This verse in its internal sense speaks of the Lord when He was a child on earth, when He was beginning to learn and obtain the knowledge of cognitions - the knowledge that are 'as it were' the building blocks necessary in order to come to understand celestial and spiritual things. It is like a child, who begins to learn the alphabet and then small words at first and eventually learn ideas and concepts. Such things excite the child and make an impression upon his mind of the knowledge of what a child may come to learn and know. Thus, the Lord's senses, like any child's, were filled with delightful ideas and thoughts about Divine things. These were ideas and thoughts of celestial truths and, so, He was delighted as any child is when a new idea or thought comes to him and is excited that they are his, as it were. These truths were adjoined as we have shown in the past sermon (Various States) and, so they were not conjoined with Him even are they are not with man today. If they had been conjoined, then, the hereditary evil that He had within from the mother (Mary), He would not have been able to overcome these evils just as a man cannot and, so, He would have be able to free mankind from hell as the Word promises He would. Therefore, as we have shown, the Lord protected the Divine (His Soul) within Him, which He called His Father, and, so, when the glorified Lord dwells within us, then that divine within us in our souls are also protected and we become regenerated with a new will and understanding that is of and from the Lord.
In a spiritual sense the 'wife' mentioned here that is 'beautiful to look upon' is representative of that truth that the Lord learns as a child that appears 'as if' conjoined with goodness. However, the Lord's Human that He assumed from the mother upon coming into the natural world, signified by 'Sarai' was not conjoined, but as was prior said, was only adjoined, for His Soul was the Divine Itself and, so, it cannot be conjoined to what is evil or to what is from man himself, since a man loves what is his own, that is, his proprium. However, as was shown, the Lord's Soul was the Divine Itself and, so, cannot be conjoined with the apparent truths of mankind, for if it was, they would be consumed as wood is by fire. You can understand, then, that unless the truth that came from the Lord's human from the mother that was only adjoined was put off, the Lord would not have become glorified, for such truth is not genuine, but is merely apparent truths and, so, often these lead to fallacies. This human the Lord had to free Himself from in order that He became glorified. It was the truth that is from the good or from the Divine Itself that was to be united with Him in order that He had become glorified making God-Man and Man-God.
Thus, by Abram saying "I know that thou art a woman beautiful to look upon" spiritually is meant that the Lord thought truth (for Sarai as wife, here, means truth) was to be conjoined with celestial things or the essentials which were to be insinuated in Him. Thus, "He said to Sarai his wife" means that the Lord was concerned with "the truths to which celestial things were adjoined" (AC 1468) and in the same number is also said "To say thus to Sarai his wife denotes in the internal sense, to think so concerning the truths, with which celestial things were conjoined." Recall, it was shown that the natural truths such as seen from the literal sense of the Word that were from man in the Lord were adjoined not conjoined. Here, there appears to be a mistake or contradiction, for we know that the two, 'adjoined' and 'conjoined' have distinctive different meanings - one: to be next to or contiguous and the other: to join together or be united. In the internal sense this will become clear and support one another. Thus, we will be able to see that doctrine, in order to be genuine, must be spiritual from the celestial origin and not from any natural understanding that one has. However, the natural understanding, when enlightened, is adjoined, that is, is next to or contiguous with spiritual things. Thus, it is that a man, in whom there is no conjunction with the spiritual and celestial, can be brought by the Lord to understand 'as it were' spiritually and his affection for these becomes a delight to him.
However, the truth with the Lord, He being a Celestial man, was celestial and was the Divine or within His Soul; while with a man truths are not, since a man no longer is conjoined with the Lord, that is, with God's truth and His goodness. It is in this way that Divine Truths were adjoined, and not conjoined, to the human that the Lord put on from Mary. Thus, the Divine truths could not be conjoined until the Lord had made His Human Divine. It is similar with a man. He, too, has a soul that is from the Lord in which is the love of the Lord and the love of the neighbor or charity and, these are called 'remains'. In the same way they - Divine Love or Charity and Divine Truth - cannot be conjoined in man until he is regenerated, that is, comes into reformation and is born again. You can see that from this comes man's life. However, this life has been largely denied by man and, so, genuine truth is not conjoined with him until he is regenerated, or born again 'as it were'; until then, he is just adjoined with Divine truth and, thus, to the Lord God. The point is: that if the man's soul was opened or was conjoined with Divine Celestial and Spiritual truth while he is still in this evil state, he would destroy his life from the Lord and would forever be in hell. The divine within him would be violated because of the evils that are with him in his present fallen state.
To say 'celestial truths', with which celestial things or essentials were conjoined to the Divine or Soul of the Lord, is to say that these truths have celestial things with it. Only from the Divine, which is Love or Goodness, is a truth celestial. It was, therefore, that there was conjunction in the Celestial and Spiritual of the Lord, although not with the Natural until He had put His natural off from the mother and put on a Human from the Father and, so, had became united with the Divine, that thus, He made or united the Human (the Lord Jesus Christ) with the Divine, that is, His Father. Today, we see this has been fulfilled, for it was this reason that He became a Man (Human) by putting on the human of mankind and thus as He was a Natural Human as well as He was in the Spiritual and Celestial degrees of life.
In the text it is evidenced that the Lord in the natural, that is the Son, and the Divine of the Lord, that is, the Father, is manifested through two states that the Lord went through while in the World. These states were one: the states of exinanition or of humiliation and two: the state of glorification. In the Lord's natural state, the Human He assumed in the world, called the Son, was shown as being adjoined to the good that was of and in the Divine within His Soul, which is called the Father. So, the Human that was in the Divine or Divine Good was to become conjoined with the Divine Truth as the Lord, the Son glorified or put off the truth of the natural of man and becomes the Divine Human in the Natural state.
The Word in the same number (AC 1468) makes the point that the Word is to be understood by representatives in order to reveal internal truths to the natural understanding of a man. These are, in the natural sense, seen as the histories of the ancient times and peoples, but in the internal sense they concern the Lord, which the Word of the Third Testament has now revealed. If the Word reveals only natural histories, then, it would not be the Word with man, for then, at best, the Lord is only seen through the natural eyes or natural understanding, which we know has little concerning the Lord. We also read in the same number mentioned that the Word uses words to signify or to symbolize internal things. Often, unless these two - representatives and significations - are learned or known, the internal sense will not be seen and, thus, the natural sense will lead one into fallacies. In the present case, the natural sense appears as if Abram asks Sarai, his wife, to say that she is his sister when, in fact, she is not, and, so, it appears that this is teaching a man to lie when it is for his life safety or benefit. In this way, it is that man can often excuse or justify lying. Such a statement in the Word, even though it is true historically, is not a genuine truth of faith that a man is to learn. Can it then be say that honesty is the best policy if this is used as a principle of faith?
"The truth (of the Lord's natural) that was adjoined to celestial things" (AC 1468) was possessed by Him before He had been instructed or had learned. The word 'possess', when it is predicated of the Lord, means that only the Lord alone possesses. He is the possessor alone. Contrary, a man can only be possessed by the Lord or by the hells, though it appears that the man possesses truth him self or falsities. A man's learning is from the knowledge of cognitions that are insinuated from the Divine into his mind and there are three degrees of the mind - celestial, spiritual, and natural. Such learning is according to Divine order and that is that all children must go through - even the Lord Himself. Man, then, being in the natural state learns only apparent truths, not genuine truths, although to the man he believes these are genuine, unless,, of course, he has either read the Third Testament where he is educated and comes to accept it as the Word and that he has been enlightened by the Lord. The Lord, as a child, had to proceed in this order too. Thus, it is that the things learned while in the natural state either come from the Lord through the Heavens, either by means of the Word or from hearing the Word, however, if a man rejects such truths unless he himself comes to understand of one's self, he learns from hell. That is why the things learned in our natural state are not genuine and we need to be reformed and come into regeneration, and thus, come to see or understand, at least, some things spiritually. If these truths or cognitions are learned only for the sake of wanting worldly things (power, prominence, wealth) in order for one's self to gain, then the vessels that are formed in us are open to hell. If on the other hand these truths or cognitions that are called 'apparent truths', are learned for the sake of truth, then the Lord opens or forms them as vessels that receive delights from the Lord, thus good, and genuine truth can then flow in. The essentials, the love to Jehovah and to the neighbor, which are given (insinuated) to man when he is an infant, are, thus, first adjoined, but later they can become conjoined with the natural of a man, but in the proportion as such truth is accepted. In the present state knowledge of cognitions, even though they appear as truths, are false, if from a literal understanding, unless one believes that there is an internal sense within them.
Because of what is Divine is Love and Wisdom, therefore, it can be said that the Lord who had come on earth as a human had within Him such truth before He was taught as a man - through the insinuation - cognitions into His natural senses as when reading and hearing the Word of God. From this it can be understood that vessels were to be formed in His natural Human, for that human needed to be made Divine even as was His Celestial Human Divine. Thus, when the Lord came in His first Advent and mankind was in their natural state and separate from the Divine, having descended from the celestial and spiritual states in which there was conjunction with the Lord and Heaven and, even now, in a man's natural life because it is evil would have ended in hell if the Lord had not come. Conjunction with the Heavens and the Lord with man could now become possible through the Lord having become a Man as we and having overcome the hells as a man. There might be the idea or the thought that a child, who is in innocence, can be taught and learn the knowledge of cognitions and so, form vessels for the reception of divine delights and, therefore, be led or taught genuine or spiritual truths concerning the Lord. This is because one thinks that as a child, the child does not willingly or knowingly do evil, he being innocence of evil, but he is also in ignorance, not wisdom. However, in this, one forgets that mankind's will or his proprium has not only been distorted, but destroyed and, therefore has no good himself nor has he genuine truths, but falsities. Even though man is innocence in childhood, he would desire these cognitions thinking they were truths themselves and, thus, would desire such things for himself and not for goodness or the truth itself. It is here that there can be seen the fear that the Lord had while He was in the human of mankind before His glorification. He though that the same desires that mankind has (desires for self and worldly things) would happen to Him. We can see here that He was truly human as we are, although His love was of the Divine, for that was the true Proprium. Thus, the Lord alone has Proprium. Man's proprium the Lord only gave to man and he had destroyed it and, thus it was no long a proper proprium from the Lord. That same wisdom that was in the Lord as a child on earth and in innocence must be in man, that he no longer remains in ignorance.
It needs to be pointed out here that it is only by the opening of these vessels - His natural mind - in the Lord that the Lord could receive instruction in the knowledge of cognitions and, thus, receive truths from the Word. The Lord could not, as if by magic, learn the knowledge of cognitions. He had to learn according to order even as a man must. Otherwise, what would be the purpose of assuming a human from mankind through Mary? He could just appear and that He already had to many in the body of an angel.
Let us turn now to what Abram said, "Behold, I pray. I know that thou art a woman beautiful to look upon" (Genesis 12: 11). The truth is that what is from the Divine is delightful in the external or in the natural. It is said that the spiritual or internal of man receives happiness and natural delight. There are two kinds of internal happiness that correspond to external happiness. One is of good while the other is of truth. Here, one sees immediately the two vessels - the will and the understanding - for these are the receptors for these heavenly delights. It is important to understand that we must desire these celestial things - the charity or love of the Lord and His wisdom and thus, love to the neighbor - because the love of the Lord has both the qualities of good and truth. Desiring only the quality truth and not caring for the charity or the love of the Lord will mean that delights received are delights only for gain or for one's self, not for the Lord.
It should be known that when one desires or wills for only truth for one's own purpose and not for the love of truth that the vessel of the understanding closes and, therefore, there can be no reception of genuine truth nor for good. The opposite is true of desiring truths for truths sake. For, then, we are enabled to receive celestial truth, that is, both the delights of good and of truth and, therefore, the Lord's life in us may become true life in us. Celestial truth is only truth because, here, there is good united with truth. It should also be understood that even though a man can acquire spiritual truth and this through knowing the scientifics of correspondences, that such knowledge will not regenerate or save him, unless the Lord comes to dwell in his heart, that is, in his will and understanding. A man, without love from the Lord, falls 'as it were' into the natural state in which is void of that divine love.
From this it may be understood what the words 'a woman beautiful to look upon' means. For, here, you can see that the 'woman' means that truth conjoined with the Divine good, from which life comes. To 'look' signifies to be present. (Cf. AC4198). Remember, here, is described one of the early states that the Lord as a child when through in receiving cognitions before His glorification. It is here described how the Lord progressed towards His unition with the Divine, that is, of truth with good and, thus, became the Divine Human. The human He 'put-on' upon coming into the world was as any man's and was 'dead;' that is, it was not conjoined with the celestial or the Divine even as a man is not. It had to be made Divine so as to be conjoined with the Divine in Him - the Father with the Son. This, we have said, had to be done according to Divine order otherwise mankind would not have been redeemed. Again, what man could receive faith if the Lord could not be conjoined in His coming and in His defeating the evils in man himself? He would raise his hands up and say, 'How can I save myself; I am inclined to love my self?