4715. 'And he sent him out of the Valley of Hebron' means going forth from the Divine Natural and Sensory degrees. This is clear from the meaning of 'being sent' as going forth and teaching, dealt with above in 4710; from the meaning of 'a valley' as things that are low, dealt with in 1723, 3417; and from the meaning of 'Hebron' as the Lord's Church as regards good, dealt with in 2909. The words used at this point accordingly mean that it was to teach the lower things of the Church, for the reason that people would not grasp the higher ones. Indeed one who teaches faith and not charity cannot possibly discern the higher and more internal things of the Church since he does not possess the wherewithal that leads him to see and lays down for him whether a particular idea is part of faith or is the truth. But if he teaches charity he is in that case in possession of good. Good lays down the truth for him and leads him, for all truth stems from good and has to do with good; or what amounts to the same, every aspect of faith stems from charity and has to do with charity. The fact that everything taught by doctrine has regard to life anybody can recognize from natural enlightenment alone.

[2] The meaning 'going forth from the Divine Natural and Sensory degrees' carried by the words used here is their higher meaning. For the expression 'lower things of the Church' is used to describe those which have their origin in the Lord's Divine Natural and Sensory degrees. Not that within the Lord these things are lower ones - for within the Lord and within His Divine Human everything is Infinite, indeed He is Jehovah as regards both Essences, 2156, 2329, 2921, 3023. Those things are lower because of what the situation is with man. People who are sensory-minded rely on ideas as grasped by the senses to think of things which exist within the Lord and which go forth from the Lord, and those who are natural-minded rely on natural ideas. The nature of the recipients is the reason for the way any matter is stated. People however who are heavenly-minded and are as a consequence truly rational do perceive interior things. These are the ones of whom it is said that they teach from the Lord's Divine Rational. This, as has been stated, is the higher meaning which these words carry.

[3] The meaning of 'a valley' as the lower things of the Church may be seen from other places in the Word, as in Isaiah,

The prophecy of the valley of vision. What is this, that you have gone up, every one onto the housetops? The Lord Jehovih Zebaoth has a day of tumult and of trampling and of confusion in the valley of vision. Isaiah 22:1, 5.

'The valley of vision' stands for false notions about spiritual things - notions formed from sensory impressions, and so from lower things. In the same prophet,

The choicest of your valleys were filled with chariots, and the horsemen positioned themselves at the gate. Isaiah 22:7.

'The choicest of the valleys' stands for goods and truths within the natural or external man. In the same prophet,

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of Jehovah; make plain in the lonely place a highway for our God; every valley will be lifted up. Isaiah 40:3-4.

'Valley' stands for things that are lowly.

[4] In Jeremiah,

How will you say, I have not been defiled, I have not gone after the baalim. Look at your way in the valley; acknowledge what you have done. Jeremiah 2:23.

'The valley' stands for factual knowledge and sensory impressions, which are lower things, by means of which they would pervert truths. In the same prophet,

I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley, O rock of the plain, said Jehovah, you who say, Who will come down against us? Jeremiah 21:13.

'Inhabitant of the valley' and 'rock of the plain' stand for faith which has no charity in it. In the same prophet,

He who lays waste will come upon every city, and no city will escape; but the valley will perish, and the plain will be destroyed. Jeremiah 48:8.

Here the meaning is similar. In the same prophet,

You will not boast of valleys; your valley has flowed away, O perverse daughter. Jeremiah 49:4.

'Valley' stands for the external things within worship which are also the lowest.

[5] In Ezekiel,

I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel, the valley of those that pass over. There they will bury Gog and all his multitude, from which they will call it the valley of the multitude of Gog. Ezekiel 39:11, 15.

'Gog' stands for those whose worship is external devoid of internal, 1151, which is why the expressions 'his grave', 'the valley of those that pass over', and 'the valley of his multitude' are used. In David,

Even when I walk in the valley of the shadow I will fear no evil. Psalms 23:4.

'The valley of the shadow' stands for lower things which, compared with others, are in shadow.

[6] Because valleys lay between mountains and hills and beneath them, 'valleys' therefore means the lower or more external things of the Church; for 'hills' and 'mountains' mean the higher or more internal things of it, 'hills' things of charity and 'mountains' those of love to the Lord, 795, 1430, 2722, 4210. And because 'the land of Canaan' means the Lord's kingdom and His Church, that Church is therefore called,

A land of mountain's and valleys, on the arrival of the rain of heaven it drinks water. Deuteronomy 11:11.

The reason Joseph is said at this point of have been sent out of the Valley of Hebron is that he was sent to those who taught about faith, 4705.

Those who are governed by faith, not by charity, adhere to lower things, for with them faith exists merely in the memory and consequently on the lips, not in the heart and consequently in action.

4687. 'And behold, my sheaf arose and also stood up' means teaching concerning the Lord's Divine Human. This is clear from the meaning of 'a sheaf' as doctrinal teaching, dealt with immediately above; and from the meaning of 'arising and standing up' as that which is the highest and is going to reign and which they are going to worship. The highest object of worship is the Lord's Divine Human, as is evident from the descriptions which follow: The eleven sheaves bowed down to that sheaf, and in the second dream the sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed down to Joseph (meaning that which is highest and is going to reign and which they are going to worship), on account of which dreams Jacob says, 'Are we indeed to come - I and your mother, and your brothers - to bow down to you to the earth?' The Lord's Divine Truth is that which is represented by 'Joseph', as stated above, the highest aspect of it being the Lord Himself, and the highest among matters of doctrine being that His Human is Divine.

[2] So far as this highest matter of doctrine is concerned, the Most Ancient Church, which was celestial and was called Man more so than all others, worshipped the Infinite Being (Esse) and the Infinite Manifestation (Existens) of that Being. And because they could not have any perception of an Infinite Being, yet could have - from what they could perceive in their internal man, what they could experience with their senses in their external man, and what was visible to them in the world - some perception of the Infinite Manifestation of the Infinite Being, they therefore worshipped the Infinite Manifestation which held the Infinite Being within it. That Infinite Manifestation holding the Infinite Being within it they perceived as a Divine Man. They did so because they knew that the Infinite Manifestation was brought forth from the Infinite Being by means of heaven. And because heaven is the Grand Man corresponding to every single part of the human being - as has been shown at the ends of chapters before this one and will be shown at the ends of several more coming after it they were unable to have through perception any other conception of the Infinite Manifestation of an Infinite Being than that of a Divine Man. For whatever passes from the Infinite Being by way of heaven as the Grand Man presents an image of that Being in every single thing. When that celestial Church started to fall they foresaw that that Infinite Manifestation could not continue any longer to come into people's minds and that this being so the human race would perish. For this reason they received by revelation the knowledge that One was to be born who would make Divine the Human within Himself and in this way an Infinite Manifestation like that which had existed previously would come about, and would at length be one with the Infinite Being as this had also been previously. From this arose their prophecy concerning the Lord contained in Genesis 3:15.

[3] This whole matter is described in John as follows,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us; and we beheld His glory as of the Only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:1-4, 14.

'The Word' is Divine Truth which in its Essence is the Infinite Manifestation of the Infinite Being, and is the Human of the Lord Himself. This Human is the source from which Divine truth now proceeds and flows into heaven, and through heaven into the minds of men. Consequently this Human rules and governs everything, even as it has done so from eternity; for it is one and the same with the Infinite being by virtue of His joining the Human to the Divine, which He effected by making even the Human within Him Divine. From this it may now be seen that the highest aspect of Divine truth is the Lord's Divine Human, and from this that the Church's highest matter of doctrine is that His Human is Divine.