4027. The things which have been here unfolded as to the internal sense of the words, are too interior and too arcane to admit of being clearly set forth to the understanding. For the subject treated of in the supreme sense is the Lord, how He made His natural Divine; and in the representative sense, how He makes man’s natural new when He regenerates him. All these things are here fully presented in the internal sense.

[2] The things here contained in the supreme sense concerning the Lord, how by His own power He made the natural in Himself Divine, are such as surpass even the angelic understanding. Something of them may be seen in the regeneration of man, because man’s regeneration is an image of the Lord’s glorification (n. 3138, 3212, 3296, 3490). Of this regeneration man may have some idea (no one, however, except the man who has been regenerated), but only an obscure idea so long as he lives in the body; for the corporeal and worldly things in which even such a man is, continually cast shadows on his mind and keep it in lower things. But they who have not been regenerated can have no apprehension of the matter, being without knowledges because without perceptions; nay, they know nothing whatever of what regeneration is, nor do they believe that it is possible. They do not even know what the affection of charity is by means of which regeneration is effected; and therefore they do not know what conscience is; still less what the internal man is; and less still what is the correspondence of the internal man with the external. The words they may indeed know, and many do know them, but they are ignorant of the thing. Seeing therefore that even the idea of these things is wanting, however clearly the arcana here contained in the internal sense should be set forth, it would still be like presenting something to sight in the dark, or telling something to the deaf. Moreover, the affections of the love of self and of the world that reign with them do not permit them to know, nor even to hear such things; for they immediately reject them, nay, spew them out. Very different is the case with those who are in the affection of charity. These are delighted with such things; for the angels with them are in their happiness when the man is in them, because they are then in things that treat of the Lord, in whom they are; and also in those which treat of the neighbor and his regeneration. From the angels (that is, through the angels from the Lord) delight and bliss flow in with the man who is in the affection of charity while reading these things, and more so when he believes what is holy to be within them, and still more when he apprehends anything of that which is contained in the internal sense.

[3] The subject here treated of is the influx of the Lord into the good of the internal man, and indeed through the good into the truth therein; also the influx therefrom into the external or natural man, and the affection of good and truth into which the influx takes place; and also the reception of truth and its conjunction with the good therein; and likewise the good that serves as a means, here signified by “Laban” and his “flock.” Concerning these subjects the angels, who are in the internal sense of the Word, or to whom the internal sense is the Word, see and perceive innumerable things of which scarcely anything can come to man’s understanding; and that which does come to it falls into his obscurity-which is the reason why these things are not explained more particularly.

3296. And the elder shall serve the younger. That this signifies that for a time the good of truth should be inferior, is evident from the signification of the “elder,” as being good; from the signification of “serving,” as being inferior; and from the signification of the “younger,” as being truth. How the case herein is may be seen from what follows, where it is described under the representation of Esau and Jacob; for as before said by Esau is represented good, and by Jacob, truth. That there was struggling or combat concerning priority and dominion, is described in the internal sense by Jacob’s taking away from Esau the birthright, and also his blessing; yet that this was done only for a time is manifest from Isaac’s prophecy concerning Esau.

And upon thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck (Genesis 27:40).

[2] That these things have an internal sense, and that what they signify cannot be known without the internal sense (namely, what is signified by two nations being in the womb, and by two peoples being separated from the bowels, and by one people prevailing over the other, and the elder serving the younger), is evident; and that they signify what has been said, is evident from what follows, where much will be said on this subject. Moreover it can with difficulty be believed that these expressions involve such things unless it is known how the case is with good and truth, and concerning the birth of the one from the other, and the change of state in man when he is being regenerated. In the internal sense indeed the Lord is treated of, and here how He made His natural Divine; nevertheless in the representative sense the regeneration of man is also treated of; for man’s regeneration is an image of the Lord’s glorification (n. 3043, 3138, 3212); that is, in regeneration as in a certain image it appears how the Lord glorified His Human, or what is the same, made it Divine. For as the Lord altogether changed His human state into the Divine, so also in man, when He regenerates him, the Lord utterly changes the man’s state, for He makes his old man new.