
The Word of the Lord is like a body that contains within it a living soul;
the things belonging to the soul do not appear
while the mind is so fixed in corporeal things
that it scarcely believes that there is a soul,
still less that it will live after death;
but as soon as the mind withdraws from corporeal things,
those which are of the soul and life become clear.
And this also is the reason,
not only why corporeal things must die
before a person can be born anew, or be regenerated,
but also why the body itself must die
so that he may come into heaven and see heavenly things.