5680. 'And they said, Your servant our father has peace' means a perception gained from there by the natural that all is well with the good from which it springs. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' as perceiving, dealt with in 1898, 1919, 2080, 2619, 2862, 3395, 3509; from the meaning of 'peace' as all being well, dealt with in 5662, 5677; and from the representation of 'Israel' as spiritual good, dealt with just above in 5678. This good is called their 'father' because the truths and forms of good present in the natural, which are represented by Israel's ten sons, spring from it as their father. And as the truths and forms of good in the natural are represented by those sons, the natural is also meant by them; for the natural is the container, while the truths and forms of good there are its contents which make one with it. From all this it is evident that 'they said, Your servant our father has peace' means a perception gained from there by the natural that all is well with the good from which it springs.

[2] The perception is said to be gained from there - from the internal represented by 'Joseph', 5648 - because every perception gained by the natural comes from the spiritual; and because it comes from the spiritual it comes from the internal, that is, from the Lord through the internal. The natural cannot possibly have any perception, nor even any life present within thought and affection, other than that which comes from the spiritual. For all things within the natural that are essentially its own are dead; but they receive life through what flows in from the spiritual world, that is, from the Lord by way Of the spiritual world. In the spiritual world everything receives life from the light flowing from the Lord, for that light holds wisdom and intelligence within. The meaning here - that the perception is gained from there, from the internal, in the natural - also follows from what has gone before in 5677.

3576. 'And he blessed him' means conjunction thereby. This is clear from the meaning of 'being blessed' as conjunction, dealt with in 3504, 3514, 3530, 3565. From these details which refer to Esau and Jacob it becomes clear that the good of the rational joined itself inmostly to the good of the natural, and then through the good of the natural to the truth there. For 'Isaac' represents the rational as regards good, 'Rebekah' the rational as regards truth, while 'Esau' represents the good of the natural and 'Jacob' the truth of the natural. The idea that the rational as regards good, which is 'Isaac', joined itself inmostly to the good of the natural, which is 'Esau', but not to the truth of the natural, which is 'Jacob', except indirectly, is evident from the consideration that Isaac had Esau in mind when pronouncing the blessing on Jacob. At that time he was not thinking of Jacob but of Esau. When anyone pronounces a blessing he is blessing the person of whom he is thinking, not someone of whom he is not thinking. All blessing comes forth from something interior, for though pronounced with the lips it receives its life from the will and the thought of the person pronouncing it. It belongs essentially therefore to the individual to whom he wishes to impart it and of whom he is thinking. If anyone intercepts it and so makes it his own it is like something stolen which ought to be restored to the other person. The fact that Isaac, when pronouncing the blessing, was thinking of Esau and not of Jacob becomes clear from every single detail that goes before this - from verses 18-19, where Isaac said to Jacob,

Who are you, my son? And Jacob said to his father, I am Esau your firstborn.

Then from verses 21-23,

Isaac said to Jacob, Come near now, and I will feel you, my son, whether you are my son Esau, or not.

And after feeling him he said, The voice is Jacob's voice, and the hands Esau's hands; and he did not recognize him.

Also from verse 24,

And he said. Are you my very son Esau? And he said, I am.

And at length, when kissing him,

He smelled the odour of his clothes.

That is to say, he smelled Esau's clothes, at which point he blessed him and said,

See, the odour of my son.

From all this it is clear that by the son whom he blessed he meant none other than Esau. This also was why when he heard from Esau that it had been Jacob,

Isaac trembled very greatly. Verse 33.

And he said, Your brother came in deceitfully. Verse 35.

The reason why Jacob retained the blessing however, according to what is said in verses 33-37, was that truth represented by 'Jacob' would from the point of view of time apparently have dominion, as shown frequently above.

[2] But once the time of reformation and regeneration is completed good itself which has been Lying hidden in the inmost parts and from there has been disposing every single thing which seemed to be a matter of truth, that is, which truth had ascribed to itself, comes to the fore and openly has dominion. And this is what Isaac's words addressed to Esau mean,

By your sword you will live, and you will serve your brother. And it will be when you have dominion over him, that you will break his yoke from above your neck, Verse 40.

The internal sense of these words is that all the time truth is joined to good, good appears to be in the lower position but will eventually be in the higher. At this point there will be a joining together of the rational with the good of the natural, and through the good of the natural with the truth. Truth will thus become the truth of good. In this case 'Esau' will consequently represent the good itself of the natural and 'Jacob' the truth of the natural, both joined to the rational. Accordingly in the highest sense they will represent the Lord's Divine Natural - 'Esau' as regards the Divine Good there and 'Jacob' as regards the Divine Truth.