Do you remember what is called "The Golden Rule"? Please recite it. (Matt. 7:12) We may understand this law also as saying, "Whatever you do to others will be done to you." Indeed, this is the law of the whole spiritual world: of heaven and of hell. In heaven the angels always do good to others, so good is done to them. In hell the devils do evil to others, so evil is done to them. In other words, good people receive their reward, and evil people receive their punishment. And in every single case, without exception, the exact evil that people do to other people is paid back to them; and on the other hand, the good that people do other people, returns to them. This is not always so in the natural world. But in ancient times, many laws on earth were framed to carry out this principle, as you may see by turning to Exodus 31:23-25; Leviticus 24:19, 20; Deuteronomy 19:18, 19. In this world sometimes the reward or the punishment may not follow until many years after. We see something of this in our lesson. The brothers of Joseph had put him into the pit in the desert more than twenty years before the events occurred that are told in the story in our lesson. Now, after so many years, they were put in prison for their misdeed. The three days of their imprisonment represented the full punishment, for you will remember that "three" means what is full, complete, and perfect. One of the brothers, Simeon, who was the next oldest to Reuben (it was Reuben who had counselled against throwing Joseph into the pit) was kept in prison for a much longer time. They realized that all this imprisonment was a punishment for their cruel and heartless treatment of Joseph (verses 21, 22).

Now, you must know that the Lord never permits anything bad to happen without a good reason. Why does he permit people to be punished? Yes, in order that, being afraid of the punishment, they may be kept as much as possible from doing evil. But punishment has another use, and this with those who are not wicked at heart, but still do or say things at times that are wrong. Like children. Punishment leads them to repent; that is, to think of the wrong they did, to be sorry for it, and to make up their minds never to do it again. To be sorry is not enough. Repentance means not to do it again. Would you like to know what angels say that repentance is? I can tell you, for once, after Swedenborg had been preaching repentance in the streets of a big but bad city in the spiritual world (it was called "Sodom and Egypt"), and had been treated badly by them, he heard a voice coming from angels in heaven instructing people about this very subject of repentance. And this is what they said:

"Repentance is to examine yourself, to know and acknowledge your evils, to make yourself guilty of them, to confess them before the Lord, to implore aid and power to resist them, and thus to desist from them, and to lead a new life."

The angels said more; but don't you think it would be fine to commit to memory this much of what they said? Think of knowing a definition which angels have given!

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