Ephraim was the second son born to Joseph in Egypt and was, along with his older brother Manasseh, elevated by Jacob to the same status as Joseph’s brothers. Thus when the tribes of Israel are named, Ephraim and Manasseh are named as patriarchs along with their uncles – Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin -- but Joseph is not. According to Swedenborg, Ephraim represents the intellectual aspect of the church, the part that explores and understands what is true – especially the true ideas that can be drawn from the Bible. Manasseh, meanwhile, represents the affectional aspect of the church, the part that feels and loves and cares. This plays into the best-known story of Ephraim’s life. When Jacob was old and nearing death, Joseph brought his two sons to be blessed. He presented Manasseh to Jacob’s right hand as the elder, and Ephraim to Jacob’s left hand. But Jacob crossed his hands and gave Ephraim the primary blessing. According to Swedenborg, Manasseh was the elder son because ultimately, what we love makes us who we are; our loves form our lives. So our loves are the most central, leading aspect of our human existence, with our intellect playing a secondary role. But as we develop, we need to reverse those. We can use our intellect to understand what is good and right and force ourselves to do it, even when our desires are for what’s selfish. If we stick to that out of a determination to follow the Lord and be good people, the Lord will eventually remove the selfishness from our hearts so we can truly love what is good. By having Jacob bless Ephraim above Manasseh, the Lord is telling us that we have to put our intellect first to pursue our spiritual journey.

3245. 'Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac' in the highest sense means all the Divine things within the Divine Rational, and in the relative sense the celestial things of love imparted to the Lord's celestial kingdom. This is clear from the representation of 'Abraham' as the Lord as regards the Divine itself, dealt with already, and from the representation of 'Isaac' as the Lord as regards the Divine Rational, also dealt with already. Now because in the internal sense the Lord is represented by both Abraham and Isaac, and the Lord made His Rational Divine from His own Divine, 'Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac' therefore means all the Divine things within the Divine Rational. All that precedes and follows has regard to this, that is to say, to the consideration that everything in the Lord's Rational was made Divine. Indeed in the places where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are the subject, the Lord's Human, how it was made Divine, is dealt with in the internal sense.

[2] There are two components which strictly speaking make up the human - the rational and the natural. The Lord's Rational is represented by 'Isaac', but His Natural by 'Jacob'. The Lord made both of these Divine. How He made the Rational Divine is contained in what is stated regarding Isaac, but how He made the Natural so in what is stated later on regarding Jacob. But the latter - the Natural - could not be made Divine before the Rational was made Divine, for it was by means of the Rational that the Natural became Divine. This explains why the words that are being explained here mean all the Divine things within the Divine Rational.

[3] Furthermore every single detail which in the internal sense has reference to the Lord also has reference to His kingdom and Church, the reason being that the Lord's Divine constitutes His kingdom. Consequently when the Lord is the subject so also is His kingdom the subject; see 1965. However when the internal sense has reference to the Lord it is the highest sense, but when it has reference to His kingdom it is the relative sense. The relative sense of these words - 'Abraham gave all to Isaac' - is that the celestial things of love were imparted to the Lord's celestial kingdom. Indeed in the relative sense 'Isaac' means the celestial kingdom, for the rest of Abraham's sons, that is to say, those he had by Keturah, mean the Lord's spiritual kingdom, as shown above, as also does Ishmael, who is dealt with below.