5759. 'With whomever of your servants it is found, let him die' means that the one who does such a thing stands condemned. This is clear from the meaning of 'dying' as becoming damned, for spiritual death is nothing other than the state of damnation. The fact that those who lay claim to truth and good belonging to the Lord cannot be in heaven but are outside heaven is evident from what has been stated immediately above in 5758; and those who are outside heaven stand condemned. Such a law however is one of judgement based on truth. But when judgement is made on the basis of good as well as truth, those who do what is true and good, yet out of ignorance or simplicity attribute this to themselves, do not stand condemned. In the next life a method of vastation exists which is used to release them from this error. And quite apart from this [they do not stand condemned] because each person ought to do what is good and true seemingly of his own accord, while still believing that it comes from the Lord, see 2882, 2883, 2891. Acting in this way he casts aside that false notion as he matures and grows in intelligence and faith, until at length he acknowledges in his heart that his entire endeavour to do what is good and think what is true has had and continues to have its origin in the Lord. This also explains why the one sent by Joseph does indeed uphold the judgement, yet soon sets it aside. That is to say, he upholds but soon sets aside the judgement that the one with whom the cup was found should be put to death, for he says, implying a less severe sentence,

Now also, according to your words, so let it be: He with whom it is found will be my slave, and you will be blameless.

But the situation is different when people behave in the same way not out of ignorance or simplicity but because of tenets which they have reinforced with their beliefs and by their life. Yet even then, because they do what is good, the Lord in His mercy preserves with them some degree of ignorance and simplicity.

6138. 'And we will live, and our ground, as Pharaoh's slaves' means total submission. This is clear from the meaning of 'us and our ground' as the receptacles of goodness and truth, as immediately above in 6135-6137; and from the meaning of 'slaves' as existing without any freedom of one's own, dealt with in 5760, 5763, thus total submission. By receptacles are meant human forms themselves. For human beings are nothing else than forms receiving life from the Lord; yet the nature of those forms is such, owing to people's heredity and their own actions, that they refuse spiritual life coming from the Lord. But once those receptacles have been renounced so completely that they no longer claim any freedom of their own, there is total submission. The person who is being regenerated is brought at length, through the repeated experiences of desolation and sustainment, to a point at which he no longer wishes to be his own man but the Lord's. And once he has become the Lord's he passes into a state in which, if left to himself, he is dejected and gripped by anxiety. But when he is brought out of that state he returns to the bliss and happiness that are his, to the kind of state all the angels experience.

[2] The Lord desires any person's total submission so that He can make him blissful and happy. That is, He does not want him to be partly his own man and partly the Lord's, for then there are two masters whom a person cannot serve simultaneously, Matthew 6:24. Total submission is again meant by the Lord's words in Matthew,

Whoever loves father or mother above Me is not worthy of Me; and whoever loves son or daughter above Me is not worthy of Me. Matthew 10:37.

'Father or mother' in general means those aspects of a person essentially his own by virtue of his heredity, and 'son or daughter' those essentially his own by virtue of his own actions. What is essentially a person's own is also meant by his 'soul' in John,

He who loves his soul will lose it, and he who hates his soul in this world will keep it into eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. John 11:25-26.

Total submission is also meant by the Lord's words in Matthew,

Another disciple said, Lord, let me first go away and bury my father. But Jesus said to him, Follow Me, and leave the dead to bury their dead. Matthew 8:21-22.

[3] The need for total submission is perfectly clear from the Church's first commandment,

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. Mark 12:30.

Thus since love to the Lord does not come from man but from the Lord Himself, all his heart, all his soul, all his mind, and all his strength, which are recipients, must be the Lord's; they must therefore be submitted totally to Him. Such a submission is what is meant by 'we will live, and our ground, as Pharaoh's slaves'; for 'Pharaoh' represents the natural in general, which is subject to the control of the internal celestial, in the highest sense to the control of the Lord, who is 'Joseph' in that highest sense.