248. The Jewish church and Jews. ¹ The statutes, judgments, and laws that were commanded in the Jewish church were somewhat like those of the ancient church: 4449, 4834. How the symbolic rites of the Jewish church differed from the symbolic rites of the ancient church: 4288, 10149. A symbolic church was established for the people of that nation, but there was no real church among them: 4899, 4912, 6304. So they had something that symbolized a church but not an actual church: 4281, 4288, 4311, 4500, 6304, 7048, 9320, 10396, 10526, 10531, 10698. Because of the stubborn insistence of their ancestors and Moses, the Israelite and Jewish people were accepted as a church, not because they actually were a chosen people but rather so that they would symbolize a church: 4290, 4293, 7051, 7439, 10430, 10535, 10632. Their worship was solely external, without any inner worship: 1200, 3147, 3479, 8871. They knew absolutely nothing about inner worship and did not want to know: 301, 302, 303, 3479, 4429, 4433, 4680, 4844, 4847, 10396, 10401, 10407, 10694, 10701, 10707. What they thought of the inner aspects of worship, the church, and the Word: 4865. Their inner natures were foul, full of their love for themselves and the world and of avarice: 3480, 9962, 10454-10457, 10462-10466, 10575. Therefore the inner teachings of the church were not disclosed to them, because otherwise they would have defiled them: 2520, 3398, 3480, 4289. The Word was completely closed to them: 3769. They saw the Word from the outside and not from the inside (10549, 10550, 10551), so their inner self was closed when they were engaged in worship (8788, 8806, 9320, 9377, 9380, 9962, 10396, 10401, 10407, 10492, 10498, 10500, 10575, 10629, 10692). All the same, this people was more capable than any other of being outwardly holy despite the fact that their inner self was closed: 4293, 4311, 4903, 9373, 9377, 9380. Their state at such times: 4311. That is also why they have been preserved to this day: 3479. Their holy outward behavior was miraculously raised up and exhibited to heaven by the Lord, and as a result deeper levels of worship, the church, and the Word were perceived there: 3480, 4307, 4311, 6304, 8588, 10499, 10500, 10602. So that this could happen, they were driven by external pressures to a strict observance of their rituals in outward form: 3147, 4281, 8006. Because they could be outwardly holy without inner holiness, they were able to represent what is truly holy in the church and heaven: 3479, 3881, 4208, 6304, 8588, 9377, 10430, 10500, 10570. Nevertheless, they were not interested in what is truly holy: 3479. It does not matter what a person who symbolizes something is like, because symbolism focuses on the issue and not on the person: 665, 1097, 1361, 3147, 3881, 4208, 4281, 4288, 4292, 4500, 6304, 7048, 7439, 8588, 8788, 8806.

[2] Those people were worse than other peoples; a description of what they were like, including material from the Word of both Testaments: 4314, 4316, 4317, 4444, 4503, 4750, 4751, 4815, 4820, 4832, 5057, 5998, 7248, 8819, 9320, 10454-10457, 10462-10466. The tribe of Judah strayed more than the other tribes: 4815. How they took pleasure in cruelly treating other peoples: 5057, 7248, 9320. That people was idolatrous at heart and worshiped other gods more than other peoples did: 3732, 4208, 4281, 4825, 5998, 6877, 7401, 8301, 8871, 8882. Even their worship, seen in the context of that people, was idolatrous, since it was superficial, with no inner substance: 4281, 4825, 8871, 8882. They worshiped Jehovah in name only (6877, 10559, 10560, 10561, 10566), and only because of the miracles he did (4299). It is incorrect to think that the Jews are going to be converted at the end of the church ² and brought back into the land of Canaan: 4847, 7051, 8301. A copious selection of passages from the Word on this subject-passages that are, however, to be understood in their inner meaning and therefore not taken literally: 7051. The Word was changed in its outer meaning because of that people, but not in its inner meaning: 10453, 10461, 10603, 10604. The way Jehovah appeared to them on Mount Sinai was shaped by their own nature, so he appeared in devouring fire, thick cloud, and smoke like that of a furnace: 1861, 6832, 8814, 8819, 9434. The way the Lord appears to each of us depends on what we ourselves are really like-as a life-giving and creative fire if we are devoted to doing good, but as a devouring fire if we are bent on doing evil: 934, 1861, 6832, 8814, 8819, 9434, 10551. One lineage of that people was of Canaanite ancestry and two others were the result of fornication with a daughter-in-law: 1167, 4818, 4820, 4874, 4899, 4913. Those stories represent the nature of their relationship with the inner truth of the church, namely, that it was like that of union with a Canaanite or fornication with a daughter-in-law: 4868, 4874, 4899, 4913. Their state in the other life: 939, 940, 5057.

[3] Because despite all this that people symbolized the church, and because the Word was composed among and about them, their names-for example, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Ephraim, Joseph, and the rest-have divine and heavenly meanings. In its inner meaning, "Judah" means the Lord in respect to his heavenly love and his heavenly kingdom: 3654, 3881, 5583, 5603, 5782, 6363. An explanation of Israel's prophecy concerning Judah in Genesis 49:8-12, which is about the Lord: 6362-6381. Both the tribe of Judah and Judea mean the heavenly church: 3654, 6364. The twelve tribes represented and meant all the aspects of love and faith taken together (3858, 3926, 4060, 6335), and therefore heaven and the church as well (6337, 6637, 7836, 7891). Their meanings depend on the order in which they are named: 3862, 3926, 3939, 4603 and following, 6337, 6640. The twelve tribes were divided into two kingdoms so that the Judeans could represent the heavenly kingdom and the Israelites could represent the spiritual kingdom: 3654, 8770. The seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob means the goodness and truth that belong to the church: 3373, 10445.

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10603. 'Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first ones' means the kind of outward form that the Word, the Church, and worship take on account of that nation. This is clear from the meaning of 'tablets of stone' as the outward form that the Word takes, dealt with in 10453, 10461 (the outward form the Word takes is its literal sense), the reason why the outward form that the Church and worship take is also meant being that the Church owes its existence to the Word, as worship does too (for all the truth of faith and all the good of love which constitute the Church, and worship as well, must come from the Word; and since the Word possesses an outward form and an inner substance, so too do the Church and worship); from the meaning of 'hewing them', when done by Moses, as making the outward form such as it is on account of that nation, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'like the first ones' as in imitation of them, for the first were made by Jehovah but these by Moses.

[2] Moses' breaking of the ones that had been made by Jehovah, when he saw that nation worshipping the golden calf in place of Jehovah ¹ , was providential, because it was impossible for the outward form of the Word, meant by 'the two tablets of stone', to be properly written among that nation, which at heart was wholly idolatrous. This is why the first tablets were broken and Moses was then told to hew others in imitation of the first. They are said to be in imitation of them because the inward sense remained the same, only the outward sense was changed. The inward sense is meant when it says that Jehovah wrote on these tablets the same words as were on the previous ones.

[3] To make this matter easier to understand let the ways in which the outward or literal sense was changed on account of that nation be demonstrated here. On account of this nation altars, burnt offerings, sacrifices, minchahs, and drink offerings were commanded, and therefore are referred to in both the historical sections and the prophetical parts of the Word as the holiest things of worship. But they were in fact no more than concessions made to that nation, for they began with Eber and had been completely unknown in the representative Ancient Church, see 1128, 2180, 2818.

[4] It was also on account of this nation that Divine worship was performed solely in Jerusalem, and that therefore this city was considered to be holy, and was also called holy, in both the historical sections and the prophetical parts of the Word. The reason for this was that at heart this nation was idolatrous, and therefore unless they had all come together in that city at every particular feast each would have worshipped in his own place some gentile god, or a carved or molded image.

It was on account of this nation too that performing holy worship on mountains and in groves, as the ancients had done, was forbidden. This was so that they would not set up idols there or worship the actual trees.

[5] It was likewise on account of this nation that a man was permitted to marry a number of wives, which had been completely unknown in ancient times, and also to put his wives away on various grounds. Consequently laws were laid down regarding such marriages and divorces which would not otherwise have found their way into the outward sense of the Word, which is why in Matthew 19:8 the Lord declares these laws in the outward sense to be Moses' and a concession because of the hardness of their hearts.

It is on account of this nation that Jacob and also the twelve sons of Israel are referred to so many times as the only chosen ones and heirs, for example in Revelation 7:4-8, and in other places, in spite of what they were really like, as described in the Song of Moses, Deuteronomy 32:15-43, and also in places throughout the Prophets, and by the Lord Himself; not to mention other things responsible for the outward form the Word takes on account of that nation.

[6] This particular outward form is what is meant by the two tablets hewn by Moses. The fact that this outward form or sense nevertheless holds the inward Divine sense unchanged within it is meant when it says that Jehovah wrote on these tablets the same words as were on the first ones.

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