5947. And bring your father, and come. That this signifies their service and approach, is evident from the signification of “bringing their father,” as being service (of which below); and from the signification of “coming,” as being approach (as above, n. 5941). In regard to the service which is signified by “bringing their father,” the case is this. Lower things ought to serve interior ones. The lower things are the truths of the church in the natural, which are represented by the sons of Jacob; but that which is interior is spiritual good, which is represented by Israel their father. This being more interior, or what is the same, higher, ought to be served by exterior or lower things. For lower things are formed for nothing else than to be things of service, for they are formed for the interior to live and act in them and through them, and indeed so that if the interior is taken away from them, they are nothing but vessels without life and action, thus altogether dead. This is the case with the body relatively to its spirit, and therefore when the spirit withdraws, the body at once dies. Such also is the case with the external man relatively to the internal, and also with the internal man relatively to the Lord; for the internal man has been formed to receive life from the Lord, and is nothing else than an organ of His life. Consequently it is formed to serve the Lord for all the uses that love to Him and charity toward the neighbor demand, first in the natural world, and afterward in the spiritual world.

5941. And take your father and your households, and come unto me. That this signifies the approach of spiritual good and of the truths of the church to the memory-knowledges of the natural, is evident from the representation of Israel, who is here the “father,” as being spiritual good (see n. 5801, 5803, 5807, 5812, 5817, 5819, 5826, 5833); and from the representation of his sons, as being the truths of the church in the natural (n. 5414, 5879), all things of which are their “households;” from the signification of “coming,” as being to approach; and from the representation of Pharaoh, who is the “me” to whom they were to come, as being the memory-knowledge of the natural in general. From all this it is evident that by “take your father, and your households, and come unto me,” is signified the approach of spiritual good, and of the truths of the church, to the memory-knowledges of the natural.