6846. 'And He said, I am the God of your father' means Him who was the God of the Ancient Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'father' as the Ancient Church, dealt with in 6075. The reason why the Ancient Church is called 'father' is that from it the Churches that came after it were born - the Hebrew Church, and later on the Church among the descendants of Jacob. For the religious practices and the statutes decreed through Moses for Jacob's descendants were not new but had existed previously in the ancient Churches and were merely re-established among the children of Jacob. They were re-established because among other nations they had become idolatrous practices, and in Egypt and Babel they had been converted into magical ones. The fact that the same things had existed in ancient Churches becomes clear from a large number of places in the Word. So it is then that the Ancient Church is meant by 'father', and also that it is called 'father' in the Word where the subject is the Church. The God whom people worshipped in the Ancient Church was the Lord in respect of His Divine Human; and it was well known to those people that the Lord was the One who was represented in each particular religious observance of their Church. A large number of them also knew that the Lord was going to come into the world, when He would make the Human within Himself Divine. Nor did the people of that Church take Jehovah to mean anyone else, for whenever He appeared to them He did so as a Divine Man, and was called Jehovah, 1343, 5663, as He also appeared at a later time to Abraham, Genesis 18:2 and following verses; to Joshua, Joshua 5:13-15; to Gideon, Judges 6:11 and following verses; and to Manoah and his wife, Judges 13:3 and following verses. He was acknowledged as God overall, and as the one and only God whom they were to adore. From all this one may now see that 'the God of your father' is used to mean in the internal sense Him who was the God of the Ancient Church, namely the Lord. But in the external sense written as history 'father' is used to mean Abraham, also Isaac, and Jacob too.

9063. 'He shall send him away free for his tooth' means that it cannot serve the internal man any longer. This is clear from the meaning of 'sending away free' as releasing from service, thus not serving any longer, as above in 9061; and from the meaning of 'tooth' as the level of the senses, dealt with immediately above in 9062. The situation in these matters may be recognized from what has been shown just above in 9061 regarding the condition of the internal man when the external man has been injured. Its condition is similar when the sensory level has been injured, for this is the lowest level in the natural man. This level too must be regenerated if a person is to be regenerated completely, see 6844, 6845, 7645. It is clear to anyone that these regulations concerning the eye or the tooth of a male slave or a female slave contain arcana which nobody can see without the help of the internal sense. For without some hidden reason why would it be stipulated that slaves should be released and go free because of an eye or because of a tooth, but not because of other parts of the body if they were badly damaged? But that hidden reason is made evident when one knows what is meant in the spiritual sense by 'eye' and by 'tooth'. And when one knows that, the reason for the stipulation comes to light.