AC 2795 - Not "Isaac", but "The Boy"

AC 2795

As the Lord's most grievous and inmost temptations
are treated of in this chapter (Genesis 22),
all the states that He assumed
when He underwent these temptations are described.
The first state is described in the third verse,
the second state in this verse,
the third state in the verse next following,
and the rest afterwards.
But these states cannot be expounded
to the common understanding
unless many things are first known,
not only respecting the Lord's Divine,
as here represented by Abraham,
but also respecting His Divine Human
as represented by Isaac,
and respecting the state of this rational
when He engaged in and underwent
the combats of temptation (this being the "boy");
and also what and of what quality
the former rational was,
and also the natural which it had;
and likewise what the state was
when the one was adjoined to the other,
and what the state was
when they were more or less separated.
Moreover many things concerning temptations
must be known,
as what exterior and interior temptations are,
and consequently what were the inmost
and most grievous temptations the Lord had,
and which are treated of in this chapter.
So long as these things are unknown,
the things contained in this verse
cannot possibly be described to the comprehension;
and if they should be described, even most clearly,
they would still appear obscure.
To the angels,
who are in the light of heaven from the Lord,
all these things are manifest and clear,
indeed blessed,
because they are most heavenly.
 
Here we will merely say
that the Lord could not be tempted at all
when He was in the Divine Itself,
for the Divine is infinitely above all temptation;
but He could be tempted as to His human.
This is the reason why
when He was to undergo
the most grievous and inmost temptations,
He adjoined to Himself the prior human,
that is, the rational and the natural of it,
as described in verse 3;
and why He afterwards separated Himself from these,
as is said in this verse (5);
but nevertheless retaining something
by means of which He could be tempted;
which is the reason why it is not here said,
"Isaac my son," but "the boy,"
by whom is meant the Divine rational in such a state,
namely, in a state of truth,
prepared for the most grievous
and inmost combats of temptations.
That neither the Divine Itself
nor the Divine Human could be tempted,
must be evident to everyone simply from the fact
that not even the angels can approach the Divine,
much less the spirits who induce temptations,
and still less the hells.
Consequently it is manifest
why the Lord came into the world,
and put on the human state itself with its infirmity;
for thus He could be tempted as to the human,
and by means of the temptations subjugate the hells,
and reduce each and all things
to obedience and into order,
and save the human race which had removed itself
so far away from the supreme Divine.