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.

John the Baptist represents the natural, literal sense of the Bible. He and Jesus were cousins. He paved the way for Jesus, just as the literal sense of the Bible paves the way for the spiritual sense. John is described as a rough man clothed with camel's hair. The literal sense of the Bible can be rough and unpleasant as well. The fact that John lived in the wilderness speaks to the state of the Old Testament at the time. His message of repentance is the first step towards spiritual rebirth. (Arcana Coelestia 9372, 10528)

Yet even in its externals, the Bible stands above human-generated ideas: Jesus said John was "greater than a prophet," and prophets represent doctrine. "Those born of women" represent true ideas; John was the greatest of all. And the simple power of his message – a message of repentance – helped people examine and begin to fight their evils, preparing them for the love and goodness that Jesus would preach.

10215. 'And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying' means enlightenment from the Lord through the Word. This is clear from the meaning of 'speaking', when done by Jehovah to Moses, as enlightenment from the Lord through the Word; for 'Jehovah' in the Word is the Lord, and 'Moses' represents the Word. 'Speaking' means influx, perception, and instruction, 2951, 5481, 5743, 5797, 7226, 7241, 7270, 8127, 8128, 8221, 8262, 8660, and therefore also enlightenment since enlightenment is the influx, perception, and instruction people receive from the Lord when they read the Word.

'Jehovah' in the Word is the Lord, see the places referred to in 9373.

'Moses' is the Word in a representative sense, 9372.

The reason why these things are meant by 'Jehovah spoke to Moses' is that the perception of these words in heaven is not the same as that on earth. In heaven the words are perceived according to the internal sense, on earth according to the external sense; for in heaven everything is understood on a spiritual level, on earth on a natural level. That understanding on a spiritual level is arrived at instantaneously, without awareness of what people in the world understand in the external or literal sense. Angels in heaven live in this kind of association with people in the world, because then the whole of a person's thought flows in from the spiritual world, and the first origins of the person's thought are therefore spiritual, becoming natural in the external man through influx.