4537. THE INTERNAL SENSE

Verses 1-4 And God said to Jacob, Rise up, go up to Bethel and settle there, and make there an altar to the God who appeared to you when you fled from before Esau your brother. And Jacob said to his household, and to all who were with him, Remove the gods of the foreigner which am in the midst of you, and be purified, and change your garments. And let us rise up and go up to Bethel, and I will make there an altar to the God who answered me on the day of my distress, and was with me in the way that I went. ¹ And they gave to Jacob all the gods of the foreigner which were in their hand, and the jewels which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.

'God said to Jacob' means the perception which the kind of natural good that 'Jacob' now represents received from the Divine. 'Rise up, go up to Bethel' means concerning the Divine Natural. 'And settle there' means life. 'And make there an altar to the God who appeared to you' means that which is holy there. 'When you fled from before Esau your brother' means when truth was placed above good. 'And Jacob said to his household, and to all who were with him' means the arrangement within the kind of natural good that existed at that point. 'Remove the gods of the foreigner which are in the midst of you' means that falsities were to be cast aside. 'And be purified, and change your garments' means the holiness that was to be put on. 'And let us rise up and go up to Bethel' means the Divine Natural. 'And I will make there an altar to the God' means the holiness by which interior things are enveloped. 'Who answered me on the day of my distress' means within the state in which truth is placed above good. 'And was with me in the way that I went' means His Divine Providence. 'And they gave to Jacob all the gods of the foreigner which were in their hand' means that [natural good] did, as far as possible, cast aside all falsities. 'And the jewels which were in their ears' means realized in actions. 'And Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem' means an eternal casting away, 'the oak of Shechem' meaning the deceptive natural.

Poznámky pod čarou:

3659. 'Isaac called to Jacob' means perception by the Lord regarding the nature of the good of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'calling to someone' as perception of the nature of a thing, dealt with in 3609, from the representation of 'Isaac' as the Lord as regards the Divine Good of the Divine Rational, dealt with in 1893, 2066, 2072, 2083, 2630, 3012, 3194, 3210, and from the representation of 'Jacob' as the Lord as regards natural truth, dealt with in 1893, 3305, 3509, 3525, 3546, 3576, 3599. Here however and in the rest of this chapter 'Jacob' represents the good of that truth. From this it is evident that these words 'Isaac called to Jacob' mean perception by the Lord of the nature of the good of truth.

[2] The reason why 'Jacob' here represents the good of that truth is that by now he had taken Esau's birthright, and also his blessing, and in so doing had assumed Esau's identity; yet it was still no more than the good of that truth, which truth he had represented previously. For every kind of truth that exists holds good within it, because truth is not truth unless it arises out of good and for this reason is called truth. By means of the birthright which he took, and by means of the blessing, Jacob acquired for his descendants, in precedence over Esau, a succession to the promise made to Abraham and Isaac concerning the land of Canaan. In so doing he represented the Lord's Divine Natural, even as 'Isaac' represented the Divine Rational, and 'Abraham' His Divine itself. In order therefore that the representative might rest on one person he was thus allowed to take away the birthright from Esau, and after that the blessing. This is why Jacob now represents the good of the natural, though at first in this chapter he represents the good of that truth, which truth he represented immediately before. Esau is also dealt with further still, as in verses 6-9 below, to the end that the good of truth and the interior truth of good of the Lord's Natural - which cannot as yet be represented by 'Jacob' - may nevertheless be represented. What the good of truth, represented here by 'Jacob' is, and the nature of it, will be clear from what follows.