5443. 'And behold, the youngest is with our father today' means that they are also joined to spiritual good. This is clear from the representation of Benjamin, to whom 'the youngest' refers here, as the intermediary effecting a joining together, dealt with below; and from the representation of Jacob, who by now was Israel, to whom 'father' refers here, as spiritual good, dealt with in 3654, 4598. 'Benjamin' is the spiritual of the celestial, which is the intermediary, see 4592, 5411, 5413, 5419. That is to say, it is the intermediary that links the natural, or what is present in the natural, to the celestial of the spiritual, which is 'Joseph'. And since 'Benjamin' is the intermediary, while 'Israel' is spiritual good, the words 'behold, the youngest is with our father today' therefore mean a joining to spiritual good.

4598. 'Israel travelled on' means the celestial-spiritual of the natural then. This is clear from the meaning of 'travelling on' as a further stage or a continuation, dealt with in 4375, 4554, in this case towards aspects more interior still, and from the representation of 'Israel' here as the celestial-spiritual of the natural, dealt with in 4286. What the celestial-spiritual of the natural is has been explained already, namely the good of truth, or the good of charity arrived at through the truth of faith. Little knowledge exists in the world of what an advance towards more interior aspects is. It is not an advance into knowledge of facts, for that kind of advance is often made without any advancement towards interior things, and more often still is accompanied by a movement away from these. Neither is it an advance in maturity of judgement, for this too is sometimes accompanied by a movement away from interior things. Nor yet is it an advance made into cognitions of interior truth, for these count for nothing if a person does not have any affection for them. An advance towards interior things is an advance nearer to heaven and the Lord made by means of the cognitions of truth which have been implanted in an affection for them, and so is an advance made by means of the affections.

[2] What an advance towards interior things is like is not apparent to anyone in the world; but in the next life it is plain to see. In that life it is an advance out of a kind of haze into light; for compared with others people who are concerned solely with more external things live in a haze, and are also seen by the angels to do so, whereas those who have a concern for more internal things dwell in light, and consequently in wisdom since the light there is wisdom. And what is amazing, those living in the haze cannot see that those in light are in light, whereas those dwelling in light can see that those in the haze are in a haze. Since the subject is the advance made by the Lord's Divine towards more interior aspects, Jacob is called Israel here; but where that advance is not the subject he is called Jacob, as in verse 20 immediately before this, and in the final verse of this chapter.