9371. THE INTERNAL SENSE.

Verses 1-2. And He said unto Moses, Come up unto Jehovah, thou and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and bow yourselves afar off; and Moses, he alone, shall come near unto Jehovah; and they shall not come near; and the people shall not come up with him. “And He said unto Moses,” signifies that which concerns the Word in general; “come up unto Jehovah,” signifies conjunction with the Lord; “thou and Aaron,” signifies the Word in the internal sense and the external sense; “Nadab and Abihu,” signifies doctrine from both senses; “and seventy of the elders of Israel,” signifies the chief truths of the church which are of the Word, or of doctrine, and which agree with good; “and bow yourselves afar off,” signifies humiliation and adoration from the heart, and then the influx of the Lord; “and Moses, he alone, shall come near unto Jehovah,” signifies the conjunction and presence of the Lord through the Word in general; “and they shall not come near,” signifies no separate conjunction and presence; “and the people shall not come up with him,” signifies no conjunction whatever with the external apart from the internal.

2187. 'And they ate' means communication in this manner. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'eating' as being communicated, and also being joined together, as is also evident from the Word. The injunction that Aaron, and his sons the Levites, and also the people were to eat the consecrated elements of the sacrifices in a holy place meant nothing other than the communication, conjunction, and making one's own, as stated above in 2177, at the point where Leviticus 6:16-17, is referred to. For it was celestial and spiritual food that was meant by the consecrated elements, and thus making that food their own by eating those elements. These consecrated elements were those parts of the sacrifices which were not burned on the altar but were eaten either by the priests or by the people who brought the offering, as becomes clear from very many places where the sacrifices are the subject. The consecrated elements that were to be eaten by the priests are referred to in Exodus 29:32-33; Leviticus 6:16, 26; 7:6, 15-16, 18; 8:31; 10:12-13; Numbers 18:9-11; and those to be eaten by the people, in Leviticus 19:5-6; Deuteronomy 12:27; 27:7; and elsewhere. And that those who were unclean were not to eat of them is referred to in Leviticus 7:19-21; 22:4-7. These ritual feasts took place in a holy place near the altar, either at the gate or in the court outside the tent. And they meant nothing else than the communication, conjunction, and making of celestial goods one's own, for those feasts represented celestial food. For what celestial food is, see 56-58, 680, 681, 1480, 1695. And all those consecrated elements were called 'bread', for the meaning of which see above in 2165. Something similar was represented by Aaron and his sons eating the loaves of the presence, or the shewbread, in a holy place, Leviticus 24:9.

[2] The reason for the law given to the Nazirite that during the days of his Naziriteship he was forbidden to eat anything that is produced from the grape - from which wine is made - from pips even to skin, Numbers 6:4, is that the Nazirite represented the celestial man, and the celestial man is such as is not willing even to mention spiritual things, see Volume One, in 202, 337, 880 (end), 1647. And because 'wine' and 'the grape', and also whatever came from the grape, meant that which is spiritual, the Nazirite was therefore forbidden to eat of them, that is, to have any communication with spiritual things, to join himself to them, or to make them his own.

[3] Something similar is meant by 'eating' in Isaiah,

Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money on that which is not bread, and your labour on that which does not satisfy? Hearken diligently to Me and eat what is good, and your soul will delight itself in fatness. Isaiah 55:1-2.

And also what is said in John,

To him who conquers I will grant to eat from the tree of life which is in the middle of the Paradise of God. Revelation 2:7.

'The tree of life' is the celestial itself, and in the highest sense it is the Lord Himself since He is the source of everything celestial, that is, of all love and charity. Thus 'eating from the tree of life' is the same as feeding on the Lord; and 'feeding on the Lord' is being endowed with love and charity, thus with those things that belong to heavenly life, as the Lord Himself declares in John,

I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread he will live for ever. He who feeds on Me will live through Me. John 6:51, 57. But they said, This is a hard saying. Jesus said however, The words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life. John 6:60, 63.

From this it is evident what is meant by 'eating' in the Holy Supper, Matthew 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-23; Luke 22:19-20 - having communication, being joined together, and making one's own.

[4] From this it is also plain what is meant by the Lord's statement that

Many will come from the east and from the west and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Matthew 8:11.

The Lord did not mean that they were going to feast with these three in the kingdom of God but that they were to enjoy the celestial goods meant by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That is to say, they were to enjoy the inmost celestial goods of love, meant by -Abraham'; also a lower type of goods, which are intermediate, as those are which belong to the rational, meant by 'Isaac'; and a still lower type of goods which are celestial-natural, such as occur in the first heaven, meant by 'Jacob'. These are the things which constitute the internal sense of these words. That such things are meant by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, see 1893, and wherever else they are the subject. For whether one speaks of enjoying those celestial things, or whether one speaks of enjoying the Lord, whom they represent, it amounts to the same since the Lord is the source of all those things, and the Lord is their All in all.

3128. And told her mother’s house according to these words. That this signifies toward natural good of every kind whithersoever enlightenment could reach, is evident from the signification of the “mother’s house,” as being the good of the external man, that is, natural good. (That a “house” denotes good may be seen above, n. 2233, 2234, 2559; also that man’s external or natural is from the mother, but the internal from the father, n. 1815.) The good with man is compared in the Word to a “house,” and on this account a man who is in good is called a “house of God;” but internal good is called the “father’s house,” and the good that is in the same degree is called the “house of the brethren;” but external good, which is the same as natural good, is called the “mother’s house.” Moreover all good and truth are born in this manner, namely, by the influx of internal good as of a father into external good as of a mother.

[2] As this verse treats of the origin of the truth which is to be conjoined with good in the rational, it is therefore said that Rebekah (by whom this truth is represented) ran to the house of her mother, for that was the origin of this truth. For as before said and shown, all good flows in by an internal way (that is, by the way of the soul) into man’s rational, and through this into his faculty of knowing, even into that which is of the senses; and by enlightenment there it causes truths to be seen. Truths are called forth thence, and are divested of their natural form, and are conjoined with good in the midway, that is, in the rational, and at the same time they make the man rational, and at last spiritual. But how these things are accomplished is utterly unknown to man; because at this day it is scarcely known what good is, and that it is distinct from truth; still less that man is reformed by means of the influx of good into truth, and by the conjunction of the two; neither is it known that the rational is distinct from the natural. And when these things, which are most general, are not known, it cannot possibly be known how the initiation of truth into good, and the conjunction of the two, is effected-which are the subjects treated of in this chapter in its internal sense. But whereas these arcana have been revealed, and are manifest to those who are in good, that is, who are angelic minds, therefore however obscure they may appear to others, they nevertheless are to be set forth, because they are in the internal sense.

[3] Concerning the enlightenment from good through truth in the natural man, which is here called the “mother’s house,” the case is this: Divine good with man inflows into his rational, and through the rational into his natural, and indeed into its memory-knowledges, that is, into the knowledges and doctrinal things therein, as before said; and there by a fitting of itself in, it forms truths for itself, through which it then enlightens all things that are in the natural man. But if the life of the natural man is such that it does not receive the Divine good, but either repels it, or perverts it, or suffocates it, then the Divine good cannot be fitted in, thus it cannot form for itself truths; and consequently the natural can no longer be enlightened; for enlightenment in the natural man is effected from good through truths; and when there is no longer enlightenment, there can be no reformation. This is the reason why in the internal sense the natural man also is much treated of in regard to its quality; thus whence truth is, namely, that it is from good there.