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.

7439. Let My people go, that they may serve Me. That this signifies that they should release those who are of the spiritual church in order that they may worship their God in freedom, is evident from the signification of “letting go,” as being to release; from the representation of the sons of Israel, here “My people,” as being those who are of the spiritual church (n. 6426, 6637, 6862, 6868, 7035, 7062, 7198, 7201, 7215, 7223); and from the signification of “serving Jehovah,” as being to worship. That they should worship in freedom is plain from what follows (verses 21-23), and also from the fact that all worship which is truly worship must be in freedom.

[2] The sons of Israel being called “the people of Jehovah” was not because they were better than other nations, but because they represented the people of Jehovah, that is, those who are of the Lord’s spiritual kingdom. That they were not better than other nations is plain from their life in the wilderness, in that they did not at all believe in Jehovah, but in their hearts believed in the gods of the Egyptians, as is evident from the golden calf which they made for themselves, and which they called their gods who had brought them forth out of the land of Egypt (Exodus 32:8). The same is evident also from their subsequent life in the land of Canaan, as described in the historicals of the Word, and from what was said of them by the prophets, and finally from what was said of them by the Lord.

[3] For this reason also few of them are in heaven, for they have received their lot in the other life according to their life. Therefore do not believe that they were elected to heaven in preference to others; for whoever so believes, does not believe that everyone’s life remains with him after death, nor that man must be prepared for heaven by his whole life in the world, and that this is done of the Lord’s mercy, and that none are admitted into heaven from mercy alone, regardless of how they have lived in the world. Such an opinion about heaven and the Lord’s mercy is induced by the doctrine of faith alone, and of salvation by faith alone without good works; for those who hold this doctrine have no concern about the life, and so believe that evils can be washed away like dirt by water, and thus that man can in a moment pass into the life of good, and consequently be admitted into heaven. For they do not know that if the life of evil were taken away from the evil, they would have no life whatever, and that if they who are in a life of evil were admitted into heaven, they would feel hell in themselves, and this the more grievously, the more interiorly they were admitted into heaven.

[4] From all this it can now be seen that the Israelites and Jews were by no means elected, but only accepted to represent the things that belong to heaven; and that this must needs be done in the land of Canaan, because the Lord’s church had been there from the most ancient times, and from this all the places there became representative of heavenly and Divine things. In this way also the Word could be written, and the names in it could signify such things as belong to the Lord and His kingdom.

5079. Against their lord the king of Egypt. That this signifies that they—namely, the external sensuous things, or those of the body, signified by “the butler and the baker”—were contrary to the new state of the natural man, is evident from the signification of the “king of Egypt” as being memory-knowledge in general (see n. 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462, 4749, 4964, 4966). For the same is signified by the “king of Egypt” as by “Egypt,” the king being the head of the nation; and it is the same in other passages also where mention is made of the “king” of any nation (n. 4789). As memory-knowledge in general is signified by the “king of Egypt,” the natural man is also signified thereby, because all memory-knowledge is the truth of the natural man (4967): the good itself of the natural man is signified by “lord” (n. 4973).

That a new state of the natural man is here signified, is because in the preceding chapter there was described the making new of the interiors of the natural, and in the supreme sense, which relates to the Lord, that they were glorified; but the subject here treated of is the exteriors of the natural, which were to be reduced to harmony or correspondence with the interiors. Those interiors of the natural which were new, or what is the same thing, the new state of the natural man, is what is signified by “their lord the king of Egypt;” and the exteriors which were not reduced into order, and hence were contrary to order, are what are signified by “the butler and the baker.”

[2] There are interiors and there are exteriors of the natural, the interiors of the natural being memory-knowledges and the affections of them, while its exteriors are the sensuous things of both kinds, spoken of above (n. 5077). When a man dies he leaves behind him these exteriors of the natural, but carries with him into the other life the interiors of the natural, where they serve as a plane for things spiritual and celestial. For when a man dies he loses nothing except his bones and flesh; he has with him the memory of all that he had done, spoken, or thought, and he has with him all his natural affections and desires, thus all the interiors of the natural. Of its exteriors he has no need; for he does not see, nor hear, nor smell, nor taste, nor touch, what is in this world, but only such things as are in the other life, which indeed look for the most part like those which are in this world; but still are not like them, for they have in them what is living, which those things which properly belong to the natural world have not. For all and each of the things in the other life come forth and subsist from the sun there, which is the Lord, whence they have in them what is living; whereas all and each of the things in the natural world come forth and subsist from its sun, which is elementary fire, and hence have not in them what is living. What appears living in them is from no other source than the spiritual world, that is, through the spiritual world from the Lord.