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.

5206. 'And the cows bad in appearance and thin-fleshed devoured.....' means that falsities which were not expressions of faith and were not embodiments of charity would banish..... This is clear from the meaning of 'devouring' as consuming, dealt with in 5149, 5157, here as banishing because truths present in the natural, before they have received life through the celestial of the spiritual and so have been regenerated, have been so to speak banished by falsities; from the meaning of 'cows bad in appearance' as things which are not expressions of faith, dealt with just above in 5203; and from the meaning of 'thin-fleshed' as things which are not embodiments of charity, also dealt with above, in 5204.