At the inmost level, the story of Moses -- like all of the Bible -- is about the Lord and his spiritual development during his human life as Jesus. Moses's role represents establishing forms of worship and to make the people obedient. As such, his primary representation is "the Law of God," the rules God gave the people of Israel to follow in order to represent spiritual things. This can be interpreted narrowly as the Ten Commandments, more broadly as the books of Moses, or most broadly as the entire Bible. Fittingly, his spiritual meaning is complex and important, and evolves throughout the course of his life. To understand it, it helps to understand the meaning of the events in which he was involved. At a more basic level, Moses's story deals with the establishment of the third church to serve as a container of knowledge of the Lord. The first such church -- the Most Ancient Church, represented by Adam and centered on love of the Lord -- had fallen prey to human pride and was destroyed. The second -- the Ancient Church, represented by Noah and the generations that followed him -- was centered on love of the neighbor, wisdom from the Lord and knowledge of the correspondences between natural and spiritual things. It fell prey to the pride of intelligence, however -- represented by the Tower of Babel -- and at the time of Moses was in scattered pockets that were sliding into idolatry. On an external level, of course, Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt through 40 years in the wilderness to the border of the homeland God had promised them. Along the way, he established and codified their religious system, and oversaw the creation of its most holy objects. Those rules and the forms of worship they created were given as containers for deeper ideas about the Lord, deeper truth, and at some points -- especially when he was first leading his people away from Egypt, a time before the rules had been written down -- Moses takes on the deeper representation of Divine Truth itself, truth from the Lord. At other times -- especially after Mount Sinai -- he has a less exalted meaning, representing the people of Israel themselves due to his position as their leader. Through Moses the Lord established a third church, one more external than its predecessors but one that could preserve knowledge of the Lord and could, through worship that represented spiritual things, make it possible for the Bible to be written and passed to future generations.

9526. Verses 23-30 And you shall make a table of shittim wood; two cubits shall be its length, and a cubit its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. And you shall overlay it with pure gold; and you shall make for it a rim of gold round about. And you shall make for it a rail of a hand's breadth round about; and you shall make a rim of gold for its rail round about. And you shall make for it four rings of gold, and you shall put the rings on the four corners which are on its four feet. The rings shall be close to the rail, as houses for the poles to carry the table. And you shall make the poles from shittim wood, and overlay them with gold, and the table shall be carried with them. And you shall make its dishes, and its cups, and its small dishes, and its small brushes, with which it shall be covered; from pure gold you shall make them. And you shall put on the table the bread of faces, towards My faces unceasingly. ¹

'And you shall make a table' means a receptacle of heavenly blessings that belong to the good of love. 'Of shittim wood' means out of mercy. 'Two cubits shall be its length' means all so far as the joining to good is concerned. 'And a cubit its breadth' means somewhat so far as the joining to truth is concerned. 'And a cubit and a half its height' means what is complete so far as degrees are concerned. 'And you shall overlay it with pure gold' means a representative sign of that good out of mercy. 'And you shall make for it a rim of gold round about' means the sphere of good emanating from the Lord's Divine Good. 'And you shall make for it a rail of a hand's breadth round about' means the joining there to truth from the Divine. 'And you shall make a rim of gold for its rail round about' means the border of the sphere of Divine Good. 'And you shall make for it four rings of gold' means the outermost receptacle of the heavenly marriage, which is that of Divine Good to Divine Truth. 'And you shall put the rings on its four corners' means the resulting firmness. 'Which are on its four feet' means in the natural sphere. 'The rings shall be close to the rail, as houses for the poles' means the power from this. 'To carry the table' means in order to bring into being and keep in being. 'And you shall make the poles from shittim wood' means the power that truth derived from good possesses. 'And overlay them with gold' means a representative sign of good. 'And the table shall be carried with them' means being thereby held firmly in being. 'And you shall make its dishes, its cups, and its small dishes, and its small brushes, with which it shall be covered' means cognitions of celestial good and truth. 'From pure gold you shall make them' means that they are derived from good. 'And you shall put on the table the bread of faces' means the Lord there in respect of celestial good. 'Towards My faces unceasingly' means the Lord's presence thereby with peace and heavenly joy flowing from His mercy.

Poznámky pod čarou: