3036. 'Who took me from my father's house and from the land of my nativity' means the Divine itself by whom the Lord freed Himself from the evils and from the falsities received from the mother. This is clear from the meaning of 'father's house' here and of 'land of nativity' as that received or inherited from the mother, which was the source of the evil and falsity which the Lord fought against and cast out, and in so doing made His Human Divine by His own power. Please see what has been stated in 3031 about the house and the land from which Abram came, and in what was stated previously to the effect that the Lord's heredity from Jehovah was Divine and from the mother evil, in 1414, 1444; that He fought against the evil inherited from the mother but never committed any evil of His own, 1444, 1573; and that the Lord cast out everything inherited from the mother till at length He was not her son, 2159, 2574, 2649. That which was inherited from the mother is what is meant in the internal sense by 'father's house' and 'land of nativity'. 'Father's house' means the evil inherited from the mother, 'land of nativity' the falsities inherited from her, for where evil exists falsities are present, for the two exist joined together. That He cast them out by His own power, see 1616, ¹ 1813, 1921, 2025, 2026, 2083, 2523.

Voetnoten:

The spiritual meaning of washing is purification – cleaning the mind spiritually much as water cleans the body naturally. “Feet” represent our lives on the natural level – the day-to-day outward thoughts and actions that absorb so much of our time. Washing the feet, then, symbolizes purifying the natural level of our lives, applying what the Lord teaches us to our outward, ordinary actions.

Think of it this way: Are you nice to the cashier at the grocery store? Can you forgive someone who accidentally cuts you off in traffic? Do you hold the door for strangers? Such small things may be signs of good clean feet. It also became a ritual, however, with a host honoring his guests by washing their feet. The most famous example of this is in John 13, when Jesus washed his disciples’ feet at the Last Supper.