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.

9673. 'With cherubs' means watchfulness, guarding against the intermingling of the two - of spiritual good and celestial good, and so of the middle heaven and the inmost heaven. This is clear from the meaning of 'cherubs' as watchfulness and providence, guarding against access to the Lord except through good and guarding against any harm being done to the good from the Lord which is present in heaven and with a person, dealt with in 9509. The reason why guarding against the intermingling of spiritual good and celestial good, and so of those two heavens, is also meant is that if they did become intermingled they would both suffer harm, harm so serious that those actual heavens would be destroyed, as may be recognized from the difference between the two kinds of good, and so between the two heavens, spoken about in the places referred to above in 9670. For this reason there are intermediate angelic communities, among whom celestial-spiritual good exists and spiritual-celestial good; and through these communities the two heavens are linked together, 9670, 9671. Even with these communities the two forms of good have not been joined together, but exist distinct and separate from each other. From all this it is evident that those communities are guards, protecting both kinds of good from becoming intermingled, and therefore also that this watchfulness and providence which are the Lord's are meant by 'cherubs'.