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.

4154. And he went out of Leah’s tent, and came into Rachel’s tent. That this signifies the holy of that truth, is evident from what has just been said. The case with truths (as with goods) is that they are exterior and interior; for there is an internal man and an external. It is the goods and truths of the internal man that are called internal goods and truths, and the goods and truths of the external man are called external goods and truths. The goods and truths of the internal man are of three degrees, such as there are in the three heavens. The goods and truths of the external man are also of three degrees and they correspond to the internal ones; for there are goods and truths midway between the internal and external man (that is, mediating ones); for without middle or mediating goods and truths no communication is possible. There are goods and truths proper to the natural man, which are called external goods and truths; and there are also goods and truths of the senses which are of the body, and thus outermost ones. These last mentioned goods and truths of three degrees belong to the external man, and as before said they correspond to as many goods and truths of the internal man; concerning which of the Lord’s Divine Providence elsewhere.

[2] The goods and truths of each degree are most distinct from one another, and are by no means confused together. Those which are more interior are component, and those which are more exterior are composite. Although these goods and truths are most distinct from one another, they nevertheless do not appear to man as distinct. The sensuous man sees no otherwise than that all interior things, nay, internal things themselves, are only sensuous, for he sees from sensuous things, thus from outermost ones. Interior things cannot be seen from outermost things, but outermost things can be seen from interior things. He who is a natural man (that is, who thinks from memory-knowledges) knows no otherwise than that the natural things from which he thinks are inmost, when in fact they are external. The interior man, who judges and concludes from analytic principles that have been disclosed by virtue of natural memory-knowledges, believes in like manner that these are the inmost things which man possesses, because they appear as the inmost to him; and yet these are below his rational things, so that relatively to genuine rational things they are exterior or lower. Such is the case with man’s apprehension. The things just spoken of are those of the natural or external man in three degrees; but as before said those of the internal man are also in three degrees such as there are in the three heavens.

[3] From all that has been said it may now be seen how the case is with the truths signified by the “teraphim,” in that they were not found in the tents of Jacob, Leah, or the handmaids, but in Rachel’s tent, that is, in the holy of the affection of interior truth. All the truth that is from the Divine is in that which is holy, for it cannot be otherwise, because the truth that is from the Divine is holy. It is said to be holy from the affection (that is, from the love) which flows in from the Lord, and causes the man to be affected with the truth.