10436. 'With great power and with a strong hand' means by Divine Power. This is clear from the meaning of 'great power and a strong hand', when it has reference to Jehovah, as Divine Power, dealt with in 7188, 7189, 8050, 8069, 8153. What these words and those before them imply becomes clear from the train of thought in the internal sense, which is that although the Israelite nation's interest lay in external things and not in what was internal, to such an extent that their minds could not be raised at all to more internal levels, what was representative of the Church could nevertheless be established among them and the Word could be written there. These things could be achieved because by the Divine Power contact with heaven by means of those external things in which they were interested without anything internal was nevertheless possible, and so a situation could be effected similar to that which would have existed if they had been interested at the same time in what was internal. On this matter, see what has been shown regarding that nation in the places referred to above in 10396, such as those which show that through the external observances among them, which were representative of inner realities, there was by the Lord's Divine Power contact with heaven, 4311, 4444, 6304, 8588, 8788, 8806.

[2] It should be remembered that the Church is not the Church by virtue of its outward worship but of its inward worship; for outward worship is that of the body whereas inward is that of the soul. Consequently outward worship without the inward is no more than movements of the body, thus worship without life from the Divine. Through the inner components of worship a member of the Church is in contact with the heavens, for whom the outward form serves as the basis on which the inner components may rest like a house on its foundations. And when everything rests like a house on its foundations all is complete and firm, and the whole person is governed by the Divine.

[3] This is what a member of the Ancient Church had been like. This too had been a representative Church and for this reason had been accepted by the Lord, as is clear from a large number of places in the Word. A description of it is contained in the Song of Moses, Deuteronomy 32:3-15. But such a Church could not be established among the Israelite and Jewish nation, for the reason given above, that inwardly they were foul, and so were altogether contrary to the good of heavenly love and the good of faith, which are the inner components of worship. Therefore, when they insisted so stubbornly that they should enter the land of Canaan, which was tantamount to representing the Church, the Lord saw to it that contact with heaven through their merely outward worship should nevertheless be made possible. For the purpose of all worship is contact with heaven, and through this the Lord's being joined to man. These are the matters which the internal sense is dealing with at present.

3480. I have also been shown how all the uncleanness present with that nation still did not prevent the interior aspects of the Word - that is, its inner spiritual and celestial content - from manifesting themselves in heaven. Actually all that uncleanness was taken away so as not to be noticed, and evils were also converted into good, so that mere external holiness might serve as a basis, in which the internal aspects of the Word were thereby presented to angels without the intrusion of any hindrances. From this it was evident to me how that inwardly idolatrous people were able to represent holy things, even the Lord Himself, and so how the Lord was able to dwell in the midst of all their uncleanness, Leviticus 16:16, and so to have the semblance of the Church there, for a merely representative Church is only a likeness of the Church and not the actual Church itself.

[2] Among Christians it is less easy to create the same situation since they do have a knowledge of the interior aspects of worship, though they do not believe them. Thus they are not able to have any holy feelings for external things divorced from internal. Furthermore with people who lead the life of faith communication is effected by means of the goods present within them - evils and falsities having meanwhile been banished. And at this point - amazingly so - every single detail of the Word when read by them is manifested before the angels. This happens despite the fact that those persons reading the Word pay no attention to the sense of it. This has been shown to me from much experience, for with those people the internal which is not so perceptible serves as a basis.