6224. 'And said, Behold, your son Joseph has come to you' means the presence of the internal. This is clear from the representation of 'Joseph' as the internal, 6177; and from the meaning of 'coming to someone' as presence, dealt with in 5934, 5941, 5947, 6063, 6089. 'Joseph' is the internal and in some other places the internal celestial, which one depending on the things with which it is connected in the natural below. The term 'the internal' is used when the connection is with the lower parts of the natural, which are represented by 'Jacob', and similarly when the connection is with Pharaoh. But the terms 'the internal celestial' and 'internal good' are used when the connection is with the interior parts of the natural, which are represented by 'Israel' and also by 'his ten sons' each connection existing because one flows into the other.

5947. 'And bring your father, and come' means their service and their drawing nearer. This is clear from the meaning of 'bringing their father' as service, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'coming' as drawing nearer, as above in 5941. What is implied by the service meant by 'bringing their father' is this: Lower things ought to serve more internal ones. Lower things are the truths known to the Church in the natural, which are represented by 'the sons of Jacob', whereas what is more internal is spiritual good, represented by 'Israel their father'; and since this good is more internal, or what amounts to the same, is higher, it ought to be served by those things that are more external or lower. For lower things are fashioned to be nothing other than servants. Indeed they are fashioned in such a way that what is more internal may live and act within them and by means of them, so much so in fact that if what is more internal is taken away from them they are nothing but vessels devoid of life and activity, and so are completely dead. It is like the relationship of the body to its spirit, in that when the spirit departs from it the body immediately drops down dead. It is in addition like the relationship of the external man to the internal, and like that of the internal man to the Lord. The internal man has been fashioned to receive life from the Lord and is nothing else than an organ for the Lord's life. Consequently it has been fashioned to be of service to the Lord, for every useful purpose that love to Him and charity towards the neighbour demand, first in the natural world and after that in the spiritual world.