10571. 'And Jehovah said to Moses, I will also do this thing that you have spoken' means that the Divine will be present within that external aspect of the Church, worship, and the Word which exists with them. This is clear from the representation of 'Moses', in his capacity as head of that nation, as the external aspect of the Church, worship, and the Word which was not so separate from the internal as the external aspect of them among the nation itself was, dealt with above in 10557, 10563; and from the meaning of 'doing the thing that Moses has spoken', when said by Jehovah, as the promise that the Divine will be present within the external aspect. For 'doing this thing' implies going with them and leading them into the land of Canaan, and going with them and leading them into the land of Canaan means that the Divine will show Himself among them, see above in 10569.

The arcanum that lies concealed in these verses and in those which follow them can scarcely be described unless people have an idea of that external aspect of the Church, worship, and the Word which Moses represents, and of that external aspect of the Church, worship, and the Word which existed with the nation itself. The one is distinguished from the other by this, that the external that Moses represents is not so separate from the internal as the external existing with the nation itself is. This accounts for the use sometimes of the words 'Moses and the people', at other times of 'Moses' without 'the people', or 'the people' without 'Moses', and for Moses' saying, when he speaks to Jehovah, 'I and the people', whereas Jehovah, when speaking to Moses, refers to Moses alone, as in verses 12, 14, 17-23, or to the people separately from him, as in verse 2 of the next chapter ¹ and elsewhere.

Footnotes:

5326. 'I am Pharaoh' means that this made the natural what it was. This is clear from the representation of 'Pharaoh' as the natural, dealt with in 5079, 5080, 5095, 5160. The fact that 'I am Pharaoh' means that this made the natural what it was is evident from all that immediately follows. For the declaration 'without you shall no man lift up his hand or his foot in all the land of Egypt' means that the celestial of the spiritual was the origin of all the power in both parts of the natural. Also, because things present in the natural are meant by the words that follow, the expression 'I am Pharaoh' therefore comes first, the term natural being used to mean the natural which has the celestial of the spiritual as its origin. The implications of this are as follows: With someone who is being created anew, that is, being regenerated, the natural is entirely different from what it is with someone who is not being regenerated. In the case of someone who is not being regenerated, his natural is everything; it is the source of his thought, and it is the source of his desires. His rational is not the source of it, and his spiritual still less so, because these are closed and for the most part dead.

[2] But in the case of someone who is being regenerated everything is made spiritual. The spiritual not only determines the thoughts and desires of the natural but also constitutes the natural in exactly the same way as a cause constitutes its effect; for nothing else acts within any effect except its cause. Thus the natural becomes like the spiritual, for the contents of the natural - such as any knowledge or cognition which springs from something in the natural world - do not act by themselves; they serve merely to support the spiritual so that it can act within and through the natural, and so act on the level of the natural. The same is so within an effect. An effect holds more things within itself than its cause does; yet the only purpose such things serve is to enable the cause to achieve the actual effect within the effect and to present itself in actual fact on the level of effect. From these few comments one may see what the natural is like in the case of a person who has been created anew, that is, regenerated - that regeneration, which made the natural what it was, being meant by 'I am Pharaoh'.