5461. 'One brother among you is to be in bonds in the house of your custody' means that faith in the will must be separated. This is clear from the representation of Simeon - who is the 'one brother who is to be in bonds', named in verse 24 - as faith in the will, dealt with in 3869-3872, 4497, 4502, 4503; and from the meaning of 'being in bonds in the house of custody' as being separated, dealt with in 5083, 5101, 5452, 5456. The implications of this are that when faith in the will - that is, when the will which desires to put the truth of faith into practice - is separated from people with whom the truths known to the Church are present, the link with the Divine is in that case so slender that it is little more than an awareness.

[2] In the case of someone who has been regenerated the Divine flows from the Lord into good, and from this into truth; or what amounts to the same, it flows into his will, and from there into his understanding. To the extent therefore that someone with whom the truths of faith are present receives good from the Lord, the Lord forms for him a new will within the understanding part of his mind (why in the understanding part, see 927, 1023, 1043, 1044, 2256, 4328, 4493, 5113), and the Lord enters in there and creates an affection to do good, that is, to exercise charity towards the neighbour. From this one may see what is meant by the explanation that faith in the will must be separated, which faith is represented by 'Simeon', before the intermediary, which is 'Benjamin', comes to be present.

4328. I have also been shown the situation in general with regard to the will part of the mind and the understanding part. The most ancient people who constituted the Lord's celestial Church, and who are described in 1114-1123, had a will which contained good and an understanding which contained truth derived from that good; and with them these two parts made one. The ancients however who formed the Lord's spiritual Church had a will that was completely destroyed, but an intact understanding within which, through regeneration, the Lord formed a new area of will, and through this a new area of understanding also, see 863, 875, 895, 927, 928, 1023, 1043, 1044, 1555, 2256.

[2] What the situation had been in the celestial Church so far as good was concerned was demonstrated by means of a blue-coloured column coming down from the sky, the left side of which was full of light, like the blazing light of the sun. This was a representation of the first state of those people, the blue colour representing their will, which was good, and the blazing light their understanding. After that the blue of the column turned to a dull red, which was a representation of their second state, a state in which their two kinds of life - that of the will and that of the understanding - still acted as one, though this was more dull so far as good from the will was concerned. For blue means good, and blazing light truth derived from good. After that the column became completely black, and surrounding the column there was a brightness which was variegated by means of something glittering and which presented colours. These changes meant the state of the spiritual Church. The black column meant that the will had been completely destroyed and that it was nothing but evil. The light variegated by something glittering meant the understanding in which a new will was provided by the Lord; for in heaven the understanding is represented by brightness.