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.

305. Thus the Lord made His Human Divine.

The Human of the Lord is Divine, because it was from the esse of the Father, which was His soul, illustrated by the likeness of a father and children (n. 10269, 10372, 10823). And because it was from the Divine love which was in Him (n. 6872). Every man is such as his love is, and he is his own love (n. 6872, 10177, 10284). The Lord was the Divine love (n. 2077, 2253). The Lord made all His Human, both the internal and the external, Divine (n. 1603, 1815, 1902, 1926, 2093, 2803). Therefore He rose again as to the whole body, differently from any man (n. 1729, 2083, 5078, 10825). That the Lord's Human is Divine, is acknowledged from the omnipresence of His Human in the Holy Supper (n. 2343, 2359). And it is evident from His transfiguration before the three disciples (n. 3212). And likewise from the Word (n. 10154). And He was there called Jehovah (n. 1603, 1736, 1815, 1902, 2921, 3035, 5110, 6281, 6303, 8864, 9194, 9315). In the sense of the letter there is a distinction made between the Father and the Son, or Jehovah and the Lord, but not in the internal sense, in which the angels are (n. 3035). The Christian world does not acknowledge the Human of the Lord to be Divine, in consequence of a decree passed by a council in favor of the Pope, that he might be acknowledged as the Lord's vicar; from conversation with them in another life (n. 4738).

The Divine Human from eternity was the Divine truth in heaven, thus the Divine existere, which was afterwards made in the Lord the Divine esse, from which is the Divine existere in heaven (n. 3061, 6280, 6880, 10579). The previous state of heaven described (n. 6371-6373). The Divine was not perceptible, and therefore not capable of being received, until it passed through heaven (n. 6982, 6996, 7004). The Lord from eternity was the Divine truth in heaven (n. 2803, 3195, 3704). This is the Son of God born from eternity (n. 2628, 2798).

In heaven no other Divine is perceived but the Divine Human (n. 6475, 9303, 9356, 9571, 10067). The most ancient people could not adore the infinite esse, but the infinite existere, which is the Divine Human (n. 4687, 5321). The ancients acknowledged the Divine, because it appeared in a human form, and this was the Divine Human (n. 5110, 5663, 6846, 10737). The inhabitants of all the earths adore the Divine under a human form, and they rejoice when they hear that God actually became Man (n. 6700, 8541-8547, 9361, 10736-10738). See also Earths in Our Solar System, and in the Starry Heaven. God cannot be thought of, but in a human form, and that which is incomprehensible cannot fall into any idea (n. 9359, 9972). Man can worship what he has some idea of, but not what he has no idea of (n. 4733, 5110, 5663, 7211, 9356, 10067). Therefore the Divine is worshiped under a human form by most in the whole globe, and this is through an influx from heaven (n. 10159). All who are in good as to life, when they think of the Lord, think of a Divine Human, but not of the Human separated from the Divine (n. 2326, 4724, 4731, 4766, 8878, 9193, 9198). They in the church at this day who are in evil as to life, and they who are in faith separate from charity, think of the Human of the Lord without the Divine, and do not comprehend what the Divine Human is, the causes thereof (n. 3212, 3241, 4689, 4692, 4724, 4731, 5321, 6371, 8878, 9193, 9198).