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.

9211. Ye shall not put usury upon him. That this signifies thus not for the sake of the consequent profit, is evident from the signification of “putting usury upon” anyone as being to do good for the sake of profit (of whic h just above, n. 9210), here not for the sake of profit, because it is said “ye shall not put usury upon him.” From this law concerning interest and usury it can be seen how the case is with the laws called “judgments” among the Israelitish people, namely, that they ceased, together with the sacrifices and all other rituals, when the Lord came into the world and opened the interior things of worship, and in general the interior things of the Word. The interior things of this law are that good ought to be done to the neighbor from the heart, and that it ought to be believed that there is nothing of merit in deeds done from self, but only in those done from the Lord in self. For the Lord Himself alone has merited, and He alone is righteousness; and when a man believes this, he places nothing of merit and reward in what is done by himself, but ascribes all goods to the Lord; and as the Lord does it from Divine mercy, the man ascribes all things to mercy alone. From this also it is that he who is led by the Lord thinks absolutely nothing about reward, and yet does good to the neighbor from the heart.

[2] These are the interior things from which descended the law of usuries among the Israelitish and Jewish nation, and therefore when a man is in the interior things, this law ceases, together with other similar laws, which were called “judgments.” For the Israelitish and Jewish nation was solely in external things which were representative of internal things. Consequently this law was binding upon that nation at that time; but it is not binding upon Christians, to whom interior things have been revealed by the Lord. That this is so is known to the man of the church at this day, and therefore at this day the laws of usury are quite different. Nevertheless the sanctity of this law does not cease on this account, that is, this Word has not been abrogated, for its sanctity remains by virtue of the interior things which are in it. These holy interior things still affect the angels when this Word is read. Therefore beware of believing that the laws of life, such as are in the Decalogue, and everywhere in the Old Testament, have been abrogated, for these laws have been confirmed in the internal as well as in the external form, because the two cannot be separated.

3485. The representations that come forth in the other life are appearances, but living ones, because they are from the light of life. The light of life is the Divine wisdom, which is from the Lord alone. Hence all things that come forth from this light are real; and are not like those things that come forth from the light of the world. Wherefore they who are in the other life have sometimes said that the things they see there are real things, and the things which man sees are in comparison not real; because the former things live, and thus immediately affect their life, while the latter things do not live, thus do not immediately affect the life, except insofar and in such a manner as the things in their minds which are of this world’s light conjoin themselves fitly and correspondently with the things of the light of heaven. From all this it is now evident what representations are, and what correspondences.