10455. 'And he said to Moses, There is the noise of war in the camp' means an assault on the truth and good which are heaven and the Church's by falsities and evils which come from hell. This is clear from the meaning of 'the noise' as thought and affection, which are the inner components of the noise, and so the essential nature of the interiors, dealt with above in 10454; from the meaning of 'war' as truth which springs from good fighting with falsity that arises from evil, and in the contrary sense as falsity which arises from evil fighting against truth that springs from good, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'the camp' as the Church and heaven, for they are what the camp of the Israelites represented, see 10038. From these meanings it is evident that 'the noise of war in the camp' means an assault on truth and good which are the Church and heaven's by falsities and evils which come from hell. They are said to come from hell because all falsities and evils originate there, and because at this point in the narrative 'the camp', when the golden calf was worshipped in it, means hell, see below in 10458.

[2] The reason why these things are meant by 'the noise of war in the camp' is that the subject at present in the internal sense is the interiors of the Israelite nation. Their interiors were contrary to the truths and forms of good of the Church and of heaven, so completely contrary that they cast them away. For self-love and love of the world had taken possession of the interiors of that nation, and where those loves reign the Church's truths and forms of good are subject to constant attack, no matter how holy the outward acts of worship seem to be. The holiness in those people's worship is a means to an end, and eminence and wealth are their ends in view, so that the things of heaven and the Church are means, and those of the world and self are ends. The end which a person has in view is the master, while the means is the servant. From this it follows that with people like this heaven is the servant and the world is the master, and consequently that the world occupies the highest position, thus that of the head, while heaven occupies a lower position, thus that of the feet. If therefore heaven does not pander to those loves it is cast underfoot, trampled on, and trodden into the ground. Such an inversion exists with those with whom self-love and love of the world reign, which also explains why such people when looked at by angels appear inverted, head downwards and feet upwards.

[3] The reason why 'war' means truth fighting with falsity, and in the contrary sense falsity fighting against truth, is that 'war' in the spiritual sense is nothing other. Such conflicts are also meant in the internal sense by 'wars' in the historical narratives of the Word, as well as by 'wars' in the prophetical parts, as becomes clear from the places quoted from the Word in 1664, 8273. Anyone who does not know that in the Word wars in a spiritual sense are meant by 'wars' cannot know the implications contained in the details regarding the wars mentioned in Daniel, Chapters 7, 8, 11, also those mentioned in places throughout the Book of Revelation, and those in the Gospels where the final times of the Church are the subject, Matthew 24:5-7; Mark 13:7-8, and in other places. So it is also that all weapons of war - swords, spears, shields, bows, arrows, and more - mean the implements of spiritual conflict; these have been dealt with in the explanations in various places.

10038. 'You shall burn with fire outside the camp' means that those things must be banished to hell and be consumed by the evils of self-love. This is clear from the meaning of 'burning with fire' as consuming by means of the evils of self-love, for 'burning' means consuming or devouring and 'fire' the evil of self-love (for these meanings of 'burning' and 'fire', see 1297, 5071, 5215, 6314, 6832, 7324, 7575, 9141, 9434); and from the meaning of 'the camp' as heaven and the Church, and in the contrary sense the place where heaven and the Church do not exist, thus where hell exists, dealt with below. The reason why 'being burned with fire' means being consumed by the evils of self-love is that that love consumes every good or truth of faith. Scarcely anyone at the present day knows that self-love does this, nor consequently that this love constitutes hell with a person and that it is what should be understood by hell-fire.

[2] There are two fires of life that exist with a person; one is self-love, the other is love to God. Those in whom self-love predominates cannot be governed by love to God, for those loves are opposites. They are opposites because self-love gives rise to all evils, which are contempt for others in comparison with self, enmity towards those who do not treat oneself favourably, and in the end to hatred, vengeance, brutality, and cruelty; and these evils act in total opposition to Divine influx, consequently annihilate truths and forms of the good of faith and charity, these being the things that flow in from the Lord. Anybody who stops to reflect may know that everyone's love is the fire of his life - for without love there is no life, and the character of the love determines that of the life - and therefore that self-love gives rise to evils of every kind, doing so in the measure that he has only himself in view, that is, self-love reigns in him. The worst kind of self-love is the love of dominion over others for selfish reasons, that is, the love of possessing dominion solely for the sake of position and gain. Those in whom that love predominates may, it is true, make profession of faith and charity, but they do so with their lips, not with their heart; indeed the worst among them look on the things that belong to faith and charity, thus the holy things of the Church, as means to their own ends. But self-love and all the different types of it, also the evils that gush out of it, and the condition of the selfish in the next life, must in the Lord's Divine mercy be stated in detail somewhere else. They have been referred to here to enable people to know what 'being burned with fire outside the camp' means.

[3] The fact that 'the camp' where the children of Israel were encamped represented heaven and the Church, and therefore that 'outside the camp' represented the place where heaven and the Church did not exist, thus where hell was, becomes clear from those places in the Word which mention the camp and the encampment of the children of Israel in the wilderness, such as the following in Moses,

The children of Israel shall camp, [every] man by his own camp, and [every] man by his own standard, according to their armies. And the Levites shall camp around the dwelling-place of the Testimony, that there may be no wrath on the congregation of the children of Israel. Numbers 1:52-53; 2:2.

In addition, Numbers 2:1-end says that the tribes of Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun encamped to the east; the tribes of Reuben, Simeon, and Gad to the south; the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin to the west; and the tribes of Dan, Asher, and Naphtali to the north. But the Levites were in the middle of their camps. The like applied when they set out on their journeys, Numbers 2:17; 10:1-end. The reason why their encampments were arranged in that kind of order was so that they might represent heaven and the Church, 9320 (end). Moreover the tribes according to which the children of Israel set up their camps represented all the forms of good and all the truths in their entirety that belonged to heaven and the Church, 3858, 3926, 3939, 4060, 6335, 6337, 6397, 6640, 7836, 7891, 7996, 7997. This explains why it says that Jehovah dwells in the middle of the camps, Numbers 5:3, and that He walks in the middle of them and they will therefore be holy, Deuteronomy 23:14, and why, in the prophecy uttered by Balaam, when he saw Israel dwelling according to their tribes, he said, How good are your tabernacles, O Jacob, and your dwelling-places, O Israel! Numbers 24:2-3, 5.

[4] Since heaven and the Church was represented by the camp it follows that 'outside the camp' meant the place where neither heaven nor the Church existed, thus where hell was. That is why everyone who was unclean and also anyone who was guilty was sent out there, as may be recognized from the following,

You shall send out of the camp everyone who is leprous, and everyone suffering a discharge, and everyone unclean on account of a soul ¹ . Whether they are male or female ² you shall send them outside the camp, so that they may not defile the camps, in the middle of which Jehovah dwells. Numbers 5:2-3; Leviticus 13:45-46.

A man who is not clean by reason of an accident in the night shall go outside the camp and not come into the middle of the camp. When he has washed himself with water and the sun has set he shall enter the camp. There shall be a space for you outside the camp where you may go out, and you shall cover your excrement by means of a spade ³ , since Jehovah walks in the middle of the camp. Therefore the camp shall be holy. Deuteronomy 23:10-14.

And the stoning of people was done outside the camp, Leviticus 24:14; Numbers 15:35-36.

From all this it is now clear that 'you shall burn with fire the flesh, skin, and dung of the young bull, outside the camp' means that evils, meant by these things, must be banished to hell.

[5] The same thing as was represented by the camp and the area outside it was also represented by the land of Canaan and the lands around it after that land had been divided up as inheritances among the children of Israel. This is why in the Word 'the land of Canaan' or simply 'the land' means heaven and the Church, and 'the children of Israel' those who are in heaven and the Church. For the meaning of 'the land' as heaven and the Church, see the places referred to in 9325; and for that of 'the children of Israel' as those who are there, 9340.

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