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.

1672. And the kings that were with him. That this signifies the apparent truth which is of that good, is evident from the signification of “kings” in the Word. “Kings,” “kingdoms,” and “peoples,” in the historical and the prophetical parts of the Word, signify truths and the things which are of truths, as may be abundantly confirmed. In the Word an accurate distinction is made between a “people” and a “nation;” by a “people” are signified truths, and by a “nation” goods, as before shown (n. 1259, 1260). “Kings” are predicated of peoples, but not so much of nations. Before the sons of Israel sought for kings, they were a nation, and represented good, or the celestial; but after they desired a king, and received one, they became a people, and did not represent good or the celestial, but truth or the spiritual; which was the reason why this was imputed to them as a fault (see 1 Samuel 8:7-22, concerning which subject, of the Lord’s Divine mercy elsewhere). As Chedorlaomer is named here, and it is added, “the kings that were with him,” both good and truth are signified; by “Chedorlaomer,” good, and by “the kings,” truth. But what was the quality of the good and truth at the beginning of the Lord’s temptations has already been stated.

736. And they prevailed not, and their place was not found any more in heaven.- That this signifies that they were overcome, and that nowhere hereafter in the heavens will there be a place corresponding to the state of their life, which is a state of thought alone, and not one of affection for good and truth, is evident from the signification of "they prevailed not," as denoting that they were overcome in combat; and from the signification of "their place was not found any more in heaven," as denoting that in the heavens hereafter there will be no place corresponding to the state of their life, of which we shall treat presently. This will not hereafter exist, because the state of their life, which is meant by the dragon and his angels, is a state of thought alone, and not one of affection for good and truth; for those who place everything of the church and thus everything of salvation in faith alone, cannot be in any affection for good and truth, since these belong to the life. Every man has two faculties of life, called understanding and will; the understanding is that which thinks, and the will is that which is affected, thus thought belongs to the understanding and affection to the will. Therefore those who separate faith from life, merely think that a thing is so, and as a consequence of their thinking in such a manner, they say that they will be saved. And because they separate life from faith, they can be in no other than natural affection, which belongs to the love of self and of the world; consequently they conjoin the affections of these loves to the things of their faith, and this conjunction does not constitute the heavenly marriage, which is heaven, but adultery, which is hell, for it is a conjunction of truth with an affection for evil; and such adultery corresponds to the adultery of a son with a mother, as is evident from correspondences known in the spiritual world. Nevertheless, the Lord provides that there shall be no conjunction of truth with evil, by not permitting such to have any real truths, but truths falsified which are in themselves falsities. And as such conjunction pertains to a faith separated, namely, that of falsity with evil, therefore the dragon, by whom those who are in such a faith are meant, is called Satan and the devil, Satan from falsity, and devil from evil; for, as stated above, the conjunction of truth and good makes heaven with man, while the conjunction of falsity and evil makes hell in him. The reason why they have no real truths, is that everything connected with their faith is from the sense of the letter of the Word; nor do they consider that the truths which are in that sense are appearances of truth, and that to accept and defend appearances for truths themselves is to falsify the Word, according to what has been said above (n. 715, 719, 720). This is why the dragon with his angels was cast out of heaven to the earth. Their place not being found any more in heaven, signifies that hereafter in the heavens there will be no place corresponding to the state of their life, because all places in the heavens correspond to the life of the angels, consequently place signifies the state of the life, as said above (n. 731). And because the life of all the angels in the heavens is a life of affection for good and truth, and as those who are in faith alone - and are meant by the dragon and his angels - have not this affection, therefore no place exists in the heavens corresponding to the state of their life. Moreover, all the angels in the heavens are spiritual affections, and every one of them thinks from, and according to his own affection; from this it follows that when those who place everything of the church and thus of heaven in thinking, and not in living, become spirits, they think from their own affections, which are affections for evil and falsity, as said above, and in consequence their faith, which they had made a matter of thought merely and not of life, is exterminated and dissipated. In a word, no one can have any spiritual affection, which is an affection for good and truth, except from the life of faith, which is charity. Charity itself is an affection for good, and faith is an affection for truth, and both conjoined together into one make the affection for good and truth.