Readings: 1 Mos 42: 1

“Jacob said: 'I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go there and buy grain for us, so that we may survive and not die. 'Then ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. "

Security:

Security is something we like. We like things around us that are familiar, at home. It makes us feel safe. Of course, it is exciting with something new sometimes, at least if we ourselves choose to explore something new. But it is nice to come back to what is safe and which gives a feeling of home.

Old acquaintances and a new one:

It's the same with people. Relatives and friends that you enjoy creating a sense of security and warmth, continuity in life. With them, there is so much that is obvious, that one does not have to explain. You know.

But then there is an interesting situation. Think of an occasion when you met a new, previously completely unknown person. And the reaction after a while of conversation was that 'It was as if we had always known each other'.

That feeling has nothing to do with how you were dressed, if you had the same social background, if you spoke the same language or other external circumstances. It has to do with something inner. It has to do with something bigger, deeper, inner. May we say forever even. It also feels different than it does when more superficial things unite. A leisure activity that you share with others naturally gives satisfaction, but this is something else.

Inner band:

What makes a community with virtually any kind of human being possible is that there is something in the interior of both that is similar, that is reminiscent of each other. "Well, that's exactly what I meant, but you said it so much better than I did."

Value:

If we think about what it is that we value most in our lives, then it is probably human community. Community that is strong, long lasting, sincere, warm. Yes, we can add many nice words. We value such things highly.

If we go one step further and think about what kind of community we put first, then it becomes something that touches us deeply, or inwardly. Some examples:

- Schoolmates who stay together more or less for life do so not because they happened to have gone to the same school but because during all their childhood and adolescence they found something in each other that was, well, let's say forever again, qualities, gifts that both valued highly. None of them think about the external things - how appealing your external is, how so-called successful you have become in life, how rich or poor you are.

- A married couple who have been together for many years and take it for granted that it is the two that belong together forever, yes, they do not think about external beauty, wealth and other external factors but it is deep feelings, great respect and appreciation for human values. There is an endurance that can not be taken lightly.

Longing:

It is not a wild guess to think that all people long for such things. You can have dreams about both. It is easiest to dream about what is most visible, ie things or positions. An actor is visible, because it is such an obvious part of the work. "Actors must be happy people." Well, it's not that simple.

The longing for a little better things becomes more difficult. I want a good marriage is to go one step further. Wouldn't it be nice if you felt like we said before, 'It felt like we had always known each other', when you meet your intended partner? Of course. It is thus about inner qualities.

Learn to recognize:

The question is how good you are at seeing and recognizing good, inner qualities. Ten-year-old boys like to learn car brands. They recognize details. They know. It feels good. There is everything superficial that you can learn to recognize. Clothing brands. Music styles. Paintings. That's a Chagall. That's a Rubens. He who has not practiced his eye or ear does not recognize, sees no difference.

Inner qualities, true human qualities, are not recognized either, nor are they discovered, unless one has first practiced seeing them.

A child learns to say thank you for the food. When the child is in a new context, other children do not thank for the food. It feels wrong. A good quality is lacking. Or vice versa, a child has never had to learn to thank for the food. When the child comes to a context where you do it, the child discovers - we can dream of - a new good quality and will in all future be thankful for the food.

Övning:

How good you are at recognizing and discovering good qualities must of course have to do with how alert you are. We use the word awake in everyday speech to describe a person who is easy to discover new, good things. "It was an awake girl." That means she had her eyes open at a time when there was something to discover. Everyone else slept. Remember Jesus' words:

"Stay awake and pray so that you will not be tempted. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. "Matthew 26:41

Spirit and queue:

When it comes to good qualities, such as one thinks a good person has, it's what the spirit and the flesh are about. The 'flesh' is an image for a person who is preoccupied with the earthly and uninterested in what belongs to a higher or eternal existence.

To discover good qualities, higher values, a true spiritual life, you need to practice. This exercise largely includes standing at a certain distance from what the term 'meat' stands for.

We go back to that with meeting new people. He who is caught up in earthly, superficial values will see certain things. Wrong clothes. Wrong way of talking. Wrong interests. This is what 'scout' refers to in today's text.

Or there are thoughts about how to benefit from getting to know a new person. He seems to influence people I depend on. She looks gullible.

But those who strive to become a better person are happy to learn from other people who set an example. They seek with the spirit as their starting point, not the flesh. It is the good and true that they are trying to get hold of.

Joseph and his brothers:

When we read about Joseph and his brothers, it is not the words spirit and flesh that first come to mind, but that is actually what it is about. (see, Arcana Cœlestia 5433 [2], 5464, 5469)

It is quite obvious that Joseph's way of life is completely different from that of the brothers and full of blessings despite all adversity. The brothers, on the other hand, would have met a certain death if Joseph had not been well.

In today's text, the fact that Joseph was different from the brothers is underlined by the fact that they did not recognize Joseph, while he did recognize his brothers. Joseph is a symbol of something good, something higher. Let us say that he is the representative of all the good qualities that people inwardly dream of, the spirit. Stay awake! And the brothers are responsible for the situations when we are not awake, the flesh and choosing the wrong path. The meat is weak.

Joseph wants to give them the good:

What is so nice about the story is that Joseph wants his brothers well. He wants to give them what they inwardly need - grain to bake bread in the external sense, but in the transferred sense goodness in the soul. But before they get what they want, Joseph exposes them to tests and trials. Joseph knows that he has power over them, but he does not abuse that power. He uses it wisely and for their own good.

The brothers change:

The other thing that is also nice is that the brothers are undergoing a positive change. It started with their father Jacob urging them to go down to Egypt to buy grain so that they would not starve to death. But during the journey, something began to happen inside them as well. Meat began to be challenged by spirit.

They began to think about how badly they had treated Joseph. When Joseph met them, he had asked them about their family. They admitted that they had a brother who "no longer lives". And they said to one another, “We are guilty of what we did to our brother. We saw the anxiety in his soul when he asked for mercy, but we did not want to listen to him. That is why we have come into this anxiety ourselves. ” (verse 21)

Åand improvement:

And you can say that after seeing their own sin, they did exactly what they were supposed to do - repentance and repentance. Joseph made demands on them. He wanted them to show that they could stand by their word and bring Benjamin down to Egypt. It was a very great demand on them, because Jacob would oppose it: "Jacob did not send Joseph's brother Benjamin with the other brothers, for he was afraid that something bad would happen to him." (verse 3) When Jacob heard what the demand was, he said: “My son must not go there with you. His brother is dead and he is left alone. If an accident should happen to him on the journey you intend to make, you would bring my gray hairs with sorrow down to the realm of the dead. ” (verse 38)

But the brothers realized that it had to do so. And so it became later. We can think that it was not the external hunger that made them agree to the demands, but that it was an internal hunger, the feeling of wanting to become better people, that made them obey Joseph's commands regarding Benjamin. Conscience spoke. Meat was giving way to spirit.

The Lord and man:

We do not have to take so many steps in thought to see a parallel between Joseph and the brothers on the one hand and the Lord and man on the other.

Man is in need of spiritual food. She is hungry for something more than meat. The Lord already knows that this is so. And He wants nothing less than to give man everything:

”Out of infinite love, the Lord wants to draw man all the way to Himself and thus make him happy with all the glory and bliss. ” Arcana Coelestia 6645

But we humans are not awake. We are left in the flesh and we are sluggish. It takes time for us to acknowledge that inner hunger. And then it takes additional time before we understand where the food is. The brothers did not recognize Joseph. We do not see the Lord in our lives. But He sees us all the time. He hears inner thoughts: "We are guilty of what we did to our brother." When He hears it, He does not accuse but only longs for us to find Him. "Joseph turned away from them and wept." (verse 24)

No waste:

But just as Joseph "then turned to them again and spoke to them and took Simeon from them and had him imprisoned before their eyes" (verse 24), so the Lord deals with us according to his Divine laws. These are things that we - "as of ourselves" - must cope with and go through. The purpose in this context is that through new knowledge - what Egypt represents - we will open up our inner selves and use this knowledge to search for eternal values.

The brothers are going through a number of difficulties. They mature. They become better people. It is a picture of how we humans, all of us, can become better people if we learn more about the spirit and let the flesh rest.

We can summarize these events in the lives of Joseph and the brothers - the first meeting in Egypt - as follows: If the brothers had already repented of their evil attack on Joseph and made amends, would they have recognized him ?!

Or in a figurative sense: It is easier for us to see the Lord's merciful and loving actions in our lives, if we have repented and improved.

Famine:

The famine foretold by the Lord through Pharaoh's dreams and Joseph's interpretation describes a necessary part of our development. The flesh stands in the way of the spirit, but something saves us. The Lord - modeled on Joseph - seems invisible in our lives. As soon as we want something good, never so small, something happens. The Lord leads us from within. And the more and more often it happens, the more awake we become, and the more we can both see and search for good qualities both in ourselves and in others.

We are driven to travel down to Egypt again and again.

We fight against external temptations and what we get instead is a goodness that becomes more and more genuine.

”The Lord allows the good to flow continually into man, and the good to flow into the good. Man either accepts it or he does not. If she receives it, it's fine for her. ”

The brothers had decided to become better people. Do we have it? The brothers said to their father:

”The man who was lord there in the land addressed us harshly… But we said to him, 'We are honest men.' 1 Mos 42: 30-31

Amen!

1 Mos 42: 6-17, 18-24, 29-38:

Joseph was now the one who had power in the land and he was the one who sold grain to all the people. When Joseph's brothers arrived, they bowed to him with their faces to the ground. When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them. But he pretended to be a stranger to them and addressed them harshly, asking them, "Where are you from?" They answered, "From the land of Canaan to buy grain for food." Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him. Then Joseph thought of the dreams he had about them. He said to them, "You are scouts. You have come to see where the land lacks protection." They answered him, "No, my lord, your servants have come to buy food. We are all sons of one man. We are honest men, your servants are not scouts." But he said to them, "Yes, you have come to find out where the land lacks protection." They answered, "We, your servants, are twelve brothers, sons of one and the same man in the land of Canaan. The youngest is at home with our father and one is no longer alive." Joseph said to them, "This is what I have told you. You are scouts. This is how I will test you: As long as Pharaoh lives, you will not escape from here unless your youngest brother comes here. One of you must go and fetch here. your brother, while you others remain captives. So I can test if you have told the truth. If not, you are scouts, as long as Pharaoh lives. " Then he kept them in custody for three days.

… On the third day Joseph said to them, "If you want to live, do this way, for I fear God. If you are honest men, let one of your brothers stay as a prisoner in the house where you were imprisoned. But you others may go your way and bring home the grain that you have bought to help you with your famine. Then bring your youngest brother here to me. If you have told the truth, you will not die. " And they did. But they said to one another, "We are guilty of what we did to our brother. We saw the anxiety in his soul when he asked for mercy, but we did not want to listen to him. Therefore, we ourselves have come into this anxiety." Reuben answered them, "Did I not tell you that you would not sin against the boy? But you did not listen to me. Therefore, his blood is now required." But they did not know that Joseph understood this, because he spoke to them through an interpreter. He turned away from them and wept. Then he turned to them again and spoke to them. And he took Simeon from them, and bound him before their eyes. …

When they came to the house of Jacob their father in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them and said, "The man who was lord in that land spoke to us harshly and treated us as if we were scouts in the land. But we said to to him: We are honest men, we are not scouts. We are twelve brothers, sons of one and the same father. One is no longer alive and the youngest is at home with our father in the land of Canaan. But the man who was lord of the land answered us: This is how I will find out if you are honest men: Leave one of your brothers with me, take what you have bought to help with the famine in your house, and go your way. Then bring your youngest brother to me, so that I may be sure that you are not scouts but honest men. Then I will give your brother back to you and you will move freely in the land. " … And their father Jacob said unto them, Ye make me childless: Joseph is gone, Simeon is gone, and Benjamin ye also want to take from me. Everything is against me!… My son must not go there with you. His brother is. dead and he is left alone. If any misfortune should happen to him on the journey you intend to make, you would bring my gray hairs with sorrow down to the realm of the dead. "

(Ötranslation: Swedish Folkbibeln)

Arcana Cœlestia 5202 [3], 5470:

Since the natural cannot be reborn in that which belongs only to the mind, there must be something that belongs to the will as well. For in all individual things there must be something both of the intellectual and of the will. Otherwise it would not be anything at all. And since the previous will had been rejected, something new must flow in its place. This new will comes from the heavenly spiritual (modeled on Joseph).

The Lord constantly allows the good to flow into man, and the good flows into the good. Man either accepts it or he does not. If she receives it, she's fine. If she does not accept it, it will be bad for her.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 5423; Matthew 26:41)