4366. 'And Esau said, I have much, my brother; let what is yours be yours' means a tacit acceptance, in order that in this way He might instill the affection for good that develops out of truth. This becomes clear from this refusal to accept what was offered, in that it really implies a willingness to take it; for Esau went on to accept it. One sometimes refuses an offer when in fact accepting it, to the end that affection may be instilled. That affection is also increased by such a refusal and so advances from the thought of what is good to the desire for it. Man is led by the Lord in the spiritual life by means of things that are virtually the same as those by which one leads others in everyday life. In everyday life it is quite normal to refuse an offer so that the one who makes it may do so with affection, thus not simply because he has thought of making it but also because he desires to do so. Should the offer not be accepted the ultimate intention would perish, and therefore that intention incites the one making the offer to think more intently about it and so to make it his heart's desire.

[2] The reason why this procedure is not apparent in the spiritual life as it is in everyday life is that the people with whom good is being joined to truths, that is, who are being regenerated, are few; and what is more, the few who are being regenerated neither reflect on nor are able to reflect on such matters as they do not know what spiritual good is because they do not know what charity is and what the neighbour is in the genuine sense. And because they do not know these things they cannot have any interior conception about truth which is the truth of faith. In addition to this they set the spiritual life and everyday life so far apart from each other that they do not dare to infer from everyday life any notion about the spiritual life. They are totally unaware of the fact that these correspond to each other and that the spiritual life is represented within everyday life; indeed some do not even allow any comparison to be made. But the fact of the matter is that no notion of the spiritual life can be had except from the things which belong to everyday life. Once everyday life is taken away therefore spiritual life falls to nothing, until at length belief in the existence of it remains no longer. This is made perfectly clear by the fact that people no longer have any belief in the idea that spirits and angels mix with one another as men mix, or that they converse with one another, reason with one another just as men reason, though in a far more perfect way, about what is honourable and decent, about what is just and fair, and about what is good and true. Even less belief exists in the idea that spirits and angels can see, hear, and find out about one another, combine into communities and live together, besides many other things.

2682. 'And she put the boy under one of the shrubs' means despair that no truth or good at all was perceived. This is clear from the meaning of 'the boy' as spiritual truth, dealt with in 2669, 2677, and from the meaning of 'a shrub' or a bush as perception, yet so small as to be scarcely anything at all - that smallness being the reason for the use of the expression, 'under one of the shrubs' (for by 'shrubs' the same is meant, though in a minor degree, as by trees, which mean perceptions, see 103, 2163) - and also from the feeling expressed in the action, which is the feeling of despair. From this it is evident that 'she put the boy under one of the shrubs' means despair that no truth or good at all was perceived. That being put under one of the shrubs means being left desolate so far as truth and good are concerned, to the point of despair, is evident in Job,

In poverty and in hunger, one all alone. They were fleeing to the drought, to the previous night's desolation and devastation, picking mallows on the shrub; in the cleft of the valleys to dwell, in holes of the dust and rocks; among the shrubs they were groaning, under the wild thistle they were joined together. Job 30:3-4, 6-7.

This is a reference to the desolation of truth, which is described by means of expressions used commonly in the Ancient Church - for the Book of Job is a book of the Ancient Church - such as 'in poverty and in hunger, one all alone', 'fleeing to the drought, the previous night's desolation and devastation', 'in the clefts of valleys and rocks to dwell', as well as 'picking mallows on the shrubs', and 'groaning among the shrubs'. So also in Isaiah,

They will come and all of them will rest in rivers of desolations, in the clefts of rocks, and on all bushes, and in all water-courses. Isaiah 7:19.

This also is a reference to desolation, which is described by means of similar forms of expression, namely 'resting in rivers of desolations, in the clefts of rocks, and on bushes'.

[2] In this present verse the subject is the second state of those who are being reformed, which is a state when they are reduced to ignorance, so that they do not know any truth at all, even to the point of despair. The reason they are reduced to such ignorance is so that the persuasive light which shines from the proprium may be extinguished. This light is such that it illuminates falsities as much as it does truths and so leads to a belief in what is false by means of truths and a belief in what is true by means of falsities, and at the same time to trust in themselves. They are also reduced to such ignorance in order that they may be led through actual experience into a recognition of the fact that no good or truth at all originates in themselves or what is properly their own but in the Lord. Those who are being reformed are reduced to ignorance, even to the state of despair, at which point they receive comfort and enlightenment, as is clear from what follows. For the light of truth from the Lord cannot flow into the persuasive thinking that originates in the proprium; indeed its nature is such as to extinguish that light. In the next life that persuasive thinking presents itself as the light in winter, but with the approach of the light of heaven a kind of darkness consisting in ignorance of all truth takes the place of that wintry light. This state with those who are being reformed is called a state of desolation of truth, and is also frequently the subject in the internal sense of the Word.

[3] But few are able to know about that state because few at the present day are being regenerated. To people who are not being regenerated, it is all the same whether they know the truth or whether they do not, and also whether what they do know is the truth or whether it is not, provided that they can pass a thing off as the truth. But people who are being regenerated give much thought to doctrine and to life since they give much thought to eternal salvation. Consequently if truth deserts them, they grieve at heart because truth is the object of all their thought and affection. The nature of the state of those who are being regenerated and the nature of those who are not may become clear from the following consideration: While in the body a person lives as to his spirit in heaven and as to his body in the world. He is born into both and has been so created that he is in effect able as to his spirit to be with angels, and at the same time to be with men through the things which belong to the body. But since those who believe that they have a spirit which will continue to live after death are few in number those who are being regenerated are few. To those who do believe that they have a spirit the next life forms the whole of their thought and affection, and the world in comparison none at all. But to those who do not believe that they have a spirit the world forms the whole of their thought and affection and the next life in comparison none at all. The former are those who can be regenerated, but the latter those who cannot.