9370. EXODUS 24

1. 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.

2. And Moses, he alone, shall come near unto Jehovah; and they shall not come near; and the people shall not come up with him.

3. And Moses came and reported to the people all the words of Jehovah, and all the judgments; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words that Jehovah hath spoken we will do.

4. And Moses wrote all the words of Jehovah, and rose up early in the morning, and built an altar under the mountain, and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.

5. And he sent youths of the sons of Israel, and they offered burnt-offerings, and sacrificed peace sacrifices of bullocks to Jehovah.

6. And Moses took half of the blood, and put it into basins; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.

7. And he took the book of the covenant, and read it in the ears of the people; and they said, All things that Jehovah hath spoken we will do and hear.

8. And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant that Jehovah hath made with you upon all these words.

9. And there went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel.

10. And they saw the God of Israel; and there was under His feet as a work of sapphire stone, and as the substance of heaven in respect to cleanness.

11. And unto the sons of Israel who were set apart He sent not His hand: and they saw God, and did eat and drink.

12. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Come up to Me into the mountain, and be thou there; and I will give thee the tables of stone, and the law, and the commandment, which I will write to teach them.

13. And Moses rose up, and Joshua his minister; and Moses went up unto the mountain of God.

14. And he said unto the elders, Sit ye here for us, until we return unto you; and behold Aaron and Hur are with you; whosoever hath words, let him come near unto them.

15. And Moses went up unto the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.

16. And the glory of Jehovah tarried upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; and on the seventh day He called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud.

17. And the aspect of the glory of Jehovah was like devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the sons of Israel.

18. And Moses entered into the midst of the cloud, and went up unto the mountain; and Moses was in the mountain forty days and forty nights.

THE CONTENTS.

The subject treated of in the internal sense is the Word given by the Lord through heaven; what is the nature of it; that it is Divine in both senses, the internal and the external; and that through it there is conjunction of the Lord with man.

Elijah (referred to as Elias in the New Testament) was the renowned prophet sent to the split kingdoms of Israel and Judah. His first appearance is in Chapter 17 of I Kings where he comes to speak to Ahab, king of Israel. He contends with Ahab, and Ahab’s wife Jezebel, and later Ahab’s son Ahaziah. These contentions have passed down to us in many well known stories.

In II Kings, Chapter 2, Elijah is carried up to heaven in a chariot of fire, and his mantle is given to Elisha, his disciple and successor. Elijah represents the Lord as He comes to us in the Word, that is, the way we think about the Lord when we read the Word (especially the prophetic parts of the Word). Elijah and John the Baptist are similar in their symbolic meaning.

(सन्दर्भ: Arcana Coelestia 5247 [6], 6752, 9372 [2])

552. Verse 7. And the likenesses of the locusts were like unto horses prepared for battle, signifies that when man has become sensual he reasons as if from the understanding of truth. This is evident from the signification of the "locusts" as being the men of the church who have become sensual through falsities that are from evil (of which above, n. 543; also from the signification of "horses prepared for battle," as being reasonings, here as if from the understanding of truth, because it is said that they were "like unto" them. (That "horses" signify the understanding, see above, n. 355, 364; and all understanding is of truth.) And because "battle" signifies in the Word spiritual combat, which is a combat of falsity against truth and of truth against falsity, therefore "horses prepared for battle" signify reasonings, here as if from the understanding of truth, for it is by reasonings that spiritual combats are waged. What now follows, even to verse 12, treats of the sensual man who is in falsities from evil, what is his quality in respect to understanding and will; and he is described by "locusts" and their various appearances; for in the spiritual world all man's affections and thoughts therefrom are represented by various beasts of the earth and by birds, and these are presented to view in such forms as correspond; and the beasts, there represented in accordance with the affections of the spirits from which they are, appear like the beasts in our world, but sometimes with successive change and variety, approaching to forms composed of other beasts, besides also having their heads and bodies clothed and decorated with various insignia. Such have frequently been seen by me; and the qualities of their affections and inclinations were thus made manifest to me. Because affections and thoughts therefrom are represented in the spiritual world by beasts and birds, so "beasts and birds" have a similar signification in the Word.

[2] It has been shown above in n. 543 that sensual men, who are in falsities from evil, are represented and thence signified by "locusts;" of what quality such men are is here described by the various forms and various insignia of the locusts; as that they were "like unto horses prepared for battle;" that "upon their heads were as it were crowns like gold;" that "their faces were as men's faces;" that "they had hair as the hair of women," and "teeth as those of lions;" that they had "breast-plates;" and many other things, all of which are representatives such as exist in the spiritual world corresponding to the falsities from evil, and to the persuasiveness of the sensual man; yet no one can know what these mean without a knowledge of correspondences, neither of the quality of the sensual man, nor of his persuasiveness. The sensual man, who is in falsities from evil, reasons as if from an understanding of truth, because he is in the persuasion that falsity is truth and that evil is good; and so long as he is in that persuasion he can see nothing rationally and intellectually; but whatever he has persuaded himself of, he believes to be a matter of the highest reason and most eminent understanding; for the rational and intellectual in him is closed up, and thus he is in a persuasive belief respecting the things he thinks and speaks. That the sensual man reasons acutely and readily, because his thought is so near his speech as to be almost in it, and because he places all intelligence in discoursing merely from the memory, may be seen in the Arcana Coelestia 195, 196, 5700, 10236.