3128. And told her mother’s house according to these words. That this signifies toward natural good of every kind whithersoever enlightenment could reach, is evident from the signification of the “mother’s house,” as being the good of the external man, that is, natural good. (That a “house” denotes good may be seen above, n. 2233, 2234, 2559; also that man’s external or natural is from the mother, but the internal from the father, n. 1815.) The good with man is compared in the Word to a “house,” and on this account a man who is in good is called a “house of God;” but internal good is called the “father’s house,” and the good that is in the same degree is called the “house of the brethren;” but external good, which is the same as natural good, is called the “mother’s house.” Moreover all good and truth are born in this manner, namely, by the influx of internal good as of a father into external good as of a mother.

[2] As this verse treats of the origin of the truth which is to be conjoined with good in the rational, it is therefore said that Rebekah (by whom this truth is represented) ran to the house of her mother, for that was the origin of this truth. For as before said and shown, all good flows in by an internal way (that is, by the way of the soul) into man’s rational, and through this into his faculty of knowing, even into that which is of the senses; and by enlightenment there it causes truths to be seen. Truths are called forth thence, and are divested of their natural form, and are conjoined with good in the midway, that is, in the rational, and at the same time they make the man rational, and at last spiritual. But how these things are accomplished is utterly unknown to man; because at this day it is scarcely known what good is, and that it is distinct from truth; still less that man is reformed by means of the influx of good into truth, and by the conjunction of the two; neither is it known that the rational is distinct from the natural. And when these things, which are most general, are not known, it cannot possibly be known how the initiation of truth into good, and the conjunction of the two, is effected-which are the subjects treated of in this chapter in its internal sense. But whereas these arcana have been revealed, and are manifest to those who are in good, that is, who are angelic minds, therefore however obscure they may appear to others, they nevertheless are to be set forth, because they are in the internal sense.

[3] Concerning the enlightenment from good through truth in the natural man, which is here called the “mother’s house,” the case is this: Divine good with man inflows into his rational, and through the rational into his natural, and indeed into its memory-knowledges, that is, into the knowledges and doctrinal things therein, as before said; and there by a fitting of itself in, it forms truths for itself, through which it then enlightens all things that are in the natural man. But if the life of the natural man is such that it does not receive the Divine good, but either repels it, or perverts it, or suffocates it, then the Divine good cannot be fitted in, thus it cannot form for itself truths; and consequently the natural can no longer be enlightened; for enlightenment in the natural man is effected from good through truths; and when there is no longer enlightenment, there can be no reformation. This is the reason why in the internal sense the natural man also is much treated of in regard to its quality; thus whence truth is, namely, that it is from good there.

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.