5365. 'And the people cried out to Pharaoh for bread' means the need of good which was felt by truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'crying out' as the expression of someone enduring pain and grief, and so of someone in need; from the meaning of 'people' as truth, dealt with in 1259, 1260, 3295, 3581; from the representation of 'Pharaoh' as the natural, dealt with in 5079, 5080, 5095, 5160; and from the meaning of 'bread' as the celestial element of love, and so good, dealt with in 276, 680, 2165, 2177, 3464, 3478, 3735, 3813, 4211, 4217, 4735, 4976. From these meanings it follows that 'the people cried out to Pharaoh for bread' means the need of good that was felt by truth in the natural. This meaning seems, it is true, to be remote from the historical sense of the letter. Nevertheless, since people acquainted with the internal sense understand 'crying out', 'the people', 'Pharaoh', and 'bread' in no other way than mentioned above, such is the meaning that emerges from those words.

[2] What is implied by the need of good which was felt by truth must be stated. Truth has a need of good, and good has a need of truth; also, when truth has a need of good, truth is joined to good, and when good has a need of truth, good is joined to truth. The reciprocal joining together of good and truth - that is to say, the joining of truth to good, and of good to truth - is the heavenly marriage. During the initial phases when a person is being regenerated truth is multiplied, but good less so. And because at these times truth has no good to which it is joined, truth is therefore drawn into and deposited within the interior parts of the natural, so that it may be called forth from there in the measure that good is increased. In this state truth stands in need of good, and in the measure that good enters the natural a joining of truth to good is effected. Even so, this joining together does not lead to any fruitfulness. But once the person has been regenerated good increases, and as it does so it stands in need of truth and also acquires truth to itself and becomes joined to it. This is a joining of good to truth, and when this takes place truth is made fruitful by good, and good by truth.

[3] This process is one about which people in the world are totally ignorant, whereas those in heaven have a very good knowledge of it. If people in the world however knew, and not only knew but also had a perception of what celestial love or love to the Lord was, and what spiritual love or charity towards the neighbour was, they would also know what good was; for all good is the object of those loves. Above all they would know that good had a desire for truth, and truth had a desire for good, and that this desire and the essential nature of it determine the extent to which the two are joined together. Such would be evident to them from the fact that whenever they are thinking about truth, good presents itself linked together with that truth; and when good is stimulated, truth presents itself linked together with that good. And whenever both present themselves together they are accompanied by affection, desire, delight. or sacred yearning, from which they would then know what the joining together was essentially like. But because no knowledge is acquired by them as a result of an inner awareness or perception of what good is, such matters do not begin to be recognized by them. For what people know nothing about is unintelligible to them even if it happens to them.

[4] Also, because people are ignorant of what spiritual good is - that it is charity towards the neighbour - controversy therefore exists in the world, especially among the learned, over what the highest good may be. Scarcely anyone says ¹ it is the feeling of delight, bliss, blessedness, and happiness which flows from mutual love that does not have any selfish or worldly end in view attached to it and which constitutes heaven itself. From this it is also evident that the world at the present day knows nothing at all about what spiritual good is. Still less does it know that good and truth form themselves into a marriage, or that heaven consists in this marriage, or that those in whom the marriage exists possess wisdom and intelligence, or that they enjoy feelings of bliss and happiness in endless, indescribable variety. The world knows nothing about even a single one of those variations; consequently it neither acknowledges nor believes that any such thing exists, when in fact it is heaven itself or heavenly joy itself, about which the Church has so much to say.

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2625. 'At the appointed time' means when the Rational was such that it was receptive. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'time'. There are two things which appear to be indispensable while a person lives in the world because they exist as essential elements of the natural order - those two things being space and time. Living in the world or natural order therefore is living in space and time. But these two cease to have any existence in the next life. They do, it is true, appear to exist to some extent in the world of spirits, the reason for this being that spirits recently arrived from life in the body bring with them mental pictures of natural things. But subsequently they perceive that space and time do not exist in that life but states instead, and that states in the next life correspond to extensions of space and of time within the natural order - states in respect to Being corresponding to those of space, and in respect to Manifestation to those of time. Regarding space or place, see 1274, 1379, 1380, 1382.

[2] From this anyone may see what kind of mental pictures a person is able to have while in the world or natural order regarding things which belong to the next life and about many arcana of faith. He may see that such a person is unwilling to believe those things unless he can take them in by means of objects that exist in the world, indeed by sensory evidence. For he cannot do other than suppose that if he were to divest himself of his mental pictures that have been formed from space and time, more so to divest himself of space and time themselves, he would cease to be anything at all and so would have nothing left to him from which he could perceive with his senses or have thoughts of anything apart from that which was unintelligible to him. But in actual fact quite the reverse is the case: the life of angels is such that it is the wisest and happiest of all.

[3] This is the reason why people's ages mentioned in the Word do not in the internal sense mean ages but states, so that in this verse 'old age' does not mean old age. Nor does any number mean a number but some specific state, as in the case of 'a hundred years' mentioned further on. From this it now becomes clear that 'the appointed time' means the state when the rational was such that it was receptive.

[4] As regards the specific teaching presented here - that the Divine Rational received being and was given manifestation from the Lord's Divine spiritual united to His Divine celestial, when the days had been completed for him to cast off the human and when the Rational was such that it was receptive (meant in the internal sense by 'Sarah conceived and bore to Abraham a son in his old age, at the appointed time') - the following needs to be known:

The human has its beginnings in the inmost part of the rational, see 2106, 2194. The Lord advanced gradually towards the union of the Human Essence with the Divine Essence, and of the Divine Essence with the Human Essence, 1864, 2033, 2523.

He did so by His own power, 1921, 2025, 2026, 2083, through continuing temptations and repeated victories, 1690, 1737, 1813, and through receiving revelations repeatedly from His own Divine, 1616, 2500, till at length He cast out the whole human from the mother, 1414, 1444, 2574.

And in this way He made His Human - as to the Rational - Divine, as taught by the things that occur in this verse.

From all this it is evident how the explanation 'when the days had been completed for Him to cast off the human and when the Rational was such that it was receptive' is to be understood.

[5] Some idea of this matter may be had from what happens to people who are being regenerated. The celestial things of love, and the spiritual things of faith, are instilled into them by the Lord not all at once but gradually; and when by means of those things a person's rational has become such that it is able to be receptive, he is for the first time becoming regenerate, mostly by means of temptations in which he overcomes. While these experiences are taking place the days are being completed to cast off the old man and put on the new. Regarding man's regeneration, see 677, 679, 711, 848, 986, 1555, 2475.