8788. 'And sanctify them today and tomorrow' means covering over their interiors in order that those people may appear now and subsequently in the holiness of faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'sanctifying' as arranging them so that outwardly they may appear in holiness; and since this is accomplished by covering over their interiors, 'sanctifying' has this meaning also. The fact that 'today and tomorrow' means now and subsequently is self-evident. What all this implies will be stated briefly. The Church established among the Jews was not, as regards the Jews themselves, the Church, only a representative of the Church. For the Church to exist there must reside with those belonging to the Church faith in the Lord, and also love to Him, as well as love towards the neighbour. These virtues make the Church. But they did not reside with the people who were called Jacob; for they did not acknowledge the Lord, and so did not wish to hear about faith in Him, let alone about love to Him or indeed about love towards the neighbour. They were ruled by self-love and love of the world, the kinds of love that are the complete opposites of love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour. Such a disposition has been rooted in that people from their earliest forebears. This is why no Church could be established among that people; all they could do was represent things that constitute the Church. Mere representation of the Church comes about when people's worship centres on external things, but only on such things as correspond to heavenly ones. External things then serve to represent internal, and the internal things are made evident in heaven, to which those people are consequently joined. Therefore to make representation possible among the Israelite people, when interiorly they were devoid of the faith and love of heaven, indeed were full of self-love and love of the world, their interiors were covered over. Then their externals alone, without their internals, could be conveyed to spirits, and through these to angels. Consequently unless their internals had been covered over, internals too would have been made evident, in which case the representation would have been destroyed because foul [thoughts and affections] would have burst out and defiled it. Such a covering over was possible with that people more than with all the rest because they venerated external things more than others did; they thought that those things themselves were intrinsically holy, indeed Divine.

All this makes clear what one should understand by 'sanctifying', namely covering over their interiors in order that those people may appear in the holiness of faith, though not to themselves, only to the angels present with them. See what has been shown already about this people and the establishment of the Church among them, in 4208, 4281, 4288, 4289, 4293, 4307, 4314, 4316, 4317, 4429, 4433, 4444, 4459, 4844, 4847, 4865, 4899, 4911, 4912, 4500, 7048, 7051, 8588. The fact that sanctification among them amounted to no more than an appearance of holiness in externals, since they themselves had no holiness within them, becomes clear from the ceremonies by which they were sanctified, that is to say, by sacrifices, washings, sprinklings of blood, and anointings, which do not in any way whatever touch internal things.

4899. 'Behold, I sent this kid' means it is enough that a pledge exists. This is clear from the meaning of 'a kid of the she-goats' as a pledge of conjugial love or of one assuring a joining together, dealt with in 4871, in this case simply a pledge since the kid was not accepted for the reason given already, that nothing of marriage existed. And because it was not for that reason accepted, 'you did not find her' therefore means even if nothing of marriage exists. This also ensues from the lack of interest referred to in 4897. Any further explanation of these matters is abandoned here for the reason given above in 4893, namely that it would enter the unlit parts of the understanding, and any ideas entering those unlit parts enter where no belief is present. For example the idea that something of marriage must be present if the Church is to exist; that is to say, the idea that some marriage must exist between truth and good. Also, the idea that what is internal must be present within what is external, and that without this and the previous requirement no Church at all exists. It is the exact nature of these realities within the Jewish Church that forms the subject here in the internal sense. That is to say, this sense deals with how, so far as that nation itself was concerned, nothing internal within what was external existed, but so far as their actual statutes and laws were concerned, something internal existed within these.

[2] Does anyone at the present day believe anything other than this, that the Church existed among the Jewish nation, indeed that this nation was chosen and loved in preference to all others, the chief reasons for such belief being that so many and such great miracles were performed among that nation, so many prophets were sent to it, and also the Word existed among it? Yet that nation possessed nothing at all of the Church within it, for no charity existed there; of what genuine charity was they were completely unaware. Nor did any faith in the Lord exist there. It knew that He was to make His coming, but believed that this was to set it above all people throughout the world. As this did not happen it rejected Him altogether. Of His heavenly kingdom it had no wish to know anything at all. The things which constitute the internal features of the Church were not even acknowledged in what that nation taught, let alone in its life. From all this one can only conclude that no Church at all existed within that nation.

[3] It is one thing for the Church to exist among a nation, and another for the Church to exist within a nation. For example, the Christian Church exists among those who have the Word and use doctrine to preach about the Lord. Yet no Church at all exists within them if no marriage of good and truth is present in them, that is, if charity towards the neighbour and faith rooted in this is not present in them, thus if the internal features of the Church are not present within the external ones. Those with whom solely external features separated from internal are present do not have the Church within them. Nor do those with whom faith separated from charity is present have the Church within them. Neither do those who acknowledge the Lord in their teachings but not in life have the Church within them. From this example it is evident that it is one thing for the Church to exist among a nation, and another for it to do so within a nation.

[4] The subject in the internal sense of this chapter is the Church among the Jewish nation and within that nation. The essential nature of the Church existing among that nation is described by Tamar's being joined to Judah under the pretext that the duty of a near kinsman was being performed, while the essential nature of the Church existing within that nation is described by Judah's being joined to Tamar as a prostitute. But a more detailed explanation of these matters is abandoned here for the reason given above, that it would enter, as stated, the unlit parts of the understanding. The accommodation of these matters in the unlit parts of the understanding is evident from the fact that at the present day scarcely anyone knows what the internal aspect of the Church is. This internal aspect is essentially charity towards the neighbour present within the intentions of a person's will, and from these in his actions, and from these again in faith within his perception; yet who knows this? When this is unknown, more so when it is denied, as is done by people who make faith without the works of charity the bringer of salvation, how unlit must those parts of the mind be, into which the ideas pass that are stated here in the internal sense about the joining of the internal aspect to the external aspect of the Church among the Jewish nation and within that nation? Those who have no knowledge of the existence of that internal and so essential aspect of the Church stand far removed from the first step towards understanding such ideas, and as a consequence from the countless, indescribable things existing in heaven, where realities connected with love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour constitute every trace of life, and consequently every trace of wisdom and intelligence.