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.

3464. And showed him concerning the well which they had digged; and they said, We have found waters. That this signifies interior truths by means of these things, is evident from the signification of a “well,” as being the Word (n. 3424); and from the signification of “waters,” as being truths (n. 2702t is, truths which are from the Word; thus to “show him concerning the well which they had digged,” signifies concerning the Word from which they had doctrinal things; “and they said, We have found waters,” signifies that in them, that is, in the doctrinal things, there were interior truths. For as before said, there are interior truths in all the doctrinal things that are drawn from the literal sense of the Word, because the literal sense of the Word is like a well that contains water; for in each and everything of the Word there is an internal sense, which is also in the doctrinal things that are from the Word.

[2] As regards the doctrinal things that are from the literal sense of the Word, the case is this: When a man is in them, and at the same time in a life according to them, he has a correspondence in himself; for the angels who are with him are in interior truths, while he is in exterior ones, and thus through the doctrinal things he has communication with heaven, but according to the good of his life. As for example, when in the Holy Supper he thinks in simplicity of the Lord from the words then used, “This is My body, and this is “My blood,” the angels with him are in the idea of love to the Lord and charity toward the neighbor; for love to the Lord corresponds to the Lord’s body, and to bread; and charity toward the neighbor corresponds to the blood, and the wine (n. 1798, 2165, 2177, 2187); and because there is such a correspondence, there flows an affection out of heaven through the angels into that holy state in which the man then is, which affection he receives in accordance with the good of his life.

[3] For the angels dwell with everyone in his life’s affection, thus in the affection of the doctrinal things according to which he lives; but in no case if his life disagrees therewith; for if the life disagrees, as for instance if he is in the affection of gaining honors and riches by means of doctrinal things, then the angels retire, and infernals dwell in this affection, who either infuse into him confirmations of the doctrinal things for the sake of self and the world, thus a persuasive faith-which is such that it is regardless whether a thing is true or false provided it captivates the minds of others-or else they take away all faith, and then the doctrine of his lips is only a sound excited and modified by the fire of these loves.