4598. 'Israel travelled on' means the celestial-spiritual of the natural then. This is clear from the meaning of 'travelling on' as a further stage or a continuation, dealt with in 4375, 4554, in this case towards aspects more interior still, and from the representation of 'Israel' here as the celestial-spiritual of the natural, dealt with in 4286. What the celestial-spiritual of the natural is has been explained already, namely the good of truth, or the good of charity arrived at through the truth of faith. Little knowledge exists in the world of what an advance towards more interior aspects is. It is not an advance into knowledge of facts, for that kind of advance is often made without any advancement towards interior things, and more often still is accompanied by a movement away from these. Neither is it an advance in maturity of judgement, for this too is sometimes accompanied by a movement away from interior things. Nor yet is it an advance made into cognitions of interior truth, for these count for nothing if a person does not have any affection for them. An advance towards interior things is an advance nearer to heaven and the Lord made by means of the cognitions of truth which have been implanted in an affection for them, and so is an advance made by means of the affections.

[2] What an advance towards interior things is like is not apparent to anyone in the world; but in the next life it is plain to see. In that life it is an advance out of a kind of haze into light; for compared with others people who are concerned solely with more external things live in a haze, and are also seen by the angels to do so, whereas those who have a concern for more internal things dwell in light, and consequently in wisdom since the light there is wisdom. And what is amazing, those living in the haze cannot see that those in light are in light, whereas those dwelling in light can see that those in the haze are in a haze. Since the subject is the advance made by the Lord's Divine towards more interior aspects, Jacob is called Israel here; but where that advance is not the subject he is called Jacob, as in verse 20 immediately before this, and in the final verse of this chapter.

4374. Verses 12-16 And he said, Let us travel on and go, and I will go beside you. And he said to him, My lord knows that the children are tender, and the flocks and herds with me are suckling, and if the men overdrive them for one day, all the flocks will die. Let my lord now pass over before his servant, and I will move on slowly at the walking-pace of the cattle ¹ that are before me, and at the walking-pace ² of the children, until I come to my lord, to Seir. And Esau said, Let me now place with you some of the people who are with me. And he said, Why so? Let me find favour in my lord's eyes. And Esau returned on that day on his own way, to Seir.

'He said, Let us travel on and go' means a further stage. 'And I will go beside you' means that they are to be joined together. 'And he said to him, My lord knows that the children are tender' means truths which have not yet acquired Divine life. 'And the flocks and herds with me are suckling' means goods, interior ones and natural ones, which have not yet acquired Divine life. 'And if the men overdrive them for one day, all the flocks will die' means a passage of time and a subsequent stage; also that otherwise they would not live, and so needed to be prepared to be joined together. 'Let my lord now pass over before his servant' means a more general presence. 'And I will move on slowly' means the subsequent state of preparation. 'At the walking-pace of the cattle that are before me' means as determined by the things that are general. 'And at the walking-pace of the children' means as determined by the truths situated within. 'Until I come to my lord, to Seir' means until they could be joined together, 'Seir' meaning the joining of spiritual things to celestial ones within the natural. 'And Esau said, Let me now place with you some of the people who are with me' means that some truths supplied by the truth of good might be joined. 'And he said, Why so? Let me find favour in my lord's eyes' means enlightenment received from their comparatively internal presence. 'And Esau returned on that day on his own way, to Seir' means the state at the time of Divine Natural Good to which the goods of truth had been linked, 'way' meaning, when compared with that Good, the good of truth.

Poznámky pod čarou: