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.

1672. And the kings that were with him. That this signifies the apparent truth which is of that good, is evident from the signification of “kings” in the Word. “Kings,” “kingdoms,” and “peoples,” in the historical and the prophetical parts of the Word, signify truths and the things which are of truths, as may be abundantly confirmed. In the Word an accurate distinction is made between a “people” and a “nation;” by a “people” are signified truths, and by a “nation” goods, as before shown (n. 1259, 1260). “Kings” are predicated of peoples, but not so much of nations. Before the sons of Israel sought for kings, they were a nation, and represented good, or the celestial; but after they desired a king, and received one, they became a people, and did not represent good or the celestial, but truth or the spiritual; which was the reason why this was imputed to them as a fault (see 1 Samuel 8:7-22, concerning which subject, of the Lord’s Divine mercy elsewhere). As Chedorlaomer is named here, and it is added, “the kings that were with him,” both good and truth are signified; by “Chedorlaomer,” good, and by “the kings,” truth. But what was the quality of the good and truth at the beginning of the Lord’s temptations has already been stated.

5390. There are other spirits again who correspond to filthy excretions, these being the kind who in the world were firmly set on taking vengeance. I have seen these in front of me, over to the left. Also corresponding to those filthy excretions are people who have debased spiritual ideas into filthy earthly ones. Spirits such as these have also approached me, bringing their foul thoughts with them. Those thoughts also led them to say things that were foul; and worse than that, they turned pure ideas towards unclean ones and converted them into the same. A large number of spirits like these have sprung from the lowest level of society; but they also came from other levels of people who in the world were among the higher-ranking. During their lifetimes the latter did not, it is true, express foul ideas in company, even though they thought them; they refrained from speaking what they thought, to avoid ill repute or loss of the friendships, material advantages, and important positions they enjoyed. Otherwise, when among others like themselves and at liberty to do so, they uttered the same kinds of things as those belonging to the lowest level of society. Indeed what they spoke was even fouler because they had an intellectual ability which they misused to defile even those holy ideas contained in the Word and religious teaching.