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.

9373. 'Come up to Jehovah' means being joined to the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of 'coming up' as being raised to more internal things, dealt with in 3084, 4539, 4969, 5406, 5817, 6007, and therefore also being joined to them, 8760. The reason why it is a joining to the Lord is that 'Jehovah' in the Word means the Lord, 1343, 1736, 1793, 2004, 2005, 2018, 2025, 2921, 3023, 3035, 5663, 6280, 6281, 6303, 6905, 8274, 8864, 9315. A further arcanum which lies concealed within the internal sense of these words is that the children of Jacob, over whom Moses presided as their head, were not called or elected; rather, they themselves insisted that Divine worship should be established among them, as accords with what has been stated in 4290, 4293. This is why it says, And He said to Moses, Come up to Jehovah, as though not Jehovah but another was telling him to go up. For the same reason it says in what follows that the people should not come up, verse 2, and that Jehovah did not lay a hand on the children of Israel who had been set apart, verse 11; also that the sight of Jehovah's glory was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel, verse 17; and finally that Moses, when he was called on the seventh day, went into the middle of the cloud, [verses 16, 18.] 'The cloud' means the Word in the letter, 5922, 6343 (end), 6752, 6832, 8106, 8443, 8781; and among the children of Jacob it was the Word separated from its internal sense, since their worship was external devoid of anything internal. This becomes perfectly clear from the fact that they now said, as they had done before [at Exodus 19:8], All the words which Jehovah has spoken we will do, verse 3; yet scarcely forty days went by after this time and they were worshipping the golden calf instead of Jehovah. From this it is evident that such idolatry lay concealed in their heart when they said with their lips that they would serve Jehovah alone. However, the people who are meant by the called and the elect are those with whom internal worship exists, and also external worship springing from internal, that is, those with whom love to the Lord and faith in Him, and consequently love towards the neighbour are present.