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.

2803. That the Divine Truth is the “son,” and the Divine Good the “father,” is evident from the signification of a “son,” as being truth (see n. 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2633); and of a “father,” as being good; and also from the conception and birth of truth, which is from good. Truth cannot be and come forth [existere] from any other source than good, as has been shown many times. That the “son” here is the Divine Truth, and the “father” the Divine Good, is because the union of the Divine Essence with the Human, and of the Human Essence with the Divine, is the Divine marriage of Good with Truth, and of Truth with Good, from which comes the heavenly marriage; for in Jehovah or the Lord there is nothing but what is infinite; and because infinite, it cannot be apprehended by any idea, except that it is the being and the coming forth [esse et existere] of all good and truth, or is Good itself and Truth itself. Good itself is the “Father,” and Truth itself is the “Son.” But because as before said there is a Divine marriage of Good and Truth, and of Truth and Good, the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father, as the Lord Himself teaches in John:

Jesus saith unto Philip, Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in Me ? Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in me (John 14:10-11).

And again in the same Evangelist:

Jesus said to the Jews, Though ye believe not Me, believe the works; that ye may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father (John 10:36, 38).

And again:

I pray for them; for all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine; and that they all may be one, as Thou Father art in Me, and I in Thee (John 17:9-10, 21).

And again:

Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; if God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself. Father, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee (John 13:31-32; 17:1).

[2] From this may be seen the nature of the union of the Divine and the Human in the Lord; namely, that it is mutual and alternate, or reciprocal; which union is that which is called the Divine Marriage, from which descends the heavenly marriage, which is the Lord’s kingdom itself in the heavens—thus spoken of in John:

In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you (John 14:20).

And again:

I pray for them, that they all may be one, as Thou Father art in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us, I in them and Thou in Me; that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them (John 17:21-23, 26).

That this heavenly marriage is that of good and truth, and of truth and good, may be seen above (n. 2508, 2618, 2728, 2729 and following numbers).

[3] And because the Divine Good cannot be and come forth without the Divine Truth, nor the Divine Truth without the Divine Good, but the one in the other mutually and reciprocally, it is therefore manifest that the Divine Marriage was from eternity; that is, the Son in the Father, and the Father in the Son, as the Lord Himself teaches in John:

And now O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thyself, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was (John 17:5, 24).

But the Divine Human which was born from eternity was also born in time; and what was born in time, and glorified, is the same. Hence it is that the Lord so often said that He was going to the Father who sent Him; that is, that He was returning to the Father. And in John:

In the beginning was the Word (the “Word” is the Divine Truth itself), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; the same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:1-3, 14; see also John 3:13; 6:62).

7442. And the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with the noisome fly, and also the land whereon they are. That this signifies that the falsities of malevolence will take possession of all things of the natural mind, is evident from the signification of “filling,” as being to take possession of; from the signification of “the house of the Egyptians,” as being the interiors of the natural mind (of which above, n. 7407); from the signification of “the noisome fly,” as being falsities of malevolence ((7441) of which just above, n. 7441); and from the signification of “the land of Egypt,” as being the natural mind in general (see n. 5276, 5278, 5280, 5288, 5301).

[2] How it is that the interiors also of the natural mind shall be taken possession of by the falsities of evil which are in the outermost parts of this mind, must be briefly told. The things that flow in with man through heaven from the Lord, flow into his interiors, and advance down to the ultimates or outermost parts, and there they are presented to man in a sensible form, consequently they flow down into the sensuous, and through this into the things of the body. If the sensuous has been filled with phantasies from fallacies and appearances, and especially if it has been filled with phantasies from falsities, then the truths which flow in are there turned into similar things, for they are received there according to the form that is induced on them (see n. 7343). Insofar also as truths are turned into falsities, so far the interiors through which they pass are closed, and at last there is no opening beyond that which is necessary for a sufficient transflux to confer the faculty of reasoning, and of confirming evils by means of falsities.

[3] Such being the case with man, it must needs be that while he is being regenerated his natural must be regenerated down to the sensuous; for unless this is regenerated, there is no reception of truth and good, because, as before said, the inflowing truth is there perverted, and then the interiors are closed. And therefore when the exteriors have been regenerated, the whole man has been regenerated, as was signified by the Lord’s words to Peter when He washed his feet:

Simon Peter said unto Him, Lord, wash Thou not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus said to him, He that hath been bathed needeth not save to have his feet washed, and is clean every whit (John 13:9-10);

by the “feet” are signified natural things (n. 2162, 3761, 3986, 4280, 4938-4952); by “washing” is signified purifying (n. 3147, 5954); by “hands” are signified the interiors of the natural; and by the “head” spiritual things; hence is plain what is meant by “him that hath been bathed needing only to have his feet washed, and being clean every whit,” namely, that a man has already been regenerated when he has been regenerated also in respect to the exteriors that belong to the natural. When therefore man has been regenerated also in respect to the natural, then all things therein have been made subordinate to the more interior things; and when these flow in there, they flow as into their generals, by which they present themselves to man in a sensible form. When this is the case with a man, he sensibly feels the affection of the truth that is of faith, and the affection of the good that is of charity.

[4] But the sensuous itself, which is the ultimate of the natural, can with difficulty be regenerated, because it has been filled with material ideas from things earthly, bodily, and worldly. Therefore the man who is being regenerated, especially at this day, is not regenerated as to the sensuous, but as to the natural which is next above the sensuous, to which he is elevated by the Lord from the sensuous, when he is thinking about the truths and goods of faith. The man who is being regenerated by the Lord is endowed with the capacity of elevation from the sensuous. With respect to the nature of the sensuous, and the elevation of the thought above it, see n. 5084, 5089, 5094, 5125, 5128, 5767, 6183, 6201, 6310, 6311, 6313, 6314, 6316, 6318, 6564, 6598, 6612, 6614, 6622, 6624, 6844, 6845, 6948, 6949.)