4733. 'And said, Let us not strike him, [as to his] soul' means that it must not be annihilated because it is the life of religion. This is clear from the meaning of 'striking' as annihilating, and from the meaning of 'soul' as life, dealt with in 1000, 1005, 1436, 1742, in this case the life of religion. It is evident that the acknowledgement and worship of the Lord's Divine Human constitutes the life of religion from what has been stated just above in 4731, and also from the fact that people's disposition is such that they wish to worship One of whom, by the use of their perception and thought, they can form some mental idea, or - in the case of those who are ruled by their senses - One of whom they can have some sensory image. Nor do they wish to worship Him unless the Divine is present within Him. This is a common feature throughout the human race. Consequently gentiles worship idols in which, they believe, One who is Divine is present, while others worship people that have died whom they believe to be gods or else saints. For nothing can be stimulated in man unless there is something to bring his senses into play.

[2] The majority of those who say that they acknowledge a supreme being, but of whom they have no mental picture, do not acknowledge any God, but nature instead, which they acknowledge because they have a mental grasp of what this is. Very many learned persons among Christians are like this, and for the added reason that they do not believe that the Lord's Human is Divine. Therefore to withhold from the worship of wood and stones those people who have set themselves far apart from the Divine and have become bodily-minded; to withhold them also from the worship of anyone after his death and so of some devil within this person, instead of the worship of God Himself because they could not perceive Him in any way; thus to withhold everything of the Church from destruction, and the human race along with the Church, the Divine was willing to take the Human upon Himself and make this Divine. Let the learned beware therefore of thinking of the Lord's Human without at the same time believing that this is Divine. Otherwise they set themselves a stumbling-block and at length believe nothing.

4731. 'And Reuben heard it' means the Church's confession of faith in general. This is clear from the representation of 'Reuben' as faith in the understanding, or doctrine, which is the first stage of regeneration - the truth of doctrine in its entirety by means of which one is able to arrive at the good of life, dealt with in 3861, 3866, here therefore the Church's confession of faith in general. The reason for Reuben's intervention here is that the Church which begins with faith would cease to be a Church if this Divine truth did not remain within it, namely the truth that the Lord's Human is Divine, this being the highest or inmost truth of the Church. This is the reason for Reuben's wishing to rescue Joseph, who represents that truth here, from the hands of his brothers to return him to his father - actions meaning that he wished to claim that truth for the Church. And further on, when Reuben went back to the pit and saw no Joseph there, it is said that he rent his clothes and said to his brothers, 'The lad is no more; and I, where do I go?' verses 29-30, meaning that no faith in the Lord existed any longer and so no Church.

[2] This supreme or inmost truth that the Lord's Human is Divine is denied by those within the Church who adhere to faith alone. Nevertheless because they know from the Word that there is a Divine side to the Lord and yet they do not grasp how the Human can be Divine, they therefore say He is both, by making a distinction between His Divine nature and His Human nature. But those who lead the life of faith - that is, those who have charity - worship the Lord as their God and Saviour; and while engaged in worship they think of the Lord's Divine without separating it from His Human. In so doing they acknowledge in their hearts everything in the Lord to be Divine. But because, when thinking from doctrine, they cannot grasp how the Human can be Divine, they speak purely from what doctrine teaches.