4835. 'Come [in] to your brother's wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her' means that this - that representative of the Church - might be continued. This is clear from the meaning of 'coming (or going in) to a brother's wife and performing the duty of a husband's brother to her' as preserving and continuing that which constitutes the Church. The requirement laid down in the Mosaic Law, that if a man died without issue his brother was to marry his widow and raise up seed for his brother, and that the firstborn was to receive his dead brother's name, whereas all other sons were to be his own, was called the duty of a brother-in-law. The fact that this directive was nothing new in the Jewish Church but a practice already in existence is clear from the words used here; and the same goes for many other directives given to the Israelites through Moses, such as the law forbidding them to take wives from the daughters of the Canaanites and requiring them to marry within their own families, Genesis 24:3-4; 28:1-2. From these and many other examples it is evident that a Church had existed previously in which the same kind of practices were followed as those at a later time which were declared to and demanded of the sons of Jacob. Altars and sacrifices likewise had been in use since ancient times, as is evident from Genesis 8:20-21; 22:3, 7-8. From this it is plain that the Jewish Church was not a new Church but a revival of the Ancient Church which had perished.

[2] What the law regarding the duty of a brother-in-law had been is clear in Moses,

If brothers dwell together but one of them dies, and has no son, the wife of the dead one shall not marry a stranger outside [the family]; her brother-in-law shall go in to her, and take her to himself as his wife, and so perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her. Then it will happen, that the firstborn whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, so that his name is not wiped out from Israel. But if the man is unwilling to take his sister-in-law, his sister-in-law shall go up to the gate to the elders, and she shall say, My brother-in-law refuses to raise up for his brother a name in Israel; he is unwilling to perform the duty of a brother-in-law for me. Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him; and if he stands and says, I do not desire to take her, his sister-in-law shall go up to him in the sight of the elders, and she shall remove his shoe from upon his foot and spit in his face; and she shall answer and say, So will it be done to the man who does not build up his brother's house. Therefore his name will be called in Israel, The house of him who has his shoe taken off. Deuteronomy 25:5-10.

[3] Anyone who does not know what the duty of a brother-in-law represents inevitably believes that the practice existed solely for the sake of preserving a name and consequently an inheritance. But the preservation of a name and an inheritance was not in itself a great enough reason why a brother should have been required to enter into a marriage with his sister-in-law. Rather, the practice was ordained so that the preservation and continuation of the Church might be represented through it. For a marriage represented the marriage of good and truth, which is the heavenly marriage. It therefore represented the Church too, for the Church is a Church by virtue of the marriage of good and truth, and when this marriage exists within it the Church makes one with heaven, which is the true heavenly marriage. And because a marriage represented these things, 'sons and daughters' were therefore representations and also meaningful signs of truths and goods. This being so, 'being without issue' meant a lack of good and truth, and so meant that no representative of the Church existed in that house any longer, and that as a consequence it was not in communion with the Church. In addition 'brother' represented a kindred good to which the truth represented by a widow might be joined. For to be the kind of truth that has life, produces fruit, and thereby continues that which constitutes the Church, truth cannot be joined to any other good but that which is its own and a kindred one. This was how those in heaven perceived the duty of a brother-in-law.

[4] The meaning of this practice - of a sister-in-law removing the shoe from upon the foot of the man who refused to do the duty of a brother-in-law, and of her spitting in his face - was this: Anyone devoid of good and truth, external and internal, would destroy those things that constitute the Church; for 'the shoe' means that which is external, 1748, and 'the face' that which is internal, 1999, 2434, 3527, 4066, 4796. From this it is evident that 'the duty of a brother-in-law' represented the preservation and continuation of the Church. But when through the Lord's Coming representatives of internal things came to an end, that particular law was done away with. It is like a person's soul or spirit in relation to his body. A person's soul or spirit is the internal part of him and his body the external; or what amounts to the same, the soul or spirit is the true likeness of the person, whereas the body is merely a representative image of him. When a person rises again his representative image or that which is external, namely his body, is cast aside, for he is now conscious in that which is internal, namely the true likeness of him. It is also like a person who is in darkness and from there looks at things belonging to light; or what amounts to the same, like one who is in the light of the world and from there looks at things belonging to the light of heaven. For the light of the world in comparison with the light of heaven is as darkness. Within that darkness, that is, within the light of the world, things belonging to the light of heaven as they exist essentially cannot be seen, but are seen so to speak within a representative image, even as the human mind is seen in a person's face. Therefore when the light of heaven is seen in its own essential brightness, the darkness of representative images is dispelled. This was effected through the Lord's Coming.

[4835a] 'And raise up seed for your brother' means so that the Church does not perish. This is clear from the meaning of 'seed' as truth derived from good, or faith grounded in charity, dealt with in 1025, 1447, 16110, 1940, 2848, 3310, 3373, 3671. The same is also meant by the firstborn who was to succeed to the name of the dead brother, 352, 367, 2435, 3325, 3494. 'Raising up seed for a brother' means continuing that which constitutes the Church, in line with what has been stated just above in 4834, and thus means so that the Church does not perish.

3368. 'Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I tell you' means not resorting to facts but to rational concepts which, when enlightened from the Divine, are appearances of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'Egypt' as facts, dealt with in 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462, and from the meaning of 'the land' here as rational concepts which, when enlightened from the Divine, are appearances of truth. 'The land' meant here is in fact Gerar, where Abimelech the king of the Philistines was, and 'Gerar' means faith, 'Abimelech' the doctrine of faith that has regard to rational concepts, and 'the king of the Philistines' matters of doctrine, see 3364, 3365. 'The land' therefore, that is to say, Gerar where Abimelech was, has no other meaning in the internal sense. For 'the land' or 'the earth' varies in meaning, see 620, 636, 1066, since it means the character of the nation whose land it is said to be, 1262, though in the proper sense it means the Church, 3355; and as it means the Church it also means the things that belong to the Church, that is, the things which with anyone constitute the Church. Consequently it means the matters of doctrine concerning charity and faith, and so also the rational concepts which, when enlightened from the Divine, are appearances of truth; for these appearances are the truths of the Church, and so its matters of doctrine, see above in 3364, 3365.

[2] Whether you speak of rational concepts enlightened from the Divine, or of appearances of truth, or of celestial and spiritual truths as these exist in the Lord's kingdom in the heavens, or in heaven, and as they exist in the Lord's kingdom on earth, or in the Church, it amounts to the same. The same are also called matters of doctrine, but this is so because of the truths they hold within them. The rational, both in angels and in men, has its being and is called rational from appearances of truth that have been enlightened from the Divine. Devoid of those appearances the rational has no existence, so that rational concepts are appearances. The reason it is said here that he was not to go down to Egypt, that is, not to resort to facts, is that facts have been dealt with already, in that Abraham's sojourning in Egypt represented the Lord's instruction in facts during childhood; see 1502.

[3] The implications of the arcanum that he was not to go down into Egypt but was to sojourn in the land of Gerar, that is, He was not to have regard to facts but to rational concepts, are that all appearances of truth that hold the Divine within them belong to the rational, so much so that rational truths and appearances of truth are one and the same, whereas facts belong to the natural, so much so that natural truths and factual truths are one and the same. Rational truths, or appearances of the truth, cannot possibly exist or manifest themselves except from an influx of the Divine into the rational, and by way of rational concepts into the facts that belong to the natural. That which is produced at that time in the rational is seen in the natural as an image produced by many objects reflected simultaneously in a mirror. This is how they present themselves to men and to angels also, though with angels the presentation of rational concepts in the natural is not very manifest, as it is with those in the world of spirits and the spiritual-natural realm, who therefore have representatives of truth.

[4] It is similar with men, with every one, for as stated already anyone who is governed by good is a miniature heaven, or what amounts to the same, an image of heaven as a whole. And because Divine Truth is unable to flow directly into the facts that are present in the natural man, but only - as has been stated - by way of rational concepts it is therefore said here, Do not go down to Egypt, but dwell in the land of Gerar. But as no clear idea of these matters is possible unless one knows the nature of influx, and also the nature of ideas, therefore they are in the Lord's Divine mercy to be dealt with at the ends of chapters, where experiences to do with influx will be described.