AC 4234 - Jacob

AC 4234
And Jacob went to his way.
(Genesis 32:1)
That this signifies the successive advance of truth
toward its conjunction with spiritual and celestial good,
is evident from the representation of Jacob,
as being here the truth of the natural.
What Jacob represented has been already stated,
namely, the Lord's natural;
and as where Jacob is treated of in the historical narrative,
in the internal sense the Lord is treated of,
and how He made His natural Divine,
therefore Jacob first represented the truth in that natural,
and then the truth to which was adjoined the collateral good
which was "Laban;"
and after the Lord had adjoined this good,
Jacob represented it;
but such good is not the good Divine in the natural,
but is a mediate good
by means of which the Lord could receive good Divine;
and this mediate good was the good
that Jacob represented when he withdrew from Laban.
Nevertheless, in itself,
this good is truth which from its mediate character
possesses the capacity of conjoining itself
with the good Divine in the natural.
Such then is the truth that Jacob now represents. 

[2] For after Jacob withdrew from Laban and came to the Jordan,
thus to the first entrance into the land of Canaan,
he advances into the representation of this conjunction;
for in the internal sense the land of Canaan signifies heaven,
and in the supreme sense the Lord's Divine Human.
It is for this reason that by the words,
"and Jacob went to his way,"
is signified the successive advance of truth
toward conjunction with spiritual and celestial good. 

[3] But these things are of such a nature
 . . . that the most general things of this subject
are unknown in the learned world, even among Christians.
For it is scarcely known what the natural in a person is,
and what the rational,
and that these are altogether distinct from each other;
and scarcely even what spiritual truth is,
and what its good,
and that these also are most distinct from each other.
Still less is it known that when a person is being regenerated,
truth is conjoined with good,
in one distinct way in the natural,
and in another distinct way in the rational,
and this by innumerable means.
 It is not even known that the Lord made His Human Divine
according to the same order
as that in which He regenerates a person. 

[4] Since therefore these most general things are unknown,
it must needs be that whatever is said about them
will appear obscure.
Nevertheless they have to be stated,
because otherwise the Word cannot be unfolded
as to its internal sense.
At the very least
this may be the means of showing 

how great angelic wisdom is,
and also of what kind it is,
for the internal sense of the Word 
is chiefly for the angels.