5763. 'He with whom it is found will be my slave' means that the one with whom that thing is present will forever be without his freedom. This is clear from the meaning of 'slave' as being without one's freedom, as above in 5760. The implications of this are as follows: Joseph's cup made of silver, placed on Joseph's orders with Benjamin, means interior truth, 5736, 5747. Anyone in possession of interior truth knows that everything true and good comes from the Lord, also that all freedom of one's own or originating in a person himself is hellish freedom. For when a person is motivated by his own freedom to do or think something, he does and thinks nothing but evil. He is consequently the devil's slave, hell being the origin of all evil that flows in. He also has a feeling of delight in that freedom, because it fits in with the evil in which he is steeped and into which he was born. Consequently he needs to rid himself of the freedom which is his own and take on heavenly freedom instead, which consists in willing what is good and therefore doing what is good, and in desiring what is true and therefore thinking what is true. When a person receives this freedom he is the Lord's slave or servant, in which case he enjoys true freedom and is not in the slavery in which he had been previously and which seemed like freedom. This is what is meant by being forever without his own freedom. What the essence and origin of freedom are, see 2870, 2893; true freedom consists in being led by the Lord, 2890.

2890. The evil spirits residing with a person through whom he communicates with hell see him as no more than their vile slave, for they pour into him their own desires and persuasions, and thereby lead him wherever they wish. But the angels through whom a person communicates with heaven see him as a brother and instill into him affections for what is good and true, and thereby lead him in freedom not where they wish but where the Lord pleases. This shows the nature of both types of freedom, and that it is slavery to be led by the devil but freedom to be led by the Lord.