2171. 'Abraham hastened towards the tent to Sarah' means the Lord's rational good joined to His truth. This is clear from the representation of 'Abraham' and also of 'Sarah' and from the meaning of 'the tent', dealt with in the three paragraphs following this. Just as the meaning of any single detail in the Word is determined by whatever the subject is in the internal sense, so it is with the details here; that is to say, they relate specifically to the Divine perception into which the Lord entered when the perception of the human existed with Him. But people who do not know what perception is cannot know what it entails, still less that degrees of perception more and more interior exist - natural perception, then rational perception, and finally internal perception which is Divine and which only the Lord has had. Those who have perception, as angels do, know very well what their degree of perception is, whether it is natural, or rational, or a more interior perception still, which to them is Divine. How then must it have been with the Lord, whose perception came from the Supreme and Infinite Divine itself, dealt with in 1616 (end), 1791? Angels never possess such perception as He had, for their perception flows into them from the Lord's Supreme or Infinite Divine by way of His Human Essence. The reason the Lord's perception is described is that when He was in the Human it was in this way made known to Him how the Divine itself, the Divine Human, and the Holy proceeding were to be united within Him; then how His Rational would be made Divine; and finally the nature of the human race which was to be saved through Him, that is, through the union of the Human Essence and the Divine Essence within Him. These are the matters dealt with in this chapter. It is on account of these that the Lord's perception is first described here, and also on account of the union itself which was to be effected.

10289. Verses 34-38 And Jehovah said to Moses, Take for yourself sweet spices, stacte and onycha and galbanum - [these] sweet ones, and pure frankincense; amount for amount there shall be ¹ . And you shall make this an incense, an ointment, the work of an ointment-maker - salted, pure, holy. And you shall beat some of it very fine, and put some of it before the Testimony in the tent of meeting, where I will meet with you. The holy of holies ² it shall be to you. And the incense which you make, according to its composition ³ , you shall not make for yourselves; it shall be to you holy for Jehovah. The man who makes any like it, to make an odour with it, will be cut off from his people.

'And Jehovah said to Moses' means enlightenment and perception once again from the Lord through the Word. 'Take for yourself sweet spices' means the affections for truth springing from good which must be present in the worship of God. 'Stacte' means an affection for truth on the level of the senses. 'And onycha' means an affection for truth on the more internal natural level. 'And galbanum' means an affection for truth on a still more internal level. '[These] sweet ones' means affections springing from spiritual good. 'And pure frankincense' means truth on the inmost level, which is spiritual good. 'Amount for amount there shall be' means total agreement. 'And you shall make this an incense' means worship consisting of them. 'An ointment, the work of an ointment-maker' means as a result of the influx and operation of what is Divine and the Lord's within every single part. 'Salted' means the desire which truth has for good. 'Pure' means devoid of evil. 'Holy' means devoid of the falsity of evil. 'And you shall beat some of it very fine' means the arrangement of truths into their own series. 'And put some of it before the Testimony in the tent of meeting' means worship of the Lord in heaven and in the Church. 'Where I will meet with you' means as a result of the influx of the Lord. 'The holy of holies it shall be to you' means since it emanates from the Lord. 'And the incense which you make, according to its composition, you shall not make for yourselves' means that worship consisting of the Church's holy truths must not be attached to the loves that are a person's own. 'It shall be holy to you for Jehovah' means that it must be attached to love that is Divine. 'The man who makes any like it, to make an odour with it' means an imitation - springing from self - of the worship of God expressed through affections for truth and good. 'Will be cut off from his people' means separation from heaven and the Church, and spiritual death.

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