4678. Verses 4-11 And his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, and they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him. And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brothers; and they hated him all the more. ¹ And he said to them, Hear now this dream which I have dreamed. Behold, we were binding sheaves in the middle of the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and also stood up, and behold, your sheaves gathered round it and bowed down to my sheaf. And his brothers said to him, Are you indeed going to reign over us? Or are you indeed going to have dominion over us? And they hated him all the more ¹ for his dreams and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream, and he recounted it to his brothers, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream again, and behold, the sun and the moon, and the eleven stars were bowing down to me. And he recounted it to his father and to his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall we indeed come - I and your mother, and your brothers - to bow down to you to the earth? And his brothers envied him; and his father kept the matter ² [in mind].

'His brothers saw' means things that are matters of faith - in the proximate sense, the descendants of Jacob. 'That their father loved him more than all his brothers' means that [the Lord's Divine Spiritual or Divine Truth] was joined to the Divine Natural - in the proximate sense, to the Ancient Church meant by 'father'. 'And they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him' means contempt and aversion. 'And Joseph dreamed a dream' means a declaration concerning Himself. 'And he told it to his brothers' means to the adherents to faith separated from charity. 'And they hated him all the more' means still greater contempt and aversion. 'And he said to them, Hear now this dream which I have dreamed' means the contents of the declaration. 'Behold, we were binding sheaves in the middle of the field' means that they were teaching from doctrine. 'And behold, my sheaf arose and also stood up' means teaching concerning the Lord's Divine Human. 'And behold, your sheaves gathered round it' means those who were governed by faith. 'And bowed down to my sheaf' means worship. 'And his brothers said to him' means the adherents to faith separated from charity. 'Are you indeed going to reign over us? Or are you indeed going to have dominion over us?' means, Were the concepts in their understandings and the desires in their wills to be made subject to it? 'And they hated him all the more for his dreams and for his words' means still greater contempt and aversion on account of that declaration of truth. 'And he dreamed yet another dream' means a further declaration. 'And he recounted it to his brothers, and said' means to the adherents to faith separated from charity. 'Behold, I have dreamed a dream again' means the contents. 'And behold, the sun and the moon' means natural good and natural truth. 'And the eleven stars' means cognitions of good and truth. 'Were bowing down to me' means worship. 'And he recounted it to his father and to his brothers' means being given to know it. 'And his father rebuked him and said to him, What is this dream that you have dreamed?' means indignation, 'father' at this point being the Jewish religion, an offspring of ancient religion. 'Shall we indeed come - I and your mother, and your brothers - to bow down to you to the earth?' means, Will the Church come to worship? 'And his brothers envied him' means their aversion. 'And his father kept the matter [in mind]' means that truth remained within their semblance of religion.

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4211. 'And called his brothers to eat bread' means [an invitation] to make the good from the Lord's Divine Natural their own. This is clear from the meaning of 'brothers' as those who were now to be joined together by the covenant, that is, by friendship, and in the internal sense as those who are governed by good and truth (for such people are called 'brothers', see 367, 2360, 3303, 3459, 3803, 3815, 4121, 4191); from the meaning of 'eating' as making one's own, dealt with in 3168, 3513 (end), 3832 (for meals taken together and feasts among the ancients meant making things their own and being joined together by means of love and charity, 3596); and from the meaning of 'bread' as good that stems from love, dealt with in 276, 680, 1798, 3478, 3735, and in the highest sense means the Lord, 2165, 2177, 3478, 3813. Since 'bread' in the highest sense means the Lord it therefore means everything holy which comes from Him, that is, it means everything good and true. And since no other good exists which is good except the good of love and charity, 'bread' therefore means love and charity. Sacrifices in former times had no other meaning, and for that reason were referred to by the single word 'bread', see 2165. And some of the flesh of the sacrifices was eaten so that the heavenly feast - that is, a joining together through good flowing from love and charity - might be represented. The same is meant today by the Holy Supper, for this has replaced sacrifices and feasts of consecrated things. The Holy Supper is in the Church an external practice that has an internal reality within it, and by means of this reality it joins one who is governed by love and charity to heaven, and by means of heaven to the Lord. For in the Holy Supper too 'eating' means making one's own - 'the bread' being celestial love and 'the wine' spiritual love - so much so that while it is being eaten by one in a state of holiness nothing else is perceived in heaven.

[2] The reason why the phrase 'making the good from the Lord's Divine Natural their own' is used is that the subject is the good that exists with the gentiles, for it is this good that 'Laban' represents now, 4189. When man is joined to the Lord he is not joined to His Supreme Divine itself but to His Divine Human, for man cannot have any idea at all of the Lord's Supreme Divine, because this lies so far beyond anything he can conceive of that it fades from view altogether and ceases to mean anything to him. But he is able to have an idea of His Divine Human. For everyone is joined through thought and affection to one of whom he can have some idea but not to one of whom he cannot have any idea. If, when a person thinks about the Lord's Human, holiness is present in his ideas he also thinks of the holiness which comes from the Lord and fills heaven, and at the same time he thinks of heaven, since heaven in its entirety corresponds to a complete human being, which correspondence has its origin in the Lord, 684, 1276, 2996, 2998, 3624-3649. This explains why it is not possible to be joined to the Lord's Supreme Divine, only to His Divine Human, and through that Divine Human to His Supreme Divine. Hence the statement in John 1:18 about nobody, except the only begotten Son, ever having seen God, also the statement about there being no way to the Father except through Him; as well as from the statement that He is the Mediator. The truth of all this can be plainly recognized from the fact that all within the Church who declare their belief in a Supreme Being and yet set the Lord at nought are people who have no belief in anything at all, not even in the existence of heaven or of hell, and who worship nature. And if such people are ready to learn from experience it will be clear to them that the wicked, even those who are extremely so, declare a like belief.

[3] But the way in which people think of the Lord's Human varies, one person's ideas being different from another's, and one person's more holy than another's. Those within the Church are able to think that His Human is Divine, and also that He is one with the Father, as He Himself says that the Father is in Him and He is in the Father. But those outside the Church are unable to do this, for one thing because they do not know anything about the Lord and for another because their idea of the Divine is gained solely from visible images and tangible idols. Nevertheless the Lord joins Himself to them by means of the good they do from the charity and obedience present within their crude notions of Him. And this is why mention is made here about them making the good from the Lord's Divine Natural their own. For when the Lord is joined to man the state of thought and consequent affection in him determines the exact nature of that conjunction. Those who have an entirely holy conception of the Lord and who at the same time have a true knowledge of and affections for what is good and true - as those within the Church are able to have - have been joined to the Lord as to His Divine Rational. Those however who do not have so holy a notion of Him and who do not have so interior a notion and affection, and yet the good of charity exists with them, have been joined to the Lord as regards His Divine Natural. And those whose holiness is cruder still are joined to the Lord as to His Divine Sensory Perception. This last type of joining is what is represented by 'the bronze serpent', in that those who looked at it recovered from serpent-bites, Numbers 21:9. This is the type of joining together which those among the gentiles have who worship idols and yet lead charitable lives in accordance with their own religion. From these considerations one may now see what is meant by making the good from the Lord's Divine Natural their own, meant by 'Jacob called his brothers to eat bread'.