Arcana Coelestia # 3019
3019. 'Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his house' means the ordering and influx of the Lord into His Natural, meant by 'the servant, the oldest of the house'. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' here as commanding since it is a servant to whom Abraham's words are addressed; and since the subject is the re-arranging by the Divine of the things that exist in the natural man, ordering and influx are meant. For everything that is done in the natural or external man is an ordering by the rational or internal, and is effected by means of influx. The use of the expression 'the servant, the oldest of the house' to mean the natural, or the natural man, may be seen from the meaning of 'a servant' as that which is lower and serves what is higher, or what amounts to the same, that which is exterior and serves what is interior, see 2541, 2567. All things that belong to the natural man, as facts of every kind do, are nothing else than a body of servants, for they serve the rational by enabling it to be thoroughly fair in what it thinks and righteous in what it wills. That 'the oldest of the house' is the natural man becomes clear from what follows below.
1 Kings 7:27-39
27
He made the ten bases of brass; four cubits was the length of one base, and four cubits its breadth, and three cubits its height.
28
The work of the bases was like this: they had panels; and there were panels between the ledges;
29
and on the panels that were between the ledges were lions, oxen, and cherubim; and on the ledges there was a pedestal above; and beneath the lions and oxen were wreaths of hanging work.
30
Every base had four bronze wheels, and axles of brass; and the four feet of it had supports: beneath the basin were the supports molten, with wreaths at the side of each.
31
The mouth of it within the capital and above was a cubit: and its mouth was round after the work of a pedestal, a cubit and a half; and also on its mouth were engravings, and their panels were foursquare, not round.
32
The four wheels were underneath the panels; and the axles of the wheels were in the base: and the height of a wheel was a cubit and half a cubit.
33
The work of the wheels was like the work of a chariot wheel: their axles, and their rims, and their spokes, and their naves, were all molten.
34
There were four supports at the four corners of each base: its supports were of the base itself.
35
In the top of the base was there a round compass half a cubit high; and on the top of the base its stays and its panels were of the same.
36
On the plates of its stays, and on its panels, he engraved cherubim, lions, and palm trees, according to the space of each, with wreaths all around.
37
In this way, he made the ten bases: all of them had one casting, one measure, and one form.
38
He made ten basins of brass: one basin contained forty baths; and every basin was four cubits; and on every one of the ten bases one basin.
39
He set the bases, five on the right side of the house, and five on the left side of the house: and he set the sea on the right side of the house eastward, toward the south.
