5249. And came unto Pharaoh. That this signifies communication with the new natural, is evident from the signification of “coming,” as here being communication by influx; and from the representation of Pharaoh, as being the new natural (see n. 5079, 5080, 5244). What the words in this verse involve is manifest from what has been unfolded, for they treat of Joseph, how he was freed from the pit and came unto Pharaoh. By Joseph in the internal sense is represented the Lord as to the celestial of the spiritual, and by Pharaoh is represented the natural or external man; by the pit in which Joseph was is represented the state of the Lord’s temptation as to the celestial of the spiritual; and by his being called from the pit by Pharaoh is signified the state of deliverance from temptations, and further, the subsequent state of influx and communication with the new natural. From this it is plain that in the internal sense is here described how the Lord made His natural new, and at last Divine.

[2] These are the things the celestial angels think when this history is being read by man; moreover, to think such things is to them most delightful, for they are in the Lord’s Divine sphere, thus as it were in the Lord, and in a perception of inmost joy when thinking of the Lord and of the salvation of the human race by the Lord’s making Divine the Human in Him; and in order that the angels might be kept in this most heavenly joy, and at the same time in wisdom, that Divine process is fully described in the internal sense of the Word, and at the same time therein the process of man’s regeneration; for the regeneration of man is an image of the Lord’s glorification (n. 3138, 3212, 3296, 3490, 4402). Some may possibly wonder what the angels converse together about, and consequently what men who become angels converse about after death; but be it known to them that it is about such things as are contained in the internal sense of the Word, namely, about the Lord’s glorification, His kingdom, the church, the regeneration of man through the good of love and the truth of faith; but they speak about these things by means of secret things that are for the most part inexpressible.

10637. 'Observe that which I command you this day' means, if they carry out those chief things laid down by eternal truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'observing' as, if those who acknowledge the Word do so, for 'Moses' [to whom the command 'Observe' is addressed] represents the Word, as above; and from the meaning of 'that which Jehovah commands this day' as the chief things laid down by eternal truth, for the things that Jehovah commands are Divine Truths, and 'this day' means what is eternal, 2838, 3998, 4304, 6165, 6984, 9939. Those eternal truths are what verses 12-27 below contain in the internal sense. But the matters contained in the external sense are not eternal truths, only laws that the Israelite nation was required to adhere to because of the truths those laws held within them, for they serve to mean and so incorporate those truths. Furthermore the need for that nation to adhere to those laws existed up until the Lord disclosed the inner reaches of the Word; once these had been disclosed the outward laws incorporating them were set aside. For when a person worships the Lord in faith and love for Him, which are internal things, he has no need of the external things serving to mean them; for then those internal things themselves reside with him, and not types and shadows of them. All this was so with the commands that the feast of unleavened bread should be kept in the month of Abib and that during it unleavened bread should be eaten for seven days; that all things opening the womb should be given to God; that whatever opened the womb among asses should be redeemed or else have its neck broken; that the firstborn of sons were to be redeemed; that the feast of weeks should be celebrated, and also the feast of ingathering; that three times in the year every male should be seen before Jehovah; that they should not offer sacrifices with anything made from yeast; and that a kid should not be boiled in its mother's milk. But although obedience to these outward laws has been set aside they are still the holy and Divine things of the Word, because what they hold within them internally is holy.