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.

1672. And the kings that were with him. That this signifies the apparent truth which is of that good, is evident from the signification of “kings” in the Word. “Kings,” “kingdoms,” and “peoples,” in the historical and the prophetical parts of the Word, signify truths and the things which are of truths, as may be abundantly confirmed. In the Word an accurate distinction is made between a “people” and a “nation;” by a “people” are signified truths, and by a “nation” goods, as before shown (n. 1259, 1260). “Kings” are predicated of peoples, but not so much of nations. Before the sons of Israel sought for kings, they were a nation, and represented good, or the celestial; but after they desired a king, and received one, they became a people, and did not represent good or the celestial, but truth or the spiritual; which was the reason why this was imputed to them as a fault (see 1 Samuel 8:7-22, concerning which subject, of the Lord’s Divine mercy elsewhere). As Chedorlaomer is named here, and it is added, “the kings that were with him,” both good and truth are signified; by “Chedorlaomer,” good, and by “the kings,” truth. But what was the quality of the good and truth at the beginning of the Lord’s temptations has already been stated.

6380. 'And his teeth white from milk' means that the Divine Natural is nothing else than the good of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'white' as that which is used with reference to truth, dealt with in 3301, 3993, 4007, 5319; from the meaning of 'teeth' in the genuine sense as the natural, for the hard parts of a person's body, such as his teeth, bones, and cartilages, correspond to the truths and forms of good that belong to the lowest parts of the natural; and from the meaning of 'milk' as the celestial-spiritual, or what amounts to the same, the good of truth, dealt with in 2184. The Lord's Divine Natural is said to be the good of truth when it is considered in relation to people who believe in and love the Lord; for members of the external Church are unable to go any higher in their thinking than the Lord's Divine Natural, whereas the thinking of members of the internal Church goes above the natural to the Internal. For the idea of the Lord formed by anyone who believes in Him is conditioned by how far he can rise in his thinking. Those who are aware of what the internal is can have an idea of the internal; but those who are not aware of what the internal is have an idea of the external. This is why the Lord's Divine Natural is said to be the good of truth, when in fact His entire Human is the Divine Good of Divine Love.