9776. 'And as for all the vessels of the dwelling-place, in all [its] service' means the truths and the forms of good on the level of factual knowledge which the external man possesses. This is clear from the meaning of 'the vessels' as factual knowledge, dealt with in 3068, 3079, 9394, 9544; from the meaning of 'the dwelling-place' as heaven, dealt with in 9594, 9596, 9632; and from the meaning of 'service' as the external or natural level in a person, dealt with in 3019, 3020, 5305, 7998. The external or natural level in a person is a servant because it ought to serve the internal or spiritual level in a person. For the human being has been created to conform to an image of heaven and to an image of the world, the internal or spiritual man to an image of heaven and the external or natural man to an image of the world, 9279. Just as the world ought to serve heaven, so the external or natural level in a person ought to serve his internal or spiritual. The external has also been created to be a servant; for it has no life of its own and so cannot do anything by itself. It is dependent on the internal or spiritual, that is, through this on the Lord. From this it is also evident that the external or natural level in a person is not anything unless it is a servant to the internal or spiritual, and that so far as it does serve the internal it is something. To be a servant is to be obedient, and the external is obedient when it does not take ideas stored in the understanding and use them as reasons to justify the evils of self-love and love of the world, but complies with reason and the teachings of the Church which dictate that what is good and true should be done not for selfish and worldly reasons but for goodness and truth's own sake. When all this is so, the Lord - acting through the person's heaven, that is, through the person's internal man - is the doer of those things. For all goodness and truth spring from the Lord, so much so that what is good and true in anyone is the Lord Himself. From all this it becomes clear why it is that the external man must be a servant to the internal.

5305. 'And in the eyes of all his servants' means that everything in the natural was well-pleased. This is clear from the meaning of 'the thing being good in the eyes of' as a well-pleased feeling, dealt with immediately above in 5304; and from the meaning of 'servants' as what was in the natural, especially in the exterior natural. The word 'servant' occurs in places throughout the Word. In the internal sense it means that which is of service to another; and in general it means everything that is lower when considered in relation to what is above it. For order requires what is lower to serve what is higher; and insofar as it actually does so it is called 'a servant'. In the present context however things within the natural are being called 'servants', the natural in general being represented by 'Pharaoh'. The general or common whole has to be served by its individual parts, in the same way as the common good is served in any kingdom by its individual subjects. As regards 'Pharaoh' representing the natural in general, see 5160.