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Arcana Coelestia #9371

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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.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for the permission to use this translation.

Commentary

 

Fake It Until You Make It

By Todd Beiswenger

Jacob wrestles with an angel, from a fresco by Eugène Delacroix in Église Saint-Sulpice (Paris), 1861.


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When we decide that we want a new life, we have to LIVE it. Sometimes this means we're faking our responses and actions, but as long as we're faking it with the intention to make it, God will turn that fake feeling into a real one.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 4281, 6592, 8389, 8588; Conjugial Love 281; Genesis 32:22-31, 50:24-25)

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Arcana Coelestia #7014

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7014. And Moses went, and returned. That this signifies continuation of the former life, is evident from the signification of “going,” as being life (see n. 4882, 5493, 5605); from the signification of “returning,” or “going back,” as being to live where he lived before; and from the representation of Moses, as being the Lord as to the law or truth from the Divine (n. 6771, 6827). When Moses was in Mount Horeb with Jehovah seen in a flame, he then represented the Lord as to Divine truth; but now with Jethro his father-in-law, who is the good of the church which is in the truth of simple good, he represents the Lord as to truth from the Divine. Here and elsewhere in the Word, in the internal sense, are described all the states of the Lord’s life in the world, how He then made His Human Divine. That the states were successive, can be seen from the fact that the Lord when an infant was like an infant, and that He afterward grew in intelligence and wisdom, and continually instilled into these the Divine love, even until He became the Divine love, that is, the Divine being or Jehovah, as to His Human also. And as the Lord in this way successively put on the Divine, He therefore first made Himself truth from the Divine, afterward Divine truth, and at last the Divine good. These were the steps of the glorification of the Lord which are described here and elsewhere in the internal sense of the Word.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for the permission to use this translation.