9349. The subject in Chapters 20-23 has been the laws, judgements, and statutes that were declared from Mount Sinai. It has been shown what these hold within them in the internal sense, and so how they are understood in heaven, namely not according to their literal but according to their spiritual meaning, which though not evident in the letter is nevertheless present within them. But anyone who is unaware of how the matter stands may suppose that this makes the literal sense of the Word unimportant, for no attention is paid to it in heaven. But let it be known that it does not at all make the literal sense of the Word unimportant; rather, it adds strength to it. Indeed all its individual words carry weight and are holy by virtue of the spiritual sense within them; for the literal sense is the foundation and support on which the spiritual sense rests, and with which it is directly linked, so directly that not even a jot, nor a tittle, that is, small part of a letter in the literal sense of the Word fails to hold what is holy and Divine within it, according to the Lord's words in Matthew,

Truly I say to you, Even until heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one small part of a letter will not pass from the law till all things are done. Matthew 5:18.

And in Luke,

It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the Law to fall. Luke 16:17.

'The Law' is the Word, see 6752, 7463.

[2] Therefore also in the Lord's Divine Providence it has happened that every jot and tittle of the Word, especially in the Old Testament, has been preserved since it was written. I have been shown from heaven that in the Word not only each word but also each letter, indeed - incredibly so - each small part of a letter in the original language has an inner holiness, as angels of the inmost heaven are able to perceive. I can positively declare this to be so, but I realize that it surpasses belief. From this it is evident that outward religious observances of the Church, which represented the Lord and the inner realities of heaven and the Church which begin in the Lord, and about which one reads in the Old Testament Word, have indeed for the most part been abrogated. But it continues to be the Word with its Divine holiness, because all the details there, as has been stated, continue to hold within themselves holy and Divine things, which are perceived in heaven when that Word is read. For it has in all its details an inner, holy content, which is its internal sense , or heavenly and Divine sense. This sense is the soul of the Word; it is God's truth itself emanating from the Lord, and so it is the Lord Himself.

[3] All this makes clear what the situation is with the laws, judgements, and statutes which were declared by the Lord from Mount Sinai, and are contained in Chapters 20-23 which have now been dealt with. That is to say, it makes clear that every single regulation there is holy because its inward form is holy. Nevertheless some of them have been abrogated so far as practices by the Church at the present day, which is an internal Church, are concerned; some of them are such that the Church may practise them if it wishes to do so; and some of them must be altogether observed and carried out. Even so, those which have been abrogated so far as practices by the Church are concerned, those which it may practise if it so wishes, and those which must be altogether observed and carried out are all equally holy by virtue of their inner and holy content. For the whole of the Word internally is Divine. That inner and holy content is what the internal sense teaches, and it is identical with the inner virtues of the Christian Church, with which teachings about charity and faith are concerned.

[4] To make all this more intelligible let the laws, judgements, and statutes dealt with in the above-mentioned chapters serve as examples. Regulations which must be altogether observed and carried out are those contained in 20:3-5, 7-8, 12-17, 23; 21:12, 14-15, 20; 22:18-20, 28; 23:1-3, 6-8, 24-25, 32.

Regulations which [the Church] may practise if it so wishes are such as those contained in 20:10; 21:18-19, 22-25, 33-36; 22:1-14, 17, 21-23, 25-27, 31; 23:4-5, 9, 12-16, 33.

Regulations which have been abrogated so far as practices by the Church at the present day are concerned, in 20:24-26; 21:2-11, 16, 21, 26-29, 31-32; 22:15, 29-30; 23:10-11, 17-19.

But, as stated above, all these are equally holy, or equally the Divine Word.

6723. 'And she took [for him] a box made of rush' means a container which, though crude, was nevertheless derived from truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'a box' or little ark as that which is a container or in which something is enclosed, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'rush' as that which is crude but nevertheless is derived from truth. The fact that 'rush' refers to something crude is self-evident; and the reason why it refers to something derived from truth is that 'rush' has that meaning, as is plain in Isaiah,

Woe to the land overshadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Cush, which sends ambassadors to the sea, and in vessels made of rush on the face of the waters! Isaiah 18:1-2.

'The land overshadowing with wings' stands for the Church which brings darkness to itself through the use of reasonings based on factual knowledge. 'Beyond the rivers of Cush' stands for turning to cognitions that are used to confirm false assumptions, 1164. 'Sending ambassadors to the sea' stands for resorting to factual knowledge, 28. 'In vessels made of rush over the face of the waters' stands for very crude receptacles of truth.

[2] The expression is used in the contrary sense in the same prophet,

The dry place will become a pond and the thirsty ground wellsprings of water; [there will be] grass instead of reed and rush. Isaiah 35:7.

'Grass instead of reed and rush' stands for the fact that there will be factual knowledge containing truth instead of such things as hold no truth within them. The meaning of 'grass' as factual knowledge containing truth is evident from places in the Word in which the expression appears.

[3] Since it had been preordained that Moses should represent the Lord in respect of the law of God or the Word, in particular the historical part of the Word, the incident therefore took place in which, when he was an infant, he was put in a box or little ark, though a crude one because that law was in its very earliest beginnings and because there was merely a representative of it lying there in the ark. But later on the real law of God, after it had flashed from Mount Sinai, was put in an ark, called the Ark of the Testimony. For the fact that the law of God was put inside the ark, see Exodus 40:20; 1 Kings 8:9, also the Books of Moses [placed to the side of it], Deuteronomy 31:24-26.

[4] The ark was therefore most holy because it represented the Lord's Divine Human in respect of the Divine Law; for from the Lord's Divine Human radiates the Divine Law or Divine Truth, which is the same as the Word spoken of in John,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the Only Begotten from the Father. John 1:1, 14.

And since the ark represented something so very holy, the mercy seat with the cherubim was placed over the ark, and next to the veil concealing it there was the lampstand with lamps and the table of gold with loaves, both of which were signs of the Divine Love. This then is the reason why Moses, because he represented the law of God, was put in a little ark when he was an infant.