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.

5305. 'And in the eyes of all his servants' means that everything in the natural was well-pleased. This is clear from the meaning of 'the thing being good in the eyes of' as a well-pleased feeling, dealt with immediately above in 5304; and from the meaning of 'servants' as what was in the natural, especially in the exterior natural. The word 'servant' occurs in places throughout the Word. In the internal sense it means that which is of service to another; and in general it means everything that is lower when considered in relation to what is above it. For order requires what is lower to serve what is higher; and insofar as it actually does so it is called 'a servant'. In the present context however things within the natural are being called 'servants', the natural in general being represented by 'Pharaoh'. The general or common whole has to be served by its individual parts, in the same way as the common good is served in any kingdom by its individual subjects. As regards 'Pharaoh' representing the natural in general, see 5160.