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.

5530. 'That behold, each man's bundle of silver' means truths in ordered groups freely given. This is clear from the meaning of 'bundle' as an ordered group, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'silver' as truth, dealt with in 1551, 2954 - 'each man's in his sack' meaning that the ordered groups were freely given. The reason why 'bundle' means an ordered group is that the truths present with a person are arranged and ordered into sequences. The truths most in harmony with his loves lie in the middle; ones less in harmony with his loves lie immediately around those in the middle, while truths that are not at all in harmony with his loves lie pushed back to the peripheries. And lying outside that whole sequence are those which are contrary to his loves. The truths in the middle are therefore called kindred ones since love is the creator of kinship; those that are more remote are called associated ones, extending to and ending with associates that are on the fringes. All the truths present with a person are arranged into sequences like this and are meant by 'bundles'.

[2] From this one may see quite clearly what the situation is with those governed by self-love and love of the world and what it is with those governed by love to God and towards their neighbour. With people governed by self-love and love of the world the kinds of truths that lend support to these loves are in the middle, while those giving them little support are on the peripheries, and those contrary to them, such as truths to do with loving God and loving their neighbour, are cast to the outside. Such is the state of those in hell. This also explains why sometimes a band of light is seen around them; but inside this band where they themselves are, there exists a dark, gruesome, and horrible centre. With angels however there is a radiance at the centre, fuelled by the good of celestial and spiritual love, with a band of light or shining whiteness clothing it round about. Those who appear like this are likenesses of the Lord, for when He Himself revealed His Divinity to Peter, James, and John, He shone with His face like the sun, and His garments became like the light, Matthew 17:2. The fact that angels, who are likenesses of Him, are seen in a radiance with a surrounding whiteness is evident from the angel who came down from heaven and rolled the stone away from the door of the tomb,

His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. Matthew 28:3.