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.

347. As for the formation of faith, this takes place by a person approaching the Lord, learning truths from the Word, and living by them. First: faith is formed by a person approaching the Lord, because faith which is real faith, that is, the faith which saves, is from the Lord and directed to the Lord. The Lord's words to His disciples show plainly that it comes from the Lord:

Remain in me, and I in you, because without me you can do nothing, John 15:4-5.

It is plain that it is faith directed to the Lord from the numerous passages which have been cited (337-338), stating that one must believe in the Son. Now since faith is from the Lord and directed to the Lord, it can be said that the Lord is faith itself, for its life and essence are in the Lord, and so come from Him.

[2] Secondly: the reason why faith is formed by a person learning truths from the Word is that faith essentially is truth; for all the ingredients of faith are truths. Thus faith is nothing but a collection of truths casting light in a person's mind. For truths teach not only that one should believe, but in whom one should believe and what one should believe. Truths must be taken from the Word, because it contains all the truths which lead to salvation; and they are effective because they have been given by the Lord, and are as a result imprinted upon the whole heaven of the angels. When therefore a person goes on to learn truths from the Word, he comes into communion and association with angels, without being aware of it. Faith devoid of truths is like seed devoid of kernel, which if milled produces only bran. But faith derived from truths is like good seed, which if milled produces flour. In short, the essentials of faith are truths; if these are not contained in it and compose it, faith is no more than the sound of a whistle; but when truths are contained in and compose faith, then it is the sound of something that brings salvation.

[3] Thirdly: faith is formed by a person living by truths, because spiritual life is living in accordance with truths, and truths do not really come alive until they are realised in deeds. Truths unconnected with deeds belong merely to a person's thinking; if they are not also accepted by the will, they merely stand at a person's door and so are not within him. For the will is the person himself, and thought is a person to the extent that it joins the will to itself, and the nature of thought is determined by this joining. A person who learns truths without putting them into practice is like someone scattering seeds over a field and not harrowing it; then the rain makes the seeds swell so that they become empty husks. But a person who learns truths and puts them into practice is like someone who sows seed and ploughs the seed in; then the rain makes the seeds grow into a crop, and they become a useful source of food. The Lord says:

If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them, John 13:17.

and in another passage:

The person who sows on good ground is the one who hears the Word and pays attention to it, so that he brings forth and produces fruit, Matthew 13:23.

Also:

Everyone who hears my words and acts upon them, I will compare to a prudent man, who built his house upon a rock; but everyone who hears my words and does not act upon them will be compared to a foolish man who built his house upon sand, Matthew 7:24, 26.

The Lord's words are all of them truths.

8760. And Moses went up unto God. That this signifies the truth from the Divine which is beneath heaven conjoining itself with the Divine truth which is in heaven, is evident from the representation of Moses, as being truth from the Divine (see n. 6771, 6827, 7014), here truth from the Divine which is beneath heaven, for the reason that now he represents the sons of Israel as their head, thus those who are of the spiritual church, who as yet are not in heaven because not yet in good formed by truths (see n. 8753, 8754); and from the signification of “going up,” as being to conjoin oneself, for he who goes up to the Divine conjoins himself with Him; as for instance when “going up into heaven” is mentioned, there is meant being conjoined with the Lord; and the reverse is meant by “coming down from heaven.” The Divine truth in heaven, with which there is conjunction, is meant by “God,” for in the Word the Lord is called “God” from Divine truth, and “Jehovah” from Divine good (n. 2586, 2769, 2807, 2822, 3921, 4402, 7010, 7268, 7873, 8301); and because the conjunction of Divine truth with Divine good is here treated of, therefore in this verse “God” is first mentioned, and then “Jehovah,” in these words, “Moses went up unto God, and Jehovah called unto him from the mountain.”

[2] It is said, the Divine truth in heaven, and afterward, the Divine good in heaven, for the reason that the Divine Itself is far above the heavens, not only the Divine good itself, but also the Divine truth itself which proceeds immediately from the Divine good. That these are far above heaven, is because in itself the Divine is infinite, and the infinite cannot be conjoined with finite things, thus not with the angels in the heavens, except by the putting on of something finite, and thus by accommodation to reception. The Divine good itself is also in itself an infinite flame of ardor, that is, of love, and this flame no angel in heaven can bear, for he would be consumed like a man if the flame of the sun were to touch him without intermediate tempering. Moreover if the light from the flame of the Divine love, which light is Divine truth, were to flow in without abatement from its own fiery splendor, it would blind all who are in heaven. From all this it can be seen what the difference is between the Divine good and Divine truth above the heavens, and the Divine good and Divine truth in the heavens, here treated of.