4601. That Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine. That this signifies the profanation of good by means of faith separate, and that and Israel heard signifies that this faith was rejected, is evident from the representation of Reuben as being faith in doctrine and in understanding, which is the first thing of the church (see n. 3861, 3866), here this faith separate from charity (of which in what follows); and from the signification of “lying with Bilhah his father’s concubine,” as being the profanation of good, for “to commit adultery” signifies to pervert or adulterate goods (n. 2466, 2729, 3399), but “to lie with a father’s concubine” is to profane them; and from the signification of “Israel heard,” as being that this faith was rejected. In the proper sense by Israel’s hearing is signified that the spiritual church knew this and assented to it; for by “hearing” is signified hearkening to, and by “Israel” the spiritual church; but that the true church does not assent, will appear from what will be said about Reuben. But in the internal sense is signified that this faith was rejected, for it is not said what Jacob felt and thought about this nefarious deed; nevertheless that he utterly abominated and abhorred it, is manifest from his prophecy respecting Reuben:

Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my strength, and the beginning of my might; excellent in honor, and excellent in power. Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel, who wentest up thy father’s bed, then profanedst thou it, he went up my couch (Genesis 49:3-4);

and from Reuben’s being on this account deprived of his birthright (1 Chron. 5:1). Hence it is evident that by “Israel heard” is signified that this faith was rejected. (That “birthright” is the faith of the church may be seen above, n. 352, 2435, 3325.)

[2] The profanation of good is effected by faith separate when the truth of the church and its good are acknowledged and believed, and yet the man lives contrary to them. For with those who separate the things of faith from those of charity in the understanding and thence in life, evil is conjoined with truth and falsity with good; and this conjunction itself is what is called profanation. It is otherwise with those, who, although they know what the truth and good of faith are, still do not at heart believe. (See what has been said and shown before on profanation, n. 301-303vvv2, 571, 582, 593, 1001, 1003, 1008, 1010, 1059, 1327, 1328, 2051, 2426, 3398, 3399, 3402, 3489, 3898, 4050, 4289; also that the profanation of good by faith separate was represented by Cain’s killing Abel; by Ham’s being cursed by his father; and by the Egyptians being swallowed up by the Red Sea, n. 3325; and here also by Reuben, n. 3325, 3870).

[3] In order that those who are of the spiritual church could be saved, the Lord miraculously separated their intellectual part from their will part, and bestowed upon the intellectual the power of receiving a new will (n. 863, 875, 895, 927, 928, 1023, 1043, 1044, 2256, 4328, 4493). When therefore the intellectual apprehends and perceives the good which is of faith, and appropriates it to itself, and yet man’s will (that is, his willing evil) still reigns and commands, there is effected the conjunction of truth and evil, and of good and falsity. This conjunction is profanation, and is meant by eating and drinking unworthily in the Holy Supper, said of those from whom the good which is there signified by the “body,” and the truth which is there signified by the “blood,” cannot be separated, because things which have been conjoined in this manner can never be separated to all eternity, and therefore the deepest hell awaits them. But they who know what the truth and good of faith are, and yet do not at heart believe them (as is the case with most people at the present day), cannot profane them, because the intellectual does not receive them and imbue itself with them.

[4] It is the rejection of this separated faith that is here treated of, because in what presently follows truths and goods are treated of in their genuine order, and directly afterwards their conjunction with the rational or intellectual. The sons of Jacob presently named are truths and goods in genuine order, and Isaac is the rational or intellectual. The coming of Jacob and his sons to Isaac, is in the internal sense this conjunction with the intellectual.

895. The waters were dried up from off the earth. That this signifies that falsities did not then appear, is evident from what has been said. Specifically it signifies that falsities have been separated from the things of the will of the man of this church. The “earth” here signifies man’s will, which is nothing but cupidity; wherefore it is said that “the waters were dried up from off the earth.” His “ground” as said above, is in his intellectual part, in which truths are sown-never in his will part, which in the spiritual man is separate from the intellectual; wherefore it is said afterwards in this verse that the face of the “ground” was dried. With the man of the Most Ancient Church there was ground in his will, in which the Lord sowed goods, and then from the goods the man could know and perceive truth, or from love could have faith; but if this method were followed now, man could not but perish eternally, for his will is wholly corrupted. How the case is with this sowing in man’s will part, or-as is the case now-in his intellectual part, is evident from considering that revelations were made to the man of the Most Ancient Church by means of which he from his infancy was initiated into a perception of goods and truths, but as those revelations were sown in his will part, he without new instruction perceived innumerable things, so that from one general principle he knew from the Lord the particulars and the singulars which now men have to learn and so know, and yet after all they can know scarcely a thousandth part of them. For the man of the spiritual church knows nothing but what he learns, and what he knows in this way he retains and believes to be true. Indeed even if he learns what is false, and this is impressed on his mind as true, he believes it, because he has no other perception than that it is so, for so is he persuaded. Those who have conscience have from conscience a certain dictate, but no other than that a thing is true because they have so heard and learned. This is what forms their conscience, as is evident from those who have a conscience of what is false.