As this story begins, the Children of Israel have escaped Egypt, and are camped near Mount Sinai. Moses, their leader, as climbed up the mountain, and is receiving the Ten Commandments from Jehovah. The people get impatient, and think that perhaps Moses will not return, and they ask his brother Aaron, the High Priest, to make them new gods.

Aaron complies - which is surprising - given that he has been involved in the Exodus since the beginning, supporting Moses. But he does, and collects golden earrings, melts them down , and fashions them into a golden idol shaped like a calf. He builds an altar before the calf, and proclaims a feast to Jehovah.

God sees what is happening, and is angry, telling Moses that he will destroy these people, and start over again, using Moses to start a new church. Moses persuades God not to do this, reminding him of the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Yet, as Moses descends from the mountain, carrying the Ten Commandments etched by the hand of God on two tables of stone, and sees the extent of the forbidden idolatry, he too is angry. He shatters the tables of stone, grinds the calf into dust, mixes the dust into water, and makes the people drink it.

What's the inner meaning of this story?

It's explained in detail in Arcana Coelestia, starting in section 10395. Every detail is important. Very briefly, though:

If we don't realize, or recognize, that the Word contains truths from God, we can react by "gathering to Aaron" - just being religiously observant in an external, perfunctory way.

Detached from internal worship, we gravitate to developing false ideas - idols - that we use in religious teachings and worship. Not knowing Moses's whereabouts means a total unawareness of the internal truths of the Word.

When Aaron gathers the earrings, that signifies the external church cherry-picking truths from the literal sense of the Word to support a man-made religion that reinforces what it loves.

We can think ways that churches that have done this, and on a personal level, there's a strong tendency for us to do this, too - to think shallowly, to extract things from the Word and mold them into idols, or justifications for the things we want to do.

The two tables of stone are inscribed on both sides. There are internals and externals of religion. We need both. This is the reason why the internal meaning of the Word is so important to us all; it contains the inner truths that we need to understand, and live by, and learn to love.

This is much too brief a summary to do the story justice; it's one of they key turning points in the religious history of humankind, and it has profound meaning for us as individuals, and for our churches and nations.

8294. 'I will unsheathe the sword' means unceasing conflict on the part of falsity arising from evil. This is clear from the meaning of 'the sword' as truth engaged in conflict against falsity and evil, and in the contrary sense as falsity engaged in conflict against truth and good, dealt with in 2799, 4499; and from the meaning of 'unsheathing', or baring it, as unceasing conflict until the enemy has been laid low. Unceasing conflict is likewise meant by an unsheathed or drawn sword in Moses, I will scatter you among the nations, and unsheathe a sword after you. Leviticus 26:33.

In Ezekiel,

I will scatter to every wind all his troop; and I will unsheathe the sword after them. Ezekiel 12:14.

In the same prophet,

Thus said Jehovah, Behold Me against you; I will draw my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked. My sword will go out of its sheath against all flesh from south to north; so that all flesh may know that I Jehovah have drawn My sword out of its sheath, and it is not going to return any more. Ezekiel 21:3-5.

Here 'unsheathing' or 'drawing the sword' stands for not ceasing to engage in conflict until enemies have been laid low, and so stands for unceasing conflict. Unceasing conflict against evils and falsities is also meant by the unsheathed sword of the Prince of the army of Jehovah whom Joshua saw when he entered the land of Canaan, Joshua 5:13. It was a sign to them that they were to fight the nations there and to destroy them. By 'the nations' in possession of the land of Canaan at that time are meant those who before the Lord's Coming occupied the region of heaven which was subsequently given to members of the Lord's spiritual kingdom, 6914, 8054.