4065. 'And from what belonged to our father he has gained all this wealth' means that He gave it to Himself. This is clear from the meaning of 'gaining wealth' as giving to oneself. For the highest sense has reference to the Lord, who in no way took anything of what was good and true from anybody else, only from Himself. Another type of good had served Him, it is true, as a means, a good which was related to the maternal side of Him, for Laban, who means that good, was the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's mother. But through that means He acquired to Himself the things by which He made His Natural Divine by His own power. It is one thing to acquire something to oneself from a means and another to do so through a means. He acquired them through that means because He was born a human being and derived from the mother something hereditary which had been cast away. He did not however acquire anything from that means since He was conceived from Jehovah from whom He had the Divine. Consequently He gave Himself all the goods and truths which He made Divine. For the Divine Himself has no need of anyone, not even of that intermediate good, except that His will was that everything should be done in keeping with order.