10507. 'And now, go! lead the people to what I have spoken of to you' means bringing this nation to represent the Church, and does not mean that the Church was to exist among them. This is clear from the meaning of 'leading the people to the land of Canaan' as causing the Church to exist there; for 'the land of Canaan' means the Church, and 'leading the people to that land' in the spiritual sense means establishing the Church among that people, for that nation was therefore being led to that land in order that the Church might come into being there. Here however the meaning is that they were being brought merely to represent it, for it says, 'Lead the people to what' and not 'to the land which'.

Among the Israelite and Jewish nation the Church did not exist but only that which was representative of the Church, see 4281, 4288, 4311, 4500, 4899, 4912, 6304, 7048, 9320.

'The land of Canaan' means the Church, 3686, 3705, 4447, 5136, 6516, and therefore 'the land' or 'the earth' in the Word means the Church, in the places referred to in 9325.

3167. 'And to [her] mother' means to natural truth also, that is to say, spiritual things passed from the rational to it, even as they passed to natural good, dealt with just above. This is clear from the meaning of 'a mother' as the Church, which by virtue of truth is called 'a mother', dealt with in 289, 2717. So that people may know how spiritual things pass to natural good and to natural truth as a result of truth being introduced into good in the rational, a brief description must be given here. Everyone has an internal and an external, his internal being called the internal man, and his external the external man. But few know what the internal man is and what the external. The internal man is one and the same as the spiritual man, and the external man one and the same as the natural man. The spiritual man depends for understanding and wisdom on things that belong to the light of heaven, whereas the natural depends for its understanding and wisdom on things that belong to the light of the world. Regarding those two kinds of light, see 3138. For in heaven none but spiritual things exist, whereas in the world none but natural exist. The human being was created in such a way that in him spiritual things and natural things, that is, his spiritual man and his natural man, should accord with each other or make one. But in that case the spiritual man ought to have control over the things in the natural, and the natural man ought to obey, like a servant his master.

[2] Through the Fall however the natural man started to raise itself above the spiritual man and so turn Divine order itself upside down. As a consequence the natural man separated itself from the spiritual, and spiritual things could not reach it any longer except so to speak through chinks to provide the ability to think and speak. But so that spiritual things might flow in once more into the natural man this had to be regenerated by the Lord, that is, truth from the natural man had to be introduced and joined to good in the rational. When this happens spiritual things have access to the natural man, for now the light of heaven flows in and illuminates things in the natural man, and causes what is there to receive light. The goods there receive the warmth that the light conveys, which is love and charity, whereas the truth receives rays of light, which is faith. It is in this way that spiritual things pass from the rational into natural good and truth. Natural good in that case consists in all the delight and satisfaction gained from having service to the spiritual man as the end in view, and so service to the neighbour, more so to one's country, more so still to the Lord's kingdom, and above all to the Lord. And natural truth consists in all doctrinal teaching and factual knowledge which have wisdom, that is, the performance of those things, as the end in view.