7381. 'Say to Aaron' means an influx of inward law into outward law. This is clear from the representation of 'Moses' as the law of God, dealt with in 6713, 6752; from the representation of 'Aaron' as teachings presenting what is good and true, dealt with in 6998, 7089, these teachings represented by 'Aaron' being nothing other than outward law emanating from inward law, that is, from the Divine through inward law; and from the meaning of 'saying' as influx, as in 6152, 6291, 7291. The reason why at this point 'saying' means influx is that Moses is commanded to 'Say to Aaron'; 'Moses' is inward law, and 'Aaron' outward law, and influx from the Divine takes place through what is inward into what is outward. Inward law is God's truth itself as it exists in heaven, while outward law is God's truth as it exists on earth. Thus inward law is truth suited to angels, while outward law is truth suited to men.

[2] Since inward law, represented by 'Moses', is truth suited to angels, while outward law, represented by 'Aaron', is truth suited to men, let something be said about them here. Truth suited to angels is for the most part beyond the comprehension of men. This is clear from the consideration that in heaven things are seen and spoken such as eye has never seen, nor ear ever heard. The reason for this is that the things spoken of among angels are spiritual, which are withdrawn from natural things and consequently are far removed from the ideas and words belonging to man's speech. For man has formed his ideas from things in the natural order, especially its grosser aspects, that is, from things which he has seen in the world and on earth, and has had physical contact with, that is, material things. Even though the ideas belonging to a person's inward thought exist on a level above material things they are nevertheless founded on material things; and the level that ideas are founded on is the level on which they seem to exist. That is the level on which a person perceives the things he thinks about. From this one may see what the situation is with the truth of faith, and also the nature of that which comes within man's range of thought, namely that which is called outward law and is represented by 'Aaron'.

[3] Let the following example serve to shed light on this. Man can have no thought at all without ideas involving time and space; such ideas cling to practically every detail of what man thinks. If ideas formed from time and space were taken away from man he would not know what he thinks, and scarcely whether he thinks. Yet angels' ideas have nothing of time or space within them, but states instead. The reason is that the natural world marks itself off from the spiritual world by the existence of time and space within it. The reason why time and space exist in the natural world, but states instead in the spiritual world, is this: In the natural world the sun appears to give rise to days and years by its apparent revolutions. It divides the days up into the four periods of night, morning, midday, and evening, and the years too into the four seasons of winter, spring, summer, and autumn, which it effects by means of variations of light and shade, as well as of warmth and coldness. And these divisions are the source of ideas of time and varying periods of it. Ideas of space arise from the use of periods as measurements; therefore where one exists, so does the other.

[4] But in the spiritual world the Sun of heaven, which is the source of spiritual light and spiritual heat, does not make circuits and revolutions which give rise to ideas of time and space. The light which flows from that Sun is God's truth, and the heat which flows from that Sun is God's goodness. These give rise to ideas of states among the angels, states of intelligence and faith being the product of God's truth, and states of wisdom and love the product of God's goodness. Variations in these states among the angels are what states of light and shade in the world, and also of warmth and coldness, correspond to, which are attributable to the sun since it is responsible for the existence of times and seasons and of spatial measurements. This example demonstrates to some extent what inward truth or truth suited to angels, called inward law, is like, and what outward truth or truth suited to men, referred to as outward law, is like. It also goes to explain why the things that angels discuss with one another are beyond man's comprehension and also indescribable.

6713. Exodus 2

1. And a man from the house of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi .

2. And the woman conceived and bore a son; and she saw that he was good, ¹ and hid him three months.

3. And she could not hide him any longer; and she took for him a box made of rush, and coated it with bitumen and pitch, and put the child in it, and put [him] in the weed at the bank of the river.

4. And his sister stood at a distance, to know what would happen to him.

5. And the daughter of Pharaoh went down to wash at the river; and her maidservants were going along the side of the river. And she saw the box in the middle of the weed, and sent her servant-girl; and she took it.

6. And she opened it, and saw him, the child; and behold, the boy was crying. And she took pity on him, and said, This is one of the children of the Hebrews.

7. And his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call you a woman, a wet nurse, from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?

8. And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the girl went and called the child's mother.

9. And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Take to yourself this child and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages. And the woman took the child and nursed him.

10. And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he was a son to her. And she called his name Moses, and said, Because I drew him out of the water.

11. And it happened in those days, when Moses had grown up, that he went out to his brothers, and saw their burdens. And he saw an Egyptian man striking a Hebrew man, one of his brothers.

12. And he looked this way and that, and saw that there was no man; and he struck the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.

13. And he went out the second day, and behold, two Hebrew men were quarrelling; and he said to the one in the wrong, Why are you striking your companion?

14. And he said, Who set you up as a man-prince and a judge over us? Do you intend ² to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian? And Moses was afraid, and said, Surely the matter is known!

15. And Pharaoh heard of this matter and sought to kill Moses. And Moses fled from before Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian; and he dwelt next to a well.

16. And the priest of Midian had seven daughters; and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.

17. And the shepherds came and drove them away; and Moses rose up and helped them, and watered their flock.

18. And they came to Reuel their father, and he said, Why have you hastened to come today?

19. And they said, An Egyptian man delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds; and he even drew water for us, and watered the flock.

20. And he said to his daughters, And where is he? Why is it that you left the man? Call him, and let him eat bread.

21. And Moses was willing to dwell with the man; and he gave Zipporah his daughter to Moses.

22. And she bore a son, and he called his name Gershom; for he said, I am a stranger in a foreign land.

23. And it happened in [the course of] these many days, that the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed because of their hard service, and cried out; and their cry came up to God because of their hard service.

24. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

25. And God saw the children of Israel, and God knew [them].

CONTENTS

This chapter deals in the internal sense with God's truth - with its beginnings and its succeeding states with a member of the Church.

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