894. 'At the beginning, on the first of the month' means a starting point. This is now clear from what has been said above. Everything that this statement embodies is an arcanum so deep that it cannot be described, except for just the point that no definite period of time ever exists when anyone is regenerate enough to be able to say, 'Now I am perfect'. In fact an unlimited number of states of evil and falsity exist with everyone, not only simple states but also varied and complex ones which, as has been stated, have to be disposed of in such a way that they do not recur. In some states a person can be called fairly perfect, but in countless others he cannot. People who have been regenerated during their lifetime, and in whose lives faith in the Lord and charity towards the neighbour have been present, are in the next life being perfected all the time.

7562. 'And he that feared the word of Jehovah among the servants of Pharaoh' means those things in the natural mind which were the Lord's. This is clear from the meaning of 'he that feared the word of Jehovah' as the things which are the Lord's, for in the internal sense 'one who fears' is not used to mean a person who fears but a certain thing or reality (in heaven an idea involving a person is changed into an idea involving some reality, see 5225, 5287, 5434, and therefore 'he that feared the word of Jehovah' means the goodness and truth that are from the Lord); and from the meaning of 'the servants of Pharaoh' as things that belong to the natural mind. 'Pharaoh' is the natural in general, see 5160, 5799, and 'his servants' are therefore the things that are in the natural, or what amounts to the same, things that are in the natural mind, since the things in the natural which a person uses in thinking and reaching conclusions constitute his mind. Which things in the natural mind are the Lord's and which are not the Lord's, see below in 7564.