5492. 'And they loaded their corn onto their asses' means the truths gathered into factual knowledge. This is clear from the meaning of corn' as truth, dealt with in 5276, 5280, 5292, 5402; and from the meaning of 'ass' as factual knowledge, dealt with in 2781. From these meanings it follows that 'they loaded their corn onto their asses' means that truths were gathered into factual knowledge. Such a meaning of these words will seem strange to someone who fixes his mind on the historical sense of the letter. It will seem even stranger to him if he does not believe in the existence of any internal sense other than the one which lies in close proximity to and shines out of the letter. For that person will say to himself, How can 'loading corn onto their asses' mean truths gathered into factual knowledge? But let him know that in the Word the sense of the letter passes into a sense of a spiritual kind when it passes from man to the angels, that is, into heaven. Indeed it passes into a sense stranger still when it passes into the third heaven, where every single detail in the Word passes into affections belonging to love and charity, which the internal sense serves as the foundation for it to rest upon.

[2] The fact that the historical descriptions in the Word move away into another sense when they are raised into heaven may become clear to anyone who uses his reason to draw conclusions and who knows something about the natural and the spiritual. He can see that 'loading corn onto their asses' is a purely natural action and has absolutely nothing spiritual about it. He can also see that angels in heaven, that is, in a spiritual world, cannot grasp those words in any but a spiritual manner and that they do grasp them in a spiritual manner when corresponding entities are understood in place of them, that is to say, when they understand truth known to the Church in place of 'corn' and facts present in the natural in place of 'asses'. It has been shown previously that in the Word 'asses' means objects of service and so known facts, for in relation to spiritual ideas and also to rational concepts such facts are objects of service, see 2781. From all this one may also see what the thought and speech of angels are like compared with men's thought and speech. That is to say, one may see that angels' thought and speech are spiritual whereas men's are natural, and that when angels' thought and speech move downwards they pass into men's, and that men's are converted into angels' when they move upwards. If this were not so there would not be any communication at all between mankind and the angels, that is, between the world and heaven.

5280. 'And the abundance of corn in the land will not be known' means that no discernment at all regarding the truth present previously will exist there. This is clear from the meaning of 'being known' as being discerned; from the meaning of 'the abundance of corn' as truth that has been multiplied, dealt with above; in 5276, 5278; and from the meaning of 'the land', in this case the land of Egypt, as the natural mind, also dealt with above, in 5276, 5278, 5279. From these meanings it is evident that 'the abundance of corn in the land will not be known means that no discernment at all regarding the truth present previously will exist in the natural.

[2] This verse deals with the final state of desolation, when despair, which comes immediately before regeneration, is experienced; and this being the matter dealt with in this verse, something must be said about the nature of it. Everyone has to be reformed, and to be born anew or regenerated, so that he may enter heaven, No one, unless he is born again, can see the kingdom of God. John 3:3, 5-6.

The human being is born into sin which has increased as it has come down in a long line of descent from ancestors, grandparents, and parents; it has become hereditary and so has been handed down to offspring. At birth a person is born into so many inherited evils which have gradually increased, as described, that he is nothing but sin; therefore unless he undergoes regeneration he remains wholly immersed in sin. But to be regenerated, he must first undergo reformation, which is effected by means of the truths of faith; for he must learn from the Word, and from teaching drawn from it, what good is. Items of knowledge regarding what is good that have been acquired from the Word - that is, from teaching drawn from there - are called the truths of faith; for all truths of faith well up out of good and flow in the direction of good, good being the end they have in view.

[3] This state comes first and is called the state of reformation. Most people within the Church are introduced into it during the period from young childhood through to adolescence, though few are regenerated because most people within the Church learn the truths of faith - or religious knowledge about what is good - for the sake of reputation and position and for the sake of material gain. Since therefore the truths of faith have been introduced through his love of these things, a person cannot be born anew or be regenerated until that love has been removed. To enable such love to be removed that person is launched into a state of temptation, which takes place in the following way: His love of reputation, position, and material gain is activated by the hellish crew, for that crew's desire is to live immersed in the love of those things. But at the same time angels activate affections for what is true and good which were implanted in the state of innocence during early childhood and then stored away interiorly and preserved there for this particular purpose. As a result conflict between evil spirits and angels takes place, and this conflict taking place within a person is experienced by him as temptation. And because the action at this time involves truths and forms of good, the actual truths which were instilled initially are so to speak banished by the falsities infused by the evil spirits - so banished that they are not seen - dealt with above in 5268-5270. And as the person allows himself at this time to be regenerated, the Lord introduces through an internal route the light of truth radiated from good in the natural, in which light the truths are restored there in their proper order.

[4] This is what happens to a person who is being regenerated, but few at the present day are permitted to enter that regenerative state. So far as they allow it to happen, all people, it is true, start to be reformed through the instruction they receive in the truths and forms of good that belong to spiritual life; but as soon as they reach adolescent years they allow the world to distract them. So they turn away into those parts where hellish spirits are, who gradually alienate these people from heaven; the spirits alienate them so completely that they scarcely believe any longer in the existence of heaven. Consequently those people cannot be launched into any spiritual temptation; for if they were they would go under instantly, in which case their latter state would be worse than their former one, Matthew 12:45. From all this one may see the nature of what the internal sense contains here, namely the state of reformation and the state of regeneration. This particular verse however describes the final state in temptation, which is a state of despair - this state being dealt with immediately above in 5279.