4689. 'And bowed down to my sheaf' means worship. This is clear from the meaning of 'bowing down' as the expression of humility, dealt with in 2153, and therefore as worship; and from the meaning of 'Joseph's sheaf' here as the teaching concerning the Lord's Divine Human, dealt with in 4687, and so means the Divine Human which those in the more internal part of the Church worshipped. But those who are more external, that is, the adherents to faith separated from charity, do anything but worship it. Faith separated from charity leads to this lack of worship because, as stated above, the Lord is present within charity but not within faith except through charity, for charity is the means by which a joining together is effected. What is truth without good, and what is the understanding without the will? So what can faith be without charity, or what can confidence be without the essence of it?

[2] The fact that adherents to faith separated from charity do anything but worship the Lord's Divine Human has been proved to me quite clearly from this kind of people entering the next life from the Christian world, many of whom I have spoken to. For in that life it is not their lips that speak, as in the world, but people's hearts. Everyone's thoughts there are communicated far more perfectly than by the use of any speech in the world; nor are those there allowed to say anything other than what they think, and so what they believe. Many of those who have also preached the Lord in the world deny Him altogether in the next life. If one asks what end or purpose they had in view when they preached Him and also worshipped Him outwardly with reverence, one learns that they did so because the office they held required them to do so and because they thereby acquired important positions and wealth. And those who did not preach Him but did nevertheless confess Him did so because they were born inside the Church and would have earned themselves a bad reputation if they had spoken out against religion. Not a single person from the Christian world knows that the Lord's Human is Divine, and scarcely any that He alone rules heaven and the whole world, let alone that His Divine Human is the all in heaven. The truth of this could not have been plainly revealed because the Lord foresaw that the Christian Church would turn aside from charity to faith, thereby separating itself from Him, and so would not only cast aside but would also profane the holiness proceeding from His Divine Human. For faith separated from charity cannot do anything other than this.

[3] Faith is clearly separated from charity at the present day. For doctrinal reasons one Church separates itself from another, and any individual who believes something different from what official doctrine teaches is excommunicated and also vilified. But anyone who acts like a robber, mercilessly depriving others of their goods, provided he does not do so openly, or who practices deceit against his neighbour, or infects the works of charity with dishonour, or commits adultery, is for all that called a Christian, provided that he attends church services and utters what doctrine teaches. From this it is evident that at the present day doctrine constitutes the Church, not life, and that the fruits which people link with faith reside merely in doctrine and have no place at all in their minds.

4665. Genesis 37

1. And Jacob dwelt in the land of his father's sojournings, in the land of Canaan.

2. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, a son of seventeen years, was pasturing the flock with his brothers; and he, still a boy, was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's womenfolk; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father.

3. And Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, for he was the son of his old age; and he made him a tunic of various colours.

4. And his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, and they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.

5. And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brothers; and they hated him all the more. ¹

6. And he said to them, Hear now this dream which I have dreamed.

7. Behold, we were binding sheaves in the middle of the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and also stood up, and behold, your sheaves gathered round it and bowed down to my sheaf.

8. And his brothers said to him, Are you indeed going; to reign over us? Or are you indeed going to have dominion over us? And they hated him all the more ¹ for his dreams and for his words.

9. And he dreamed yet another dream, and he recounted it to his brothers, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream again, and behold, the sun and the moon, and the eleven stars were bowing down to me.

10. And he recounted it to his father and to his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall we indeed come - I and your mother, and your brothers - to bow down to you to the earth?

11. And his brothers envied him; and his father kept the matter ² [in mind].

12. And his brothers went to pasture the flock of their father, in Shechem.

13. And Israel said to Joseph, Are not your brothers pasturing [the flock] in Shechem? Go, and I will send you to them. And he said to him, Behold, here I am.

14. And he said to him, Go now, see the peace of your brothers and the peace of the flock, ³ and bring back word to me. And he sent him out of the Valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.

15. And a man found him, and behold, he was wandering in the field and the man asked him, saying, What are you looking for?

16. And he said, I am looking for my brothers; tell me now, where they are pasturing [the flock].

17. And the man said, They have travelled on from here, for I heard them saying, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan.

18. And they saw him from a distance; and before he drew near to them they plotted against him, to put him to death.

19. And they said, a man to his brother, Behold, that dreamer ⁴ is coming.

20. So now come, and let us kill him, and let us throw him into one of the pits, and let us say, An evil wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what his dreams are going to be.

21. And Reuben heard it and rescued him out of their hands, and said Let us not strike him, [as to his] soul. ⁵

22. And Reuben said to them, Do not shed blood; throw him into this pit in the wilderness and do not lay a hand on him - so that he might therefore rescue him out of their hands, to return him to his father.

23. And it happened, when Joseph came to his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the tunic of various colours that was on him.

24. And they took him and threw him into the pit, and the pit was empty, there was no water in it.

25. And they sat down to eat bread; and they lifted up their eyes and saw, and behold, a caravan of Ishmaelites came from Gilead, and their camels bearing spices, and resin, and stacte, ⁶ taking them down to Egypt.

26. And Judah said to his brothers, What profit is there in our killing our brother and concealing his blood?

27. Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, because he is our brother, our flesh. And his brothers hearkened.

28. And men passed by, Midianites, who were traders; and they drew Joseph out and caused him to come up out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they led Joseph to Egypt.

29. And Reuben resumed to the pit, and behold, there was no Joseph in the pit; and he rent his clothes.

30. And he resumed to his brothers and said, The lad is no more; and I, where do I go?

31. And they took Joseph's tunic and killed a he-goat of the she-goats, and dipped the tunic in the blood.

32. And they sent the tunic of various colours, and brought it to their father, and said, We have found this; recognize now whether this is your son's tunic or not.

33. And he recognized it, and said, My son's tunic! An evil wild animal has devoured him; Joseph has been torn to pieces.

34. And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned over his son many days.

35. And all his sons rose up, and all his daughters, to comfort him; and he refused to comfort himself, and said, For I will go down to my son, to the grave mourning. And his father wept for him.

36. And the Midianites sold him into Egypt to Potiphar, Pharaoh's bedchamber-servant, the chief of the attendants.

CONTENTS

This chapter deals in the internal sense with the eventual rejection, within the Church, of Divine truths received from the Lord's Divine Human, and the acceptance at length of falsities instead. Specifically the chapter deals with the opposition to the Lord's Divine Human of those governed by faith separated from charity.

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