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.

6363. 'Judah are you' means the celestial Church. in the highest sense the Lord's Divine celestial. This is clear from the representation of 'Judah' in the highest sense as the Lord's Divine love, which is His Divine celestial; but in the relative sense the Lord's celestial kingdom, thus the celestial Church, is meant, dealt with in 3881. What the celestial kingdom is, or the celestial Church, and what the celestial is, see 640, 641, 765, 895, 2048, 2088, 2669, 2708, 2715, 2718, 2896, 3275, 3246, 3774, 3886, 3887, 4448, 4497, 5113, 5921, 6295.