Here are some excerpts from Swedenborg's "Arcana Coelestia" that help explain the inner meaning of this chapter:

AC 3656. In the supreme sense this chapter treats of the Lord, how He began to make His natural Divine both as to truth and as to good; and the means by which He effected this are described in general. But in the representative sense it treats of how the Lord regenerates or makes new the natural of man both as to truth and as to good; the process in general is in like manner described (verses 1 to 10).

AC 3657. In the internal supreme sense there is described how the Lord began to make His natural Divine as to truth from the ultimate of order, that thereby He might make disposition of the intermediates, and might conjoin each and all things with the First; that is, with His Divine Itself. But in the internal representative sense there is described how the Lord regenerates the human natural also from the ultimate of order, and thereby disposes the intermediates, in order that through the rational He may conjoin them with Himself (verses 11 to 22).

3759. After that the birth of Jacob's four sons by Leah describes in the highest sense an ascent from external truth towards internal good; but in the representative sense it describes the condition of the Church, which is such that it does not acknowledge and welcome internal truths present in the Word, only the external truths there. That being so, the order according to which it ascends towards interior things is as follows: First of all it possesses truth which is called the truth of faith; then comes the application of that truth; after that charity arising out of it; and finally heavenly love. These four steps up are meant by the four sons Jacob had by Leah, namely Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah.