3909. 'And Jacob flared up in anger against Rachel' means indignation on the part of natural good. This is clear from the meaning of 'flaring up in anger' as being indignant, dealt with below, and from the representation of 'Jacob' as the good of the natural, dealt with above. The phrase 'against Rachel' is used because interior truth represented by 'Rachel' was not yet able to be acknowledged in faith and action by the good of the natural, represented by 'Jacob'. The reason why in the internal sense 'flaring up in anger' means being indignant is that when any natural affection rises up towards interior things, that is, towards heaven, it mellows and is at length changed into a heavenly affection. Indeed the ideas that present themselves in the sense of the letter, such as 'flaring up in anger' here, are rather crude, being natural and bodily; but they mellow and soften as they are raised up from the bodily and natural man to the internal or spiritual man.
[2] This also explains why the literal sense is such, but not the internal sense, in that the literal is accommodated to the mental grasp of the natural man, the internal to the mental grasp of the spiritual man. This shows that 'flaring up in anger' means being indignant. Truly spiritual indignation does not originate at all, and celestial still less so, in the anger of the natural man but in the inner heart of zeal. To outward appearance such zeal looks like anger, but inwardly it is neither anger nor even indignation expressing anger, but a kind of sorrow coupled with a wish that something should not be, and more inwardly still a kind of vague displeasure that interrupts heavenly delight because what is good and true does not exist in another.
This page is part of 
© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church