10436. 'With great power and with a strong hand' means by Divine Power. This is clear from the meaning of 'great power and a strong hand', when it has reference to Jehovah, as Divine Power, dealt with in 7188, 7189, 8050, 8069, 8153. What these words and those before them imply becomes clear from the train of thought in the internal sense, which is that although the Israelite nation's interest lay in external things and not in what was internal, to such an extent that their minds could not be raised at all to more internal levels, what was representative of the Church could nevertheless be established among them and the Word could be written there. These things could be achieved because by the Divine Power contact with heaven by means of those external things in which they were interested without anything internal was nevertheless possible, and so a situation could be effected similar to that which would have existed if they had been interested at the same time in what was internal. On this matter, see what has been shown regarding that nation in the places referred to above in 10396, such as those which show that through the external observances among them, which were representative of inner realities, there was by the Lord's Divine Power contact with heaven, 4311, 4444, 6304, 8588, 8788, 8806.

[2] It should be remembered that the Church is not the Church by virtue of its outward worship but of its inward worship; for outward worship is that of the body whereas inward is that of the soul. Consequently outward worship without the inward is no more than movements of the body, thus worship without life from the Divine. Through the inner components of worship a member of the Church is in contact with the heavens, for whom the outward form serves as the basis on which the inner components may rest like a house on its foundations. And when everything rests like a house on its foundations all is complete and firm, and the whole person is governed by the Divine.

[3] This is what a member of the Ancient Church had been like. This too had been a representative Church and for this reason had been accepted by the Lord, as is clear from a large number of places in the Word. A description of it is contained in the Song of Moses, Deuteronomy 32:3-15. But such a Church could not be established among the Israelite and Jewish nation, for the reason given above, that inwardly they were foul, and so were altogether contrary to the good of heavenly love and the good of faith, which are the inner components of worship. Therefore, when they insisted so stubbornly that they should enter the land of Canaan, which was tantamount to representing the Church, the Lord saw to it that contact with heaven through their merely outward worship should nevertheless be made possible. For the purpose of all worship is contact with heaven, and through this the Lord's being joined to man. These are the matters which the internal sense is dealing with at present.

4429. 'To see the daughters of the land' means to get to know the affections for truth, and the Churches which arise from these. This is clear from the meaning of 'seeing' as getting to know, dealt with frequently already; from the meaning of 'the daughters' as affections, and consequently Churches, dealt with in 2362, 3024, 3963; and from the meaning of 'the land', in this case the land of Canaan, as that area where the Church is, and therefore also the Church itself, dealt with in 662, 1066, 1067, 1262, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118, 2928, 3355, 3686, 3705.

[2] The meaning of these things contained in this verse becomes clear from those that follow, for the subject is the representative of the Church which was to be established among the descendants of Jacob. This representative among them could not be established until they had undergone complete vastation so far as interior truths were concerned, that is, until they no longer had any knowledge of them; see 4289. Interior truths are all those which are represented and meant by the religious observances which they were commanded to keep; for every religious observance represented, and was a sign meaning, something in the Lord's kingdom in heaven, and consequently something in the Lord's kingdom on earth, that is, in the Church. The things which they meant and represented are in this instance interior truths. The fact that all the things, each one, which the descendants of Jacob were commanded to observe when a representative of the Church was established among them - which things are laid down in the books of Moses, especially in Exodus and Leviticus - were representatives and meaningful signs of the celestial and spiritual things of the Lord's kingdom has been shown throughout the explanatory sections. None of these spiritual and celestial things were known to the descendants of Jacob, for the character of those descendants was such that if they had known them they would have profaned them, 301-303, 2520, 3398, 3479, 3769, 4281, 4293. For that reason they did not enter into those representatives until they had undergone complete vastation so far as interior things were concerned. The subject in this chapter therefore is those truths and that people's annihilation of them.

[3] The representatives which the descendants of Jacob were commanded to observe were not new, the majority being like those that had been in use formerly among the Ancients. Unlike the descendants of Jacob however, that is, unlike the Jews and Israelites, the Ancients did not worship external things but internal ones. Through internal things they acknowledged the Lord Himself. Remnants of the Church from ancient times still existed in the land of Canaan, especially among those who were called Hittites and Hivites. This is why those nations represent the truths of the Church. From all this one may now have some idea of what is meant by Dinah, the daughter of Jacob by Leah, going out to see the daughters of the land. For 'Dinah' represents the external Church such as was established among the descendants of Jacob, while 'the daughters of the land' means Churches existing among the Ancients. Everywhere in the Word Churches are meant in its internal sense by 'daughters', see 2362, 3024, where this meaning has been shown; and 'land' means an area and a nation where the Church exists, and so means the Church, 662, 1066, 1067, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118, 2928, 3355, 3686, 3705.