Spiritual Meaning of GENESIS 17:15
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AC 2060. Verse 15. And God said unto Abraham, Sarai, thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, for Sarah is her name. "God said unto Abraham," signifies perception; " Sarai thy wife," signifies here as before truth conjoined with good; "thou shalt not call her name Sarai," signifies that He will put off the human; "for Sarah is her name," signifies that He will put on the Divine.

AC 2061. God said unto Abraham. That this signifies perception, is evident from the signification of "God’s saying," in the historical sense, as being in the internal sense to perceive (n. 1791, 1815, 1819, 1822, 1898, 1919). As another subject here begins to be treated of, namely, that signified by "Sarai" and "Sarah," and also that signified by the promise of a "son" from Sarah, and by Ishmael‘s becoming a "great nation," it is introduced by a new perception of the Lord, which is expressed by "God said unto Abraham," as in other places.

AC 2062. Sarai thy wife. That hereby is signified truth conjoined with good, is evident from the signification of " Sarai," as being intellectual truth; and as "wife" is here added, the meaning is, this truth conjoined with good. "Sarai," and " Sarai the wife," signify truth conjoined with good, (n. 1468, 1901).

AC 2063. Thou shalt not call her name Sarai, for Sarah is her name. That this signifies that He will put off the human, and will put on the Divine, is evident from what was said of Abraham above (verse 5), where occur the words, "thy name shall no more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham," by which in like manner there is signified that He will put off the human, and will put on the Divine (n. 2009). For the letter H which was added to the name "Sarah," was taken from the name "Jehovah," so that Sarah, like Abraham, should represent the Lord’s Divine; and that thus should be represented the Divine marriage of Good with Truth in the Lord-Abraham representing the Divine Good, and Sarah the Divine Truth-from which should be born the Divine Rational, which is Isaac.

[2] The Divine Good, which is Love, and which in regard to the whole human race is Mercy, was the Lord‘s Internal, that is, Jehovah, who is Good itself: this is represented by Abraham. The truth that was to be conjoined with the Divine Good was represented by Sarai; and this truth when also made Divine is represented by Sarah; for the Lord advanced to union with Jehovah successively, as already said. The truth not yet Divine represented by Sarai, was such when it was not yet so united to good as to be truth from good. But when it was so united to good as to proceed from good, it was then Divine; and the truth itself was then also good, because it was the truth of good. The truth which tends to good in order that it may be united to good, is one thing; and that which is so united to good as to proceed wholly from good, is another. The truth which is tending to good still derives something from the human; but that which is wholly united to good has put off all that is human, and has put on the Divine.

[3] This may be illustrated as before, by what is similar with man. When a man is being regenerated, that is, when he is to be conjoined with the Lord, he proceeds to the conjunction by means of truth, that is, by means of the truths of faith; for no one can be regenerated except by means of the knowledges of faith, which are the truths by means of which he proceeds to conjunction. The Lord goes to meet these by means of good, that is, by means of charity, and adjusts and fits this in to the knowledges of faith, that is, to its truths; for all truths are recipient vessels of good, and therefore the more genuine the truths are, and the more they are multiplied, the more abundantly can good accept them as vessels, reduce them to order, and finally manifest itself; so that at last the truths do not appear, except in so far as good shines through them. In this way truth becomes the celestial spiritual. As the Lord is present solely in the good which is of charity, the man is in this way conjoined with the Lord, and by means of good, that is, by means of charity, is gifted with conscience, from which he afterwards thinks what is true and does what is right; but this conscience is in accordance with the truths and right things into which the good or charity is adjusted and fitted.

Author:  E. Swedenborg (1688-1772).

Design:  I.J. Thompson, Feb 2002.

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