3304. And his hand laid hold on Esau's heel. That this signifies the lowest of the good of the natural to which it adhered with some power, is evident from the signification of "hand," as being power (see n. 878; and that it is predicated of truth, n. 3091); from the signification of "laying hold of," as being to adhere; from the signification of "heel," as being the lowest of the natural (see n. 259); and from the representation of Esau, as being the good of the natural (see n. 3302). Hence it is evident that "his hand laid hold on Esau's heel" signifies the lowest of the good of the natural to which truth adhered with some power. [2] As regards truth adhering with some power to the lowest good of the natural, the case is this: The natural, or the natural man, when being regenerated, has its conception as to good and truth from the rational, or through the rational from the spiritual; through this from the celestial; and through this from the Divine. Thus does the influx follow in succession, and beginning from the Divine descends until it terminates in the lowest of the natural, that is, in the worldly and corporeal. When the lowest natural is affected with faults by what is hereditary from the mother, truth cannot be united to good, but can only adhere to it with some power; nor is truth united to good until these faults have been driven away. This is the reason why although good is indeed born with man, truth is not; and therefore infants are devoid of any knowledge of truth; and truth has to be learned, and afterwards conjoined with good (see n. 1831, 1832). Hence also it is said that they "struggled together in the midst of her," that is, they fought (n. 3289). From this it follows that from the first conception truth supplants good, as is said of Jacob in regard to Esau:
Is not he named Jacob? For he hath supplanted me these two times (Gen. 27:36). And in Hosea:
To visit upon Jacob his ways, according to his doings will he recompense him; in the womb he supplanted his brother (Hos. 12:2-3). [3] They who keep the mind solely in the historicals, and who are not able to withdraw it from them, do not know but that these and former passages simply foretell the events which came to pass between Esau and Jacob, and this conviction is confirmed also by what follows. But the Word of the Lord is of such a nature that the historicals are in their own series, while the spiritual things of the internal sense are in theirs; so that the former may be viewed by the external man, and the latter by the internal man, and that in this way there may be a correspondence between the two, namely, between the external man and the internal; and this by means of the Word, for the Word is the union of earth and heaven, as has been frequently shown. Thus in everyone who is in a holy state while reading the Word, there is a union of his external man which is on the earth, with his internal man which is in heaven.
This page is part of 
© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church