5025. 'Saying, The Hebrew slave whom you have brought to us came to me' means that servile thing. This is clear from what has been stated above in 5013. Here 'that servile thing' is used to mean spiritual truth and good, which at this particular point is represented by 'Joseph'. This truth and good is seen by the unspiritual natural man as something servile. For example, the desire on the part of spiritual truth and good is that a person's delight should lie not at all in eminent positions or any kind of superiority over others but in the services rendered by him to his country and to communities corporately and individually, thus that a person's delight should lie in the purpose that positions of importance are meant to serve. The merely natural man is entirely ignorant of what this delight is and denies the existence of it. Although he too can in a hypocritical manner say much the same thing, he nevertheless makes 'a lord' out of the delight received from important positions existing for his own benefit and 'a slave' out of such positions existing for the benefit of communities corporately and individually. For in every single thing he does he regards himself first and communities only after himself, promoting their welfare only insofar as they promote his.

[2] Take another example. If one says that the purpose and end in view determine whether something is spiritual or unspiritual - spiritual when the purpose and end have the common good, the Church, and God's kingdom in view, but unspiritual when the purpose and end have, preponderating over these, oneself and one's own family and friends in view - the natural man is indeed able to affirm this with his lips but not in his heart. He can do so with his lips because of the instruction received by his understanding, but he cannot do so in his heart because his understanding has been ruined by evil desires. Consequently he makes 'a lord' out of the purpose and end that has himself in view, and 'a slave' out of the purpose and end that has the common good, the Church, and God's kingdom in view. Indeed he says in his heart, How can anyone possibly be any different from this?

[3] In short, everything that the natural man regards as being separated from himself is considered utterly worthless by him and is cast aside; and everything that he regards as being linked to himself is considered by him to be valuable and acceptable. The natural man neither knows nor wishes to know about any spiritual way of thinking in which a person sees himself linked to everyone who is governed by good, whether or not he is actually acquainted with him, and separated from everyone who is governed by evil, whether or not he is actually acquainted with him. For when this is a person s way of thinking he is linked to those in heaven and cut off from those in hell. But since the natural man does not experience any delight in that spiritual attitude, for the reason that he does not entertain any spiritual influence, he therefore looks upon it as something utterly base and servile, thus something worthless compared with the delight he experiences, coming to him through his physical senses and through the desires of his selfish and worldly love. But this delight is a dead one because it originates in hell, whereas the delight brought by a spiritual influence is living, since this delight, which comes by way of heaven, begins in the Lord.

5013. 'See, he has brought us a Hebrew man' means something servile. This is clear from the meaning of 'a Hebrew man', an expression that is used to refer to servitude, dealt with in 1703. The meaning is also plain from what follows below, for there Joseph is called 'a Hebrew slave' and also simply 'a slave' - 'The Hebrew slave whom you have brought to us came to me' verse 17, and 'this is what your slave did to me' verse 19. The principal reason why 'a Hebrew man' here means something servile is that those governed by unspiritual natural truth and good, represented here by 'Potiphar and his wife', do not regard spiritual truth and good, represented here by 'Joseph', as anything other than their slave. So far as both the life and the doctrine of these people are concerned, order is upside down, for with them the natural is lord and the spiritual is slave, whereas, when true order exists, the spiritual is lord and the natural is slave. For the spiritual is prior, more internal and higher, also closer to the Divine, while the natural is posterior, more external and lower, and further removed from the Divine. For this reason both with the individual person and within the Church the spiritual is compared to heaven and also actually called heaven, and the natural is compared to the earth and also actually called the earth. This also explains why, when spiritual people - that is, those with whom the spiritual is lord - are seen in the next life in the light of heaven, they have their heads pointing upwards towards the Lord and their feet downwards towards hell. But when natural people - that is, those with whom the natural is lord - are seen in the light of heaven, they have their feet pointing upwards and their heads downwards; and this is so, even though they are seen differently in their own light, which is a feeble light produced by the evil desires and consequent false notions they are steeped in, 1528, 3340, 4214, 4418, 4531, 4532.

[2] The way natural people look upon spiritual things as so to speak a body of slaves was also represented by the way the Egyptians regarded the Hebrews as nothing else than their slaves; for the Egyptians represented those who are preoccupied with natural knowledge, and so are natural people, whereas the Hebrews represented those who belong to the Church and so are spiritual when considered in relation to the Egyptians. Furthermore the Egyptians thought the Hebrews were of so low or slave-like a degree that it was an abomination to them to eat with Hebrews, Genesis 43:32; also the sacrifices which Hebrews offered were an abomination to them, Exodus 8:26.