5932. Verses 16-20 And a voice was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brothers have come. And it was good in Pharaoh's eyes, and in the eyes of his servants. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Say to your brothers, Do this: Load your animals, and go, get you to the land of Canaan. And take your father and your households, and come to me; and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and you will eat the fat of the land. And now carry out this command: Take for yourselves from the land of Egypt carts for your young children and your wives, and bring your father, and come. And do not let your eye be sparing over your household utensils, for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours.

'And a voice was heard in Pharaoh's house' means that it filled the entire natural. 'Saying, Joseph's brothers have come' means a perception that the truths of the Church within the natural were present. 'And it was good in Pharaoh's eyes' means joy everywhere there. 'And in the eyes of his servants' means including what occupied the lowest position there. 'And Pharaoh said to Joseph' means a perception received by the natural from the internal celestial. 'Say to your brothers' means regarding the truths of the Church within the natural. 'Do this: Load your animals' means that they were to fill every truth with good. 'And go, get you to the land of Canaan' means their dwelling-place. 'And take your father and your households, and come to me' means the drawing of spiritual good and of the truths of the Church nearer to factual knowledge in the natural. 'And I will give you the good of the land of Egypt' means the possession of factual knowledge. 'And you will eat the fat of the land' means making the good there their own. 'And now carry out this command' means an act of will. 'Take for yourselves from the land of Egypt carts' means matters of doctrine belonging to factual knowledge. 'For your young children and your wives' means for those who as yet have no knowledge. 'And bring your father, and come' means their service and their drawing nearer. 'And do not let your eye be sparing over your household utensils' means let no concern be shown for anything that serves instrumentally. 'For the good of all the land of Egypt is yours' means that which in the natural mind is of primary importance to them.

5159. 'And it happened on the third day' means in the final phase. This is clear from the meaning of 'the third day' as the final phase of a state; for 'day' means state, 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850, and 'third' that which is complete, and so comes last, 1815, 2788, 4495. By the final phase of a state is meant the point when the previous state comes to an end and the new one begins. In the case of the person who is being regenerated a new state begins when order is turned around. The change takes place when interior things are given dominion over exterior ones, and exterior things begin to serve interior ones - which involves both ideas in the understanding and desires in the will. People who are being regenerated are conscious of this change as an inner urge not to allow sensory delights and bodily or earthly pleasures to take control, and draw ideas present in the understanding over to their own side to support them. When this change takes place the previous state has reached its final phase and the new one is entering its first. This is what is meant by 'on the third day'.

[2] In everyone, whether or not he is being regenerated, changes of state take place, and order is turned around. Yet such changes are different in the case of those who are being regenerated than in the case of those who are not being regenerated. With those who are not being regenerated those changes of state or order are due to physical causes or are attributable to causes associated with life in the community. Physical causes are those impulses which arise at one stage in life and subside at another, in addition to the giving of deliberate thought to physical health and a long life in the world. The causes connected with life in the community are the external, visible curbs a person has to place on his real desire, so that he may earn a reputation for being a wise person and a lover of what is righteous and good, when in fact the acquisition of position and material gain is his real reason for pursuing such. But in the case of people who are being regenerated, such changes of state or order are attributable to spiritual causes which spring from goodness and righteousness themselves; and when a person starts to have an affection for these he is at the end of the previous state and at the beginning of the new one.

[3] But as few are capable of seeing the truth of all this, let an example serve to shed light on the matter. Anyone who does not allow himself to be regenerated loves things of the body for their own sake, not for any other reason; and he loves the world too for its own sake. His love does not reach any higher because at heart he refuses to accept anything higher or more interior. On the other hand one who is being regenerated also loves things of the body, and worldly things likewise. Yet he loves them for higher or more interior reasons. He loves things of the body because he wishes to have a healthy mind inside a healthy body. Also, he loves his own mind and its healthiness for an even more interior reason, namely that he may have a wise discernment of what is good and an intelligent understanding of what is true. He also loves worldly things as much as others do, yet for the reason that the world, worldly wealth, possessions, and positions of importance may serve him as the means to put what is good and true or what is just and fair into effect.

[4] This example enables one to see what each one - the regenerate and the unregenerate - is really like, and to see that outwardly the two are apparently alike but that inwardly they are totally different. From this one may also recognize the identity and the essential nature of the causes which bring about the changes of state and turnings around of order that take place with people who are not being regenerated and those that take place with people who are being regenerated. One may also see that in the case of regenerate persons interior things have dominion over exterior ones, whereas in the case of unregenerate persons exterior ones have dominion over interior. The reasons or the ends that a person has in view are what have dominion, for those ends subordinate everything else in a person and make it subject to themselves. The person's whole life is conditioned entirely by his end in view, for that end is what he loves all the time.