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Genesis 45

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1 Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me: and there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known to his brethren.

2 And he wept aloud; and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard.

3 And Joseph said to his brethren, I am Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence.

4 And Joseph said to his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you: and they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.

5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither; for God sent me before you to preserve life.

6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in which there shall neither be tillage nor harvest.

7 And God sent me before you, to preserve for you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

9 Haste ye, and return to my father, and say to him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me; delay not:

10 And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near to me, thou, and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast:

11 And there will I nourish thee, (for yet there are five years of famine,) lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, should come to poverty.

12 And behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh to you.

13 And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen: and ye shall haste, and bring down my father hither.

14 And he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck, and wept; and Benjamin wept upon his neck.

15 Moreover, he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon them: and after that his brethren talked with him.

16 And the fame of this was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brethren are come: and it pleased Pharaoh well, and his servants.

17 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Say to thy brethren, This do ye; load your beasts, and go, return to the land of Canaan;

18 And take your father, and your households, and come to me: and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land.

19 Now thou art commanded, this do ye; take for yourselves wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring your father, and come.

20 Also regard not your furniture; for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours.

21 And the children of Israel did so: and Joseph gave them wagons, according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way.

22 To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment: but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver, and five changes of raiment.

23 And to his father he sent after this manner; ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt, and ten she-asses laden with corn and bread and meat, for his father by the way.

24 So he sent his brethren away, and they departed: and he said to them, See that ye contend not by the way.

25 And they went up from Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan, to Jacob their father,

26 And told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not.

27 And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them: and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived:

28 And Israel said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 5948

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5948. 'And do not let your eye be sparing over your household utensils' means let no concern be shown for anything that serves instrumentally. This is clear from the meaning of 'household utensils' or vessels as things that serve instrumentally; and a showing of no concern for these is meant by 'do not let your eye be sparing'. There are essentials and there are instruments. To act and produce any effect an essential must be served by an instrument through which it can act; and according to the way the instrument has been fashioned, so the essential acts. For example, the body serves as the instrument of its spirit; the external man serves as the instrument of the internal man; factual knowledge serves as the instrument of truth; truth serves as the instrument of good, 3068, 3079; and so on.

[2] In the Word instruments are called vessels, in the present context 'household utensils' because it is speaking about the moving of those people from one place to another and so about the contents of their houses. But essentials are called 'things' in the Word, and are what act by means of instruments. Thus because interior things act by means of exterior ones the former are essentials, in relation to the latter. When saying that no concern should be shown for anything that serves instrumentally one means that not these but the essentials should be kept as the end in view. For to the extent that the instruments are kept as the end in view the essentials withdraw and disappear from sight. If for example factual knowledge is kept in view without any concern for truths, the truths at length disappear so far from sight that one cannot tell whether they are truths. Or if truths are kept in view without any concern for good, the good at length disappears so far from sight that it no longer exists. It is the same with people who keep earthly, bodily, or worldly things in view, so that their only concern is for them and not at all for heavenly ones. The heavenly things disappear from sight till at length scarcely anything heavenly is recognized. These and other similar considerations are what are meant by 'do not let your eye be sparing over your household utensils'.

[3] But it should be remembered that 'the essential and the instrument' describes a relationship. That is to say, the expression 'essential' is used of one thing because of its action through another serving as its instrument or organ. When however something else acts through the instrumentality of that which was the essential, this now becomes an instrument; and so on. Furthermore there is nothing in the whole of creation that is an ultimate essential; such exists solely in the Supreme Being, that is, in the Lord. Since His is the ultimate Being or Essential (Esse seu Essentiale) He is called Jehovah, a name formed from Being; and all else is merely an instrument. From all this it now follows that because, as has been stated, one should keep Essentials, not instruments, as one's end in view, the Lord alone should be kept in view.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.