7313. That they may serve Me in the wilderness. That this signifies worship in what is obscure, is evident from the signification of “serving Jehovah,” as being worship; and from the signification of a “wilderness,” as being that which is not inhabited and cultivated (see n. 2708, 3900); in the spiritual sense that which is obscure in respect to the good and truth of faith. That “wilderness” here denotes such obscurity is because in general they of the spiritual church, who are represented by the sons of Israel, are in obscurity in respect to the truths of faith (n. 2715, 2716, 2718, 2831, 2849, 2935, 2937, 3833, 4402, 6289, 6500, 6865, 6945, 7233); specifically because they are in obscurity when they emerge from a state of infestations and temptations. For they who are in infestations are surrounded by falsities, and are shaken like a reed by the wind, thus from doubt to affirmative, and from affirmative to doubt; and therefore when they newly ascend out of this state they are in obscurity, but this obscurity is then gradually enlightened. As there is such a state with those who are being infested, therefore the sons of Israel were brought into the wilderness in order that they might represent this state, in which were those of the spiritual church before the Lord’s coming; and also the state in which they who are of that church are at this day, and are being vastated in respect to falsities.

6465. 'And was gathered to his peoples' means that [spiritual good] was within the forms of good and the truths of the natural which sprang from itself. This is clear from what is said above in 6451, where similar words occur; see what has been brought forward there about the rise and the life of spiritual good, which is 'Israel', within the forms of good and the truths of the lower natural, which are 'his sons' and 'the twelve tribes'. To take further the idea of the rise of interior things within exterior ones, it should be recognized that all things, not only those with the human being but also those in the entire natural order, come into existence through a series of formations, so that posterior things are brought into existence by means of formations from prior things. Consequently each formation comes into existence as that which is separate from any other; yet the posterior is dependent on what is prior to it, so dependent that it cannot remain in existence without what is prior. For what is posterior is held in connection with and has its form preserved by what is prior. From this it may also be seen that what is posterior contains within itself all things that are prior to it in their proper order. It is like modes ¹ and the forces proceeding from those modes as underlying substances. This is how it is with a person's interiors and exteriors, and also how it is with the things that make up the life he has.

[2] Unless one conceives interior things and exterior things in a person as entities formed in the way just described, one cannot begin to have any idea of the external man and the internal man or of the flowing of the one into the other, let alone of the rise and the life of the interior man or the spirit, and of what that man is like when the external, the bodily part, is separated through death. If a person conceives exterior things and interior ones as a continuous progression into what is purer and purer, so that through that continuity they are inseparable, and are not therefore made distinct through a series of formations of posterior things from prior ones, that person cannot help supposing that when the external dies the internal dies too. For he thinks that they are inseparable, and because they are inseparable, continuing one into the other, that when one dies, so does the other; for one takes the other with it. These matters have been mentioned so that people may know that the internal and the external are distinct and separate from each other, and that interior things and exterior ones follow one another in consecutive order, also that all interior things exist together within exterior ones, or what amounts to the same, that all prior things exist within posterior ones, which is the subject in the internal sense of the verses under consideration here.

각주:

6945. For they will say, Jehovah hath not been seen of thee. That this signifies the Divine which is in the Lord’s Human, is evident from the signification of “saying,” as being perception (of which frequently above), here the perception of those who are of the spiritual church; and from the signification of “Jehovah seen,” as being the appearing of the Lord’s Divine in His Human. That “to be seen” denotes to appear is evident, and that “Jehovah” is the Lord as to the Divine Itself and as to the Divine Human, may be seen above (n. 1736, 2004, 2005, 2018, 2025, 2156, 2329, 2921, 3023, 3035, 5041, 5663, 6281, 6303, 6905). That “Jehovah seen” denotes the appearing of the Lord’s Divine in His Human, is evident also from the fact that His Divine cannot appear to any man, nor even to any angel, except through the Divine Human; nor the Divine Human except through the Divine truth which proceeds from Him. Here in the internal sense the subject treated of is the liberation of those who are of the spiritual church. (That these were liberated by the Lord’s coming into the world, see n. 2661, 2716, 3969, 6854, 6914; and that these specifically were saved by means of the Lord’s Divine Human, n. 2716, 2833, 2834.)

[2] As regards this statement, that the people of that church would not have faith, and would not receive what the law Divine represented by Moses (that is, what the Word) says, unless they saw signs, the case is this. These people, being of the spiritual church, have no perception of truth from good, as the celestial have, but acknowledge as truth every doctrinal matter of their church which they have confirmed in themselves, and are therefore relatively in obscurity (n. 2718, 2831, 2849, 2935, 2937, 3833, 6427, 6500, 6865), as can also be seen from the fact that they do not at all comprehend how the Lord’s Human can be Divine; nor that the Divine love in the Human can effect this; for they keep their thought in a human such as exists with man, and they do not recede from this thought when they think of the Lord, in such an entanglement are they. The same can also be seen from the fact that neither do they comprehend how man can live after death, and at the same time have senses, such as sight, hearing, touch, and smell, and be in a human form there. That such is man when he has cast away his body and its senses and members, appears to them foreign to the truth, so enwrapped are they in things of sense, and in the memory-knowledges and fallacies thence derived; and therefore unless they believed that the body will again be conjoined with the soul, they would have no belief whatever in any resurrection.

[3] From all this it is sufficiently evident in how much obscurity they are as regards the things of heaven; and hence it is that no faith can ever be implanted in them unless they are withheld by the Lord from falsities by a mighty force. And as there was no such force before the Lord’s coming, but only after His coming, when He had made the Human in Himself Divine, therefore they could not be taken out of the lower earth, where they were being infested by falsities, and be taken up into heaven, until after the Lord’s resurrection (n. 6914). From this then it is that it is said that they would not believe, thus neither would receive what the law Divine, that is, the truth Divine says, unless they saw that it is so, thus unless they saw signs (of which below).