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.

98. It is in fact a tenet of belief in the church to-day, and also supported from the Word, that the Father and the Son, that is, the Divine and the Human, are united in the Lord like the soul and the body. Yet there are scarcely five in a hundred, or fifty in a thousand, who know this. The reason is the doctrine of justification by faith alone, so zealously propagated by many of the clergy, who seek a reputation for learning for the sake of honours and preferment, to such a point that that doctrine occupies and besets every point in their minds. Because it has made their thoughts drunk, just as the spirits of wine called alcohol, they have, like drunkards, failed to see this most essential tenet of the church, that Jehovah God came down and took human form. Yet that union is the sole means by which man is linked to God, and by being so linked is saved. It is evident that salvation depends upon the knowledge and acknowledgment of God, if anyone considers that God is all in all in heaven, and so all in all in the church, and therefore all in all in theology.

[2] Here I shall first prove that the union of the Father and the Son, that is, the Divine and the Human in the Lord, is like the union of soul and body; and, secondly, that this is a reciprocal union. The concept of a union as of the soul and the body has been established in the Athanasian Creed, which is accepted throughout the Christian world as the doctrine concerning God. In it we read as follows:

Our Lord Jesus Christ is God and Man; and although He is God and Man, they are not two, but one Christ. He is one, because the Divine took to itself a human. Indeed He is altogether one and is one Person, for as the soul and the body are one man, so God and Man are one Christ.

This is understood to mean that this is a union between the Son of God from eternity and the Son born in time; but because God is one and not three, so long as that union is understood to be with the one God from eternity, the doctrine agrees with the Word. There we read that He was conceived of Jehovah the Father (Luke 1:34-35); and that was the source of His soul and life. This is why He says that He and the Father are one (John 10:30); that he who sees and knows Him sees and knows the Father (John 14:9); 'if you knew Me, you would also know My Father' (John 8:19); 'he who receives Me, receives Him who sent Me' (John 13:20); that He is in the Father's bosom (John 1:18); that all things whatsoever the Father has are His (John 16:15); that He is called the everlasting Father (Isaiah 9:6); that He thus has power over all flesh (John 17:2), and all power in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). From these and many other passages in the Word it can be clearly seen that the union between the Father and the Son is like that between the soul and the body. For this reason too He is often called in the Old Testament Jehovah, Jehovah Zebaoth, and Jehovah the Redeemer (83 above).

2971. The field and the cave that was therein. That this signifies as to the good and the truth of faith, is evident from the signification of “field” as being the church, also the good itself of the church. The celestial, or good, which is of love to the Lord and of charity toward the neighbor, is compared to “ground,” and also to “field;” it is also called “ground” and “field;” because the celestial or good is that which receives the truths of faith, which are compared to seeds and are also called “seeds.” The same is evident also from the signification of a “cave,” as being the truth of faith which is in obscurity (see n. 2935); it is said to be in obscurity because it is with the spiritual (see n. 1043, 2708, 2715).