Here are some excerpts from Swedenborg's "Arcana Coelestia" that help explain the inner meaning of this chapter:

AC 4960. In the internal sense here the subject treated of is the Lord, how He made His internal man Divine. "Jacob" was the external man, as described in the preceding chapters; "Joseph" is the internal man, as described in this and the following chapters.

AC 4961. And because this was done according to Divine order, this order is here described; and also temptation, which is the means of conjunction.

4812. His sons by Tamar mean the two essentials of the Church, which are faith and love - Perez meaning faith and Zerah love. Their birth represents the truth that love is in actual fact the firstborn of the Church, and that faith only appears to be this.