10395. THE INTERNAL SENSE

Verses 1-6 And the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain. And the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, Rise, make us gods to go before us; for this Moses, that man who caused us to come up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. And Aaron said to them, Pull away the ear-jewels of gold which are on the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to me. And all the people pulled away the ear-jewels of gold which were on their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he received [the gold] from their hands, and fashioned it with a chisel, and made out of it a calf of molded [metal]; and they said, These are your gods, O Israel, who caused you to come up out of the land of Egypt. And Aaron saw it and built an altar in front of it, and Aaron made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow there will be a feast to Jehovah ¹ . And they rose up in the morning of the next day, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

'And the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain' means the Israelite nation, when they did not discern in the Word anything from heaven. 'And the people gathered together to Aaron' means that they directed themselves to the outward features of the Word, the Church, and worship, detached from what was inward. 'And said to him' means exhortation. 'Rise, make us gods to go before us' means producing falsities that figure in religious teachings and worship, thus producing things of an idolatrous nature. 'For this Moses, that man who caused us to come up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him' means a total unawareness of what other Divine Truth exists in the Word that raises a person from an external to an internal level [and makes him an embodiment of the Church]. 'And Aaron said to them' means the outward features of the Word, the Church, and worship, devoid of the inward. 'Pull away the ear-jewels of gold from the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters' means drawing out of the literal sense of the Word such things as are favourable to external forms of love and to the major ideas resulting from these. 'And bring them to me' means bringing together into a single whole. 'And all the people pulled away the ear-jewels of gold which were on their ears, and brought them to Aaron' means putting into effect. 'And he received [the gold] from their hands' means things favouring their proprium or self. 'And fashioned it with a chisel' means a product of their own intelligence. 'And made out of it a calf of molded [metal]' means in keeping with the delight belonging to that nation's loves. 'And they said, These are your gods, O Israel' means that it was to be worshipped above all things. 'Who caused you to come up out of the land of Egypt' means which led them. 'And Aaron saw it' means approval. 'And built an altar in front of it' means worship. 'And Aaron made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow there will be a feast to Jehovah' means that this is the really essential thing of the Church which is to be celebrated and the truly Divine reality that is to be worshipped unceasingly. 'And they rose up in the morning of the next day' means arousal by the loves that are their own. 'And offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings' means the worship offered by their own loves, and so by the delights belonging to those loves and by resulting falsities. 'And the people sat down to eat and drink' means making those things their own. 'And rose up to play' means the resulting desire of their interiors to celebrate, and concord.

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5998. 'And offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac' means worship springing from them, and an inflowing from the Divine Intellectual. This is clear from the meaning of 'offering sacrifices' as worship, dealt with in 922, 923, 1180; and from the representation of 'Isaac' in the highest sense as the Lord's Divine Rational or Intellectual, dealt with in 1893, 2066, 2072, 2083, 2630, 3012, 3194, 3210. It follows that there is an inflowing from this into the worship, for what is described here is worship springing from charity and faith, meant by 'Beersheba', 5997, where he offered the sacrifices. Jacob's offering of sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac shows what the fathers of the Jewish and Israelite nation were like; it shows that each worshipped his own God. Isaac's God was different from his, as is evident from the fact that he offered sacrifices to Isaac's, and the fact that he was told in the visions of the night, 'I am God, the God of your father'. It is also evident from the fact that he had sworn by that same God, as described in Genesis 31:53,

May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor judge ¹ between us, the God of their father. At that time Jacob swore by the Dread of his father Isaac.

It is also clear that Jacob did not initially acknowledge Jehovah, for he said,

If God will be with me, and guard me on this road on which I am walking, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, and I come back in peace to my father's house, then Jehovah will be my God. Genesis 28:20-21.

Thus he acknowledged Jehovah conditionally.

[2] It was the custom among them to acknowledge their fathers' gods, but their own one specifically. They derived the custom from their fathers in Syria; for Terah, Abram's father, and even Abram himself when he was there, worshipped gods other than Jehovah, see 1356, 1992, 3667. Their descendants, who were called Jacob and Israel, were consequently of such a nature that in their hearts they worshipped the gods of the gentiles. Jehovah they worshipped solely with their lips, and in name only. The reason they were like this was that nothing but externals devoid of anything internal interested them; and people like that cannot help thinking that worship consists in nothing more than declaring God's name and saying that He is their God, and in doing so as long as He confers benefits on them. They have no idea that worship consists in a life of charity and faith.

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