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.

4751. 'What profit is there in our killing our brother and concealing his blood?' means that no advantage would be gained, nor any supremacy, if that truth was completely destroyed. This is clear from the meaning of 'what profit?' as no advantage gained, nor any supremacy, dealt with below; from the meaning of 'killing' as destroying, in this case Divine Truth, specifically the Truth regarding the Lord's Divine Human, which 'brother', that is, Joseph, is used to mean; and from the meaning of 'concealing blood' as removing holy truth completely out of sight, 'blood' meaning holy truth, see above in 4735. The implications of all this are made plain in what follows below.

[2] The reason why 'profit' here means not only advantage but also superiority - that is, why 'what profit?' means that no advantage would be gained, nor any superiority - is that what was said was motivated by the desire for gain and by avarice. For the desire for gain and avarice hold within themselves not only the wish to possess the whole world but also, for the sake of gain, to rob and even to kill no matter whom. Indeed one who is minded in this way would kill for little return if laws did not stand in the way to deter him. Furthermore, in the gold and silver he possesses such a person sees himself as one who is very powerful, however much to outward appearance he seems to be anything but powerful. From this it is evident that avarice includes not only love of the world but also self-love, indeed the foulest self-love. But with the disgustingly avaricious the sense of superiority or arrogance is not so obvious to outward appearance - for sometimes they have no interest in wealth for the sake of show, and do not have that kind of self-love which is usually tied up with the pursuit of pleasures. Indeed the disgustingly avaricious take little interest in their body, or in food and clothing for it. Theirs is a wholly earthly love, aiming at nothing else than money which, they believe, makes them, potentially if not actually, superior to all. From this one may see that avarice holds within it the lowest and basest self-love of all, which is why the avaricious in the next life seem to themselves to live among pigs, 939. They are also opposed more than anyone else to all good whatever. They dwell as a consequence in darkness so thick that they cannot by any means see what good is or what truth is. They do not grasp at all the idea that in the human being there is something internal which lives after death, and in their hearts they mock those who say there is.

[3] The Jewish nation was like this from the start, and for that reason nothing internal could be plainly revealed to it, as is evident from the Old Testament Word. They were indeed rooted in this worst kind of self-love, and therefore, if their avarice had not removed them very far away from internal things and as a consequence had not kept them in thickest darkness, they would have defiled interior truths and goods, and in so defiling them would have rendered them profane more than anyone else did. For they are unable to profane them as long as they do not acknowledge them, 1008, 1010, 1059, 2051, 3398, 3402, 3489, 3898, 4289, 4601. This is why the Lord says of them in John,

You are from your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning. John 8:44.

And of Judas Iscariot who represented the Jewish Church He says in the same gospel,

Did I not choose you twelve, but one of you is a devil? John 6:70.

Also when he sold the Lord, Judas' representation was similar to that which Judah has here who said, Come, and let us sell Joseph.

5576. And the famine became grievous. That this signifies desolation from the want of spiritual things, is evident from the signification of “famine,” as being a lack of the knowledges of good and truth (see n. 3364, 5277, 5279, 5281, 5300), and hence desolation (n. 5360, 5376, 5415); and because desolation comes from a scarcity and consequent want of spiritual things, this also is signified by “famine.”

[2] Hunger in the spiritual world or in heaven is not hunger for food, because the angels do not feed upon material food, which is for the body that man carries about in the world; but it is hunger for such food as nourishes their minds. This food, which is called spiritual food, is to understand truth and be wise in good; and wonderful to say the angels are nourished by this food; which has been made evident to me from the fact that after little children who die have been instructed in heaven in the truths of intelligence and the goods of wisdom, they no longer appear as little children, but as adults, and this according to their increase in good and truth; and also from the fact that the angels continually long for the things of intelligence and wisdom, and that when they are in the evening, that is, in a state in which these things fail, they are so far in what is relatively not happiness, and they then hunger and long for nothing more than that the morning may dawn for them afresh, and that they may return into their life of happiness, which is of intelligence and wisdom.

[3] That to understand truth and to will good is spiritual food, may also appear to everyone who reflects that when anyone is enjoying material food for the nourishment of the body, his food is more nourishing if he is at the same time in cheerful spirits and conversing on agreeable topics, which is a sign that there is a correspondence between spiritual food for the soul and material food for the body. And the same is further evident from the fact that when one who longs to imbue his mind with the things of knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom is kept from them, he begins to be saddened and distressed, and like one who is famished longs to return to his spiritual food, and thereby to the nourishment of his soul.

[4] That there is spiritual food which nourishes the soul as material food nourishes the body may also be seen from the Word, as in Moses:

Man doth not live by bread only; but by every utterance of the mouth of Jehovah doth man live (Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4).

The “utterance of the mouth of Jehovah” is in general the Divine truth which proceeds from the Lord, thus all truth of wisdom, specifically the Word, in which and from which are the things of wisdom. And in John:

Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you (John 6:27).

That this meat is the truth of wisdom which proceeds from the Lord is evident.

[5] From this too it may be known what is meant by these words of the Lord in the same chapter:

My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed (John 6:55);

namely, that the Lord’s “flesh” is Divine good (n. 3813), and His “blood” Divine truth (n. 4735); for when the Lord made His whole Human Divine, then His flesh was nothing else than Divine good, and His blood Divine truth. It is evident that in the Divine nothing material is to be understood; and therefore “food” in the supreme sense, that is, when predicated of the Lord, is the good of the Divine love for saving the human race. This food is what is meant by the Lord’s words in John:

Jesus said to the disciples, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to perfect His work (John 4:32, 34);

“to do the will of Him that sent Him, and to perfect His work” is to save the human race; the Divine from which this is done is the Divine love. From all this it is now plain what is meant in the spiritual sense by “famine.”