9280. 'In order that your ox and your ass may rest' means the peace and serenity that external forms of good and truths enjoy at the same time. This is clear from the meaning of 'resting', when it refers to the seventh day or the sabbath, as peace and serenity, as immediately above in 9279; and from the meaning of 'ox' as external good, and of 'ass' as external truth, dealt with in 2781, 9135, 9255.

Beasts were signs of affections and inclinations such as the human being shares in common with them, see 45, 46, 142, 143, 246, 714, 715, 776, 2179, 2180, 2781, 3218, 3519, 5198, 5913, 8937, 9090, 9135.

Beasts were used in sacrifices in accordance with their spiritual meaning, 1823, 2180, 2805, 2807, 2830, 3519.

All things existing in the world, in its three kingdoms, were representative of the spiritual and celestial realities of the Lord's kingdom, 1632, 1881, 2758, 2987-3003, 3213-3227, 3483, 3624-3649, 4939, 5116, 5427, 5428, 5477, 8211.

All things have a correspondence, 2987-3003, 3213-3226, 3337-3352, 3472-3485, 3624-3649, 3745-3750, 3883-3896, 4039-4055, 4218-4228, 4318-4331, 4403-4420, 4523-4533, 4622-4634, 4652-4660, 4791-4806, 4931-4952, 5050-5062, 5171-5189, 5377-5396, 5552-5573, 5711-5727, 8615.

[2] These references have been drawn together to enable it to be seen that not merely all beasts but also all objects in the world have a correspondence, and that in accordance with their correspondences they all represent and serve to mean spiritual and celestial realities, and in the highest sense Divine realities that are the Lord's. And from this the character of the ancient Churches, called representative Churches, may be seen. This character was such that each one of their sacred observances served to represent things that are the Lord's and belong to His kingdom, thus aspects of love to Him and belief in Him. In those times heaven was joined to a member of the Church by means of these observances, since internal aspects were presented in heaven. The Word of the Lord has also been given to the same end, for every detail in it, even to the smallest part of a letter, has a correspondence and spiritual meaning. Through the Word alone therefore is heaven linked to mankind.

[3] No one at the present day knows that this is so. Consequently when the natural man reads the Word and seeks to discover where its Divinity lies, but does not find it in the letter on account of its very ordinary style, he at first begins to disparage it and then to reject the idea that it has been dictated by God and sent down to mankind by way of heaven. The natural man does not know that the Word is Divine by virtue of its spiritual sense, which is not visible in the letter but is nevertheless present within the letter; nor does he know that this sense is presented in heaven when someone on earth reads it devoutly, and that the subject in that sense is the Lord and His kingdom. These are the Divine things which make the Word Divine and through which holiness flows from the Lord by way of heaven, even into the literal sense and into the actual letters. But as long as a person does not know what anything spiritual is he cannot know either what the spiritual sense is, nor thus what correspondence is. And as long as a person loves the world more than heaven, and self more than the Lord, he has no wish to know these things and understand them. Yet they were the source of all intelligence among the ancients, and they are also the source of wisdom among the angels. Hidden mysteries, which numerous diviners have vainly toiled to track down in the Word, lie in those things alone.

5477. 'And they did not know that Joseph was hearing' means that the natural light in which those truths dwell does not engender any belief that spiritual light renders all things visible. This is clear from the representation of 'the sons of Jacob who did not know' as the truths which the external Church possesses, and so are present in the natural, often dealt with already - from which comes the meaning that the natural light in which those truths dwell does not engender any belief; and from the representation of 'Joseph' as the celestial of the spiritual, which dwells in spiritual light. But this spiritual light renders truths in the natural visible, and this is meant by 'Joseph was hearing'; for 'hearing' means both obeying and discerning, 5017. Thus spiritual light renders truths in the natural visible; but natural light cannot do the same for truths in the spiritual.

[2] The situation with natural light and spiritual light is as follows. Natural light flows from the sun in the world, and spiritual light flows from the Sun in heaven, which is the Lord. All the truths of faith that a person has learned since early childhood come to be understood by him with the help of the kinds of objects, and the ideas formed from these, that originate in the light of the world. Thus every single thing is seen in a natural way; for as long as he lives in the world all the ideas constituting a person's thought are based on the kinds of things that exist in the world. If therefore these things are taken away from him his thought is totally destroyed. One who has not been regenerated has no knowledge at all of the existence of spiritual light, not even of the existence in heaven of a light that has nothing in common with the light of the world. Still less does that person know that spiritual light is what lights up ideas and objects that originate in the light of the world and is what enables a person to think, draw conclusions, and reflect on them. The reason such spiritual light enables him to do this is that that light is wisdom itself which goes forth from the Lord; and that wisdom manifests itself as the light which the angels in heaven see before them. That light renders visible every single thing beneath it, that is, every single thing present with a person which is a product of natural light. But the reverse does not happen unless the person has been regenerated, in which case the things that belong to heaven, that is, forms of goodness and truth, are lit up by spiritual light and become visible in the natural as if in a representative mirror.

[3] From this it is evident that the Lord, who is Light itself, sees every single thing present in a person's thought and will, and present indeed in the whole natural creation; nothing at all escapes His notice. From all this one may now recognize what is involved here - that natural light in which those truths dwell does not engender any belief that spiritual light renders all things visible, meant by the words 'they did not know that Joseph was hearing'. Much the same is implied by the statement above in verse 8, 'Joseph recognized his brothers and they did not recognize him'. For these words mean that the truths of the Church were seen by the celestial of the spiritual by the light it possessed, and that truth from the Divine was not seen in natural light that was not yet brightened with heavenly light; see 5427, 5428.