Old Testament

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Genesis 29:1-3, 9-13, 16-20, 21-23, 25-28

So Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the East. And he looked, and saw a well in the field; and behold, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it; for out of that well they watered the flocks. A large stone was on the well's mouth. Now all the flocks would be gathered there; and they would roll the stone from the well's mouth, water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place on the well's mouth....

Now while he was still speaking with them [the shepherds], Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she was a shepherdess. And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother, that Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother.

Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and wept. And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's relative and that he was Rebekah's son. So she ran and told her father. Then it came to pass, when Laban heard the report about Jacob his sister's son, that he ran to meet him, and embraced him and kissed him, and brought him to his house....

Now Laban had two daughters: the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah's eyes were delicate, but Rachel was beautiful of form and appearance. Now Jacob loved Rachel; so he said, "I will serve you seven years for Rachel your younger daughter.'

And Laban said, "It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to another man. Stay with me.' So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed only a few days to him because of the love he had for her.

Then Jacob said to Laban, "Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in to her.' And Laban gathered together all the men of the place and made a feast. Now it came to pass in the evening, that he took Leah his daughter and brought her to Jacob; and he went in to her....

So it came to pass in the morning, that behold, it was Leah. And he said to Laban, "What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served you? Why then have you deceived me?'

And Laban said, "It must not be done so in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn. Fulfill her week, and we will give you this one also for the service which you will serve with me still another seven years.' Then Jacob did so and fulfilled her week. So he gave him his daughter Rachel as wife also.

Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?

The New Testament

He who made them in the beginning "made them male and female' and said "For this reason a man shall leave his mother and father and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' So then they are no longer two but one flesh.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.

The Heavenly Doctrines

Good and Truth Are Universal in Creation

All things in the universe that are in Divine order have relation to good and truth because both of these go forth from God from whom are all things.

Since the Lord God the Creator is love itself and wisdom itself, and the universe was created by Him...it must be that in each and every created thing there is some goodness and truth from Him.

The reason everything in the universe has some relation to good and truth...is that both emanate from the Lord, and they emanate from Him as a unity. The two things that emanate from the Lord are love and wisdom, because these are what He is and so are what come from Him. And everything that has to do with love is called good, and everything that has to do with wisdom is called truth. Now because these two emanate from the Lord as the Creator, it follows that these two are present in the things He created.

The Heavenly Marriage of Good and Truth 

The marriage of good and truth from the Lord...is what is called the heavenly marriage. 

It is according to Divine order for good and truth to be conjoined and not separated, thus that they be one and not two; for they are conjoined when they go forth from God and are conjoined in heaven, and therefore must be conjoined in the church.

There is a conjugial atmosphere which flows in from the Lord through heaven into each and every thing of the universe, extending even to its lowest forms. Love and wisdom emanate from the Lord, and a marriage of these two elements continually emanates from the Lord, because they are Him, and from Him come all things.

Reception of Good and Truth Is According to Form

Goodness and truth are universal in creation, and are therefore in all created things, but they are present in their created vessels according to each one's form.

Goodness and truth are present in their created vessels according to each one's form because whatever flows into any vessel is received by it according to its form. This may be illustrated by the flowing in of heat and light from the sun into species of plant life of every kind. Each one of these receives that influx according to its form. Thus every tree receives it according to its form, every bush according to its form, every plant and every kind of grass according to its form. That which flows in is the same in every case, but the way it is received causes each species to remain the species it was, because the reception is according to the form.

Good and truth are flowing in constantly from the Lord with all people and so consequently is genuine conjugial love; but it is received in varying ways. And as is the nature of that which receives it so does that love become.... It is like the light of the sun falling on objects, in that this light is received according to the nature of those objects, and becomes blue, red, yellow, green, dark, or even black, depending on how they receive it.

Illustrations in Nature of the Interdependence of Love and Wisdom

The reason everything in the universe has some relation to good and truth, with good being united with truth and vice versa, is that both emanate from the Lord, and they emanate from Him as a unity.... This can be illustrated by the example of heat and light which emanate from the sun. Everything produced by the earth depends on these two, for things germinate according to their presence and according to their presence together. Natural warmth corresponds to spiritual warmth, which is love; and natural light corresponds to spiritual light, which is wisdom.

In the human being there are two sources of physical life, the heart and the lungs. The heart is unable to produce any conscious or active life without the breathing of the lungs, nor are the lungs able to do so without the heart. The heart relates to good, and the breathing of the lungs to truth. There is also a correspondence between them.

[T]here are two lives, which make one in a person, the life of truth, and the life of good. The life of truth is the life of a person's understanding, but the life of good is the life of his will; for truths reside in the understanding, because they constitute the understanding, but goods reside in the will, because they constitute the will.

[T]he Lord's Divine providence continually works to unite truth to good and good to truth in a person, because that union constitutes both the church and heaven...for thus is a person united to the Lord.

To the extent that people are governed by a marriage of goodness and truth, to the same extent they are an image and likeness of the Lord, since these two are united in the Lord.... Love and wisdom are united in an angel in heaven and in a person of the church when the will and intellect, thus when goodness and truth, are united.

see Conjugial Love 90

A constant union of love and wisdom or marriage of goodness and truth flows in from the Lord, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, and created vessels receive it, each according to its form.

Male and female were created to be the very image of the marriage between good and truth. This is because the male was created to be an expression of the understanding of truth, thus a picture of truth, and the female was created to be an expression of the will of good, thus a picture of good, and implanted in both from their inmost beings is an inclination to conjunction into one. Thus the two together form a single image, which imitates the conjugial model of good and truth.

Everyone, whether man or woman, possesses understanding and will. But with the man the understanding predominates, and with the woman the will predominates, and the character is determined by that which predominates.

Because interior qualities form the exterior ones to their likeness, and the masculine form is a form of the intellect while the feminine form is a form of the love of the intellect, therefore the male has a different look, a different sound, and a different physique from the female. Namely, he has a tougher look, a rougher sound, and a stronger physique, and moreover his lower face is bearded. In general, he has a less beautiful form than the female. The two sexes also differ in behavior and manners. In short, nothing in the two sexes is the same, although there is nevertheless a capacity for conjunction in every detail.

Indeed, masculinity in the male is masculine in every part, even in the least part of his body, and also in every idea of his thought, and in every bit of his affection. So, too, with femininity in the female. And because one cannot as a consequence be converted into the other, it follows that after death a male is still male, and that a female is still female.

The male was created to be an expression of the understanding of truth, thus a picture of truth.

With respect to the disposition of the male, reason sees that it is a disposition to know, understand, and be wise - a disposition to know in childhood, a disposition to understand in adolescence and early youth, and a disposition to be wise from this time of his youth on into old age. From this it is evident that the male is by nature or temperament inclined to develop his understanding, consequently that he is born to become intellect-oriented. But because this cannot happen apart from love, therefore the Lord attaches love to him according to his reception, that is, according to the spirit in him that wills to become wise.

Feminine Characteristics as a Picture of Good

The female was created to be an expression of the will of good, thus a picture of good.

A female is born with a love for joining herself to the affection for knowing, understanding and becoming wise, in the male.

With respect to the disposition of the female, it can be seen that it is a disposition to love knowledge, intelligence and wisdom - though not in herself but in a man - and for that reason to love a man. For a man is not lovable simply on account of his physique, the fact that he looks like a man, but on account of the gifts he has in him which make him human.

Truly conjugial love is nothing but a union of love and wisdom. Two married partners who have this love between them and in them at the same time are a reflection and image of it.

A wife's will unites itself with her husband's understanding, and the husband's understanding in consequence unites itself with his wife's will. The reason is that a male is born to become a form of understanding, and a female to become a form of will that loves the understanding of the male. It follows from this that the conjugial union is a union of the wife's will with the husband's understanding, and a reciprocal union of the husband's understanding with the wife's will.

A wife inspires the union in her husband according to her love, and a husband receives it according to his wisdom.

Love with its inmost friendship constantly increases in the wife, and wisdom with its happiness in the husband, and this to eternity.

Conjugial love has its origin in the marriage of Divine good and truth, and so in the Lord Himself.

Conjugial love is the fundamental love of all loves in heaven and the church, because it originates from the marriage between good and truth, and from this marriage spring all the loves which form heaven and the church in a person. The good in this marriage produces love, and the truth in it produces wisdom. And when love is added to wisdom or united with it, then love becomes loving. And when wisdom conversely is added to love and united with it, then wisdom becomes wise.

Love that is indeed conjugial is a union of two minds, and this is a spiritual union. Any spiritual union comes down from heaven. Therefore love that is indeed conjugial springs from heaven and its very existence can be traced back originally to the marriage of goodness and truth there. The marriage of goodness and truth in heaven has its origin in the Lord, which explains why in the Word the Lord is called Bridegroom and Husband, and heaven or the Church is called Bride and Wife. It also explains why heaven is compared to a marriage.

Requirements of Receiving Conjugial Love

None can know what conjugial love is or what the delight which accompanies it is like except those who receive the good of love and the truths of faith from the Lord. For that love springs from heaven, from the marriage of goodness and truth there.

The derivation of genuine conjugial love from good married to truth may also be evident from the fact that it cannot exist with anyone unless good united to truth and truth to good from the Lord are present in him. That derivation may also be evident from the fact that heavenly blessedness and happiness reside in that love, and that everyone in whom that love exists comes into heaven, that is, into the heavenly marriage.

Married partners become an image of the marriage between good and truth only as the inner faculties of their minds are opened, because the mind only gradually opens from infancy to late old age.... When the inner faculties of the rational mind have been opened, the person becomes an image of wisdom, and this wisdom is the receptacle of truly conjugial love.

"Jacob loved Rachel' means the love which good has for internal truth.

The natural [within a person], which "Jacob' symbolizes, consists of good and of truth; and within the natural, as within every single part in the human being, and indeed within the whole natural order, there ought to be a marriage of good and truth. Without this marriage nothing is produced, for every act of bringing forth and every effect is from that marriage.

When a person is born there is no marriage of good and truth within his natural because the human being, unlike other creatures, is not born into a condition where Divine order is present. It is true that good which goes with innocence and charity is present, flowing from the Lord in earliest childhood. But no truth is present to which that good may be coupled.

As he advances in life this good which has been instilled by the Lord into a person in early childhood is drawn in towards the interior parts and kept there by the Lord so that it may serve to modify the states of life which he experiences subsequently.... When that good belonging to earliest childhood is drawn inwards, evil in that case takes its place and enters the person's natural. Falsity then couples itself to that evil, and a joining together and so to speak a marriage of evil and falsity takes place with him. If a person is to be saved therefore, he has to be regenerated. Evil has to be removed and good instilled by the Lord. And in the measure that he receives good truth is instilled into him so that a coupling, or so to speak marriage, of good and truth takes place.

These are the matters represented by Jacob and his two wives, Rachel and Leah. "Jacob' now takes on the representation of natural good therefore, and "Rachel' that of truth. But since all joining of truth to good is effected through affection, it is the affection for truth coupled to good that "Rachel' symbolizes.... "Rachel' symbolizes the affection for interior truth, and "Leah' the affection for exterior truth.