895. 'The waters dried up from over the earth' means that falsities were not at that time apparent. This is clear from what has been stated. In particular these words mean that falsities had been separated from things of the will belonging to the member of this Church. The statement 'the waters dried up from over the earth' occurs at this point because here 'earth' means the person's will, which is nothing but evil desire. As stated already, the ground is situated in the understanding part of man's mind, in which part truths are sown. No sowing ever takes place in the will part, which in the spiritual man has been separated from the understanding part. This is why in the last part of this verse it is said that 'the face ¹ of the ground was dry'. With the member of the Most Ancient Church there was ground in the will part of his mind, where the Lord implanted goods. It was from goods therefore that he was able to know and perceive truth, that is, it was from love that he was able to possess faith. If the same thing were to happen today however, a person would inevitably and eternally perish, for his will is utterly corrupted. What implantation in the will part entails and what in the understanding part becomes clear from the consideration that the member of the Most Ancient Church had in fact enjoyed revelations through which from early childhood onwards he was led into a perception of goods and truths. But since they used to be implanted in the will part of his mind he perceived without any further instruction the countless aspects of any one general matter. He knew from the Lord the details and the finer points which nowadays men must learn before knowing about them. And even then they can know scarcely one thousandth of them. For the member of the spiritual Church knows nothing unless he acquires it by learning; and what he gets to know in this fashion he retains and believes to be true. Indeed if he learns something false and this is impressed on him as though it were true, he believes that as well, for he has no other perception than that a thing is true because he has in that way been persuaded of it. People who possess conscience derive from conscience a certain dictate. Yet with them a thing is true only because they have heard and learned that it is. This is what constitutes their conscience, as becomes clear from people who have a conscience of what is false.

Notes de bas de page:

5275. 'Behold, seven years are coming' means a state of providence. This is clear from the meaning of 'years' as states, dealt with in 487, 488, 493, 893; and from the meaning of 'coming' as an act of providence. For 'coming' and being done, when used in reference to the Divine, or to that which God does, means what happens providentially and is therefore an act of providence; for providence is meant by that done by God, see above in 5264, 5273. Regarding the seven years of abundance of corn and the seven years of famine that are the subject in what follows, where 'years' means states, 'the years of abundance of corn' are states when truth is multiplied in the natural, and 'the years of famine' are states when there is an absence and deprivation of truth in the natural. In general the seven years of abundance of corn and the seven years of famine in the land of Egypt describe in the internal sense the state when a person is reformed and regenerated, and in the highest sense the state when the Lord's Human was glorified. To represent these things was why such events took place in the land of Egypt. The reason that land was the one where they took place is that in the internal sense 'the land of Egypt' and 'Pharaoh' mean the natural, the glorification of which within the Lord is the subject here.

[2] It should be recognized that the events which took place at that time and have been recorded in the Word were representative in the highest sense of the Lord Himself and of the glorification of His Human, and in the representative sense of His kingdom, and consequently of the Church at a corporate level and also of the Church at an individual level. They were accordingly representative of a person's regeneration, for regeneration is the means by which a person becomes a Church at the individual level. The representation of such things by the events happening at that time was primarily for the sake of the Word - so that this could be written and thus be a Word that would contain the kinds of matters that would represent Divine, celestial, and spiritual realities in a continuous line of thought, and so would be of service not only to the member of the Church but also to the angels in heaven. From those representative descriptions angels perceive Divine realities and are thereby filled with holy feelings which are communicated to the person who reads the Word with affection; for he too receives a feeling of holiness. This is the reason why such events took place in the land of Egypt.