AC 3304, 3305 - Reading the Word

AC 3304 [3]

Those who keep the mind solely in the historicals,
and who are not able to withdraw it from them,
do not know but that these and former passages
simply foretell the events which came to pass
 between Esau and Jacob,
and this conviction is confirmed also by what follows.
But the Word of the Lord is of such a nature
that the historicals are in their own series,
while the spiritual things of the internal sense
are in theirs;
so that the former may be viewed
by the external person,
and the latter by the internal person,
and that in this way there may be
a correspondence between the two, namely,
between the external person and the internal;
and this by means of the Word,
for the Word is the union of earth and heaven,
as has been frequently shown.
Thus in everyone
who is in a holy state while reading the Word,
there is a union of his external person
which is on the earth,
with his internal person
which is in heaven.

AC 3305 [2]

Those who abide in the mere sense of the letter
believe that by "Jacob" in the Word is meant
all that people which was descended from Jacob,
and for this reason they apply to that people
all things that have been said
historically and prophetically concerning Jacob.
But the Word is Divine chiefly in this respect,
that all things in it both in general and in particular
do not regard one nation or one people,
but the universal human race;
namely, that which is,
which has been,
and which will be;
and also that which is still more universal,
namely, the Lord's kingdom in the heavens;
and in the supreme sense,
the Lord Himself.
It is for this reason that the Word is Divine.