9414. 'And Jehovah said to Moses' means instructions from the Lord for those restricted to the outward sense. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' as instructions, when it includes the things stated after it that make up the instructions, as also in 7186, 7241, 7267, 7304, 7380, 7517, 7769, 7793, 7825, 8041 (the instructions come from the Lord because 'Jehovah' is used in the Word to mean the Lord, 1343, 1736, 1793, 2004, 2005, 2018, 2025, 2921, 3023, 3035, 5663, 6280, 6281, 6303, 6905, 8274, 8864, 9315); and from the representation of 'Moses' as that which acts as the intermediary between the Lord and the people, thus the Word in respect of its outward holiness since this acts as an intermediary. The fact that 'Moses' begins now to represent this intermediary is clear from the train of thought in all that follows. For that people was restricted to the external level of the Word, and as a consequence their worship was external, separated from anything internal, see 9380. Those who are like this cannot have any holy contact at all with the Lord, let alone be joined to Him, except through an intermediary. This matter will be explained more fully below in 9419.

[2] The fact that this people was restricted to the outward sense of the Word, separated from the inward, and that as a consequence their worship was similarly external, is plainly evident from events that followed. After forty days they fell completely away, worshipping the golden calf instead of Jehovah. Also, because of this Moses at that time threw the tablets from his hand and smashed them; and afterwards he was commanded to hew some other tablets on which the same words would be written. The meaning of this was that this people were altogether unwilling to accept any teaching at all from the inward sense of the Word as it exists in heaven, only from its outward sense separated from the inward, as the Word exists with them in the world even at the present day. This also explains why that people were no longer called Jehovah's people but Moses' people, as in Chapter Exodus 32 further on,

Jehovah spoke to Moses, Go! go down; for your people whom you caused to come up from the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. Exodus 32:7.

Also in Chapter 33,

Jehovah spoke to Moses, Go! go up from here, you and the people whom you have caused to come up from the land of Egypt. Exodus 33:1.

For this reason also they were subsequently removed from the mountain. And in Chapter 34,

No man shall come up with you, and also no man shall be seen on all the mountain. Also no flock or herd shall feed before this mountain. Exodus 34:3.

For 'Mount Sinai' means the Law or Divine Truth and the Word as it exists in heaven, and so heaven as well, 8399, 8753, 8793, 8805. The reason why Moses previously represented the Word in general, that is, in respect both of its inward sense and of its outward sense, was that there the subject was the declaring of the Law, by which the revelation of Divine Truth in general was meant. This was the beginning of the revelation, for all else in the Word was written later.

82. Verse 1 And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

These words are used to mean that the individual has now become spiritual to the point of being the sixth day. 'Heaven' is his internal man, and 'earth' his external. 'The host of them' are love, faith, and cognitions of them, which previously were meant by 'the great lights and the stars'. That the internal man is called 'heaven' and the external 'earth' becomes clear from the quotations from the Word given in the previous chapter, to which the following from Isaiah may be added,

I will make man (vir) more rare than fine gold, and man (homo) than the precious gold of Ophir. Therefore I will strike the heavens with terror, and the earth will be shaken out of its place. Isaiah 13:12-13.

And elsewhere in Isaiah,

You will forget Jehovah your Maker, who stretches out the heavens and lays the foundations of the earth. But I will put My words in your mouth and hide you in the shadow of My hand, that I may stretch out heaven and lay the foundation of the earth. Isaiah 51:13, 16.

These quotations show that both heaven and earth have reference to man (homo). They refer, it is true, to the Most Ancient Church, but the more interior contents of the Word are such that whatever statement is made about the Church is a statement about the individual member of the Church. If he were not the Church, he could not be a part of the Church, just as anyone who is not a temple of the Lord cannot be that which is meant by a temple, namely the Church and heaven. This also is why the Most Ancient Church is called Man (a singular noun).