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.

8622. 'That I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven' means that that falsity is to be completely removed, so that it may no longer engage in conflict. This is clear from the meaning of 'blotting out the memory' as removing, dealt with below; and from the representation of 'Amalek' as those who are steeped in falsity arising from interior evil, dealt with in 8593.

[2] The reason why 'blotting out the memory of Amalek' means removing the falsity that arises from interior evil is that it can be removed, but cannot be blotted out, since it is the falsity residing with hellish genii who live forever, 8593. These genii are however removed by the Lord so that they do not flow into those who belong to the spiritual Church, the reason for this being that they do not flow, as hellish spirits do, into thoughts belonging to the understanding, nor thus into ideas belonging to faith, but into affections belonging to the will, consequently into feelings belonging to charity. And they do this so secretively that not a trace of what comes from them is ever apparent. If therefore they were to flow into a member of the spiritual Church he could not possibly be saved, because they would pervert and utterly warp his affections for what is true and good. This is why those hellish genii are removed so that they do not have any contact with those who belong to the Lord's spiritual kingdom.

[3] Furthermore it should be recognized that a member of the spiritual Church has a new will implanted in the understanding part of his mind, 895, 927, 1023, 1043, 1044, 2256, 4328, 4493, 5113. This will would be completely destroyed by those genii if they were allowed to flow in. They would also enter into and open up again the hereditary evils of the old will, even though they have been closed off. Regarding the closing off of them, see 986, 1667, 2308. Those hellish genii are removed in this way to prevent them from flowing in. Their falsity, which is falsity arising from interior evil, is evil - evil whose nature is such that it cannot flow into the understanding part of the mind, only into the will part. This being so, and because the new will of a member of the spiritual Church has been planted in the understanding part, as stated above, they have consequently been removed from flowing into it. To this end the Lord also controls things in such a way that the entire power of understanding in these genii is laid waste.

[4] After death people become genii like these if they have had doing harm to their neighbour constantly in mind, allowing such ideas to delight their thinking, and have also inflicted harm, but secretively and through others, taking the utmost care to prevent anyone from knowing that they had initiated it. In other respects they were to outward appearances unassuming, polite, and seemingly friendly; they were also seemingly Christian in speech, and in life too. They were however hypocrites, and inwardly were treacherous tigers.