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It isn't easy to forgive others when they have so clearly done us wrong. But we have to. To not forgive leaves us captive to them. In this week's story we hear about Joseph, who is sold off into slavery, then imprisoned for a crime that he did not commit. When given the chance to get even, he instead offers reconciliation saying, "What you intended for evil, God intended for good." Those are words to live by.

(Referenties: Arcana Coelestia 6559, Genesis 45:3-13, 50:15-20)

5880. 'And his brothers could not answer him' means that the truths in the natural were not yet in a state of being able to talk. This is clear from the representation of the sons of Jacob, to whom 'Joseph's brothers' refers here, as the truths within the natural, dealt with above in 5877; and from the meaning of 'not being able to answer' as not yet being in a state of being able to talk - to talk to the internal on the basis of truths. The situation in all this is as follows: When the internal is joined to the external, or good is joined to truth, there is at first a communication with the external on the part of the internal, but there is no communication as yet in the opposite direction. When there is, the two exist joined together. This explains verse 15, which says it was after Joseph had wept on Benjamin's neck and had kissed all his brothers that the brothers began to talk to him, meaning that after the joining together had been effected a communication in both directions was established as a result of acceptance.