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.

218. Bread. When the context concerns the Lord, "bread" means the divine goodness of his divine love, and also a reciprocal love for him in the people who "eat the bread": 2165, 2177, 3478, 3735, 3813, 4211, 4217, 4735, 4976, 9323, 9545. "Bread" in a general sense includes and means food of all kinds: 2165, 6118. "Food" means everything that nourishes our spiritual life: 4976, 5147, 5915, 6277, 8418. So "bread" means heavenly and spiritual food of all kinds (276, 680, 2165, 2177, 3478, 6118, 8410), and therefore, as the Lord says in Matthew 4:4, it means every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (681). In a general sense bread means good actions that come from love: 2165, 2177, 10686. Wheat, from which bread is made, has the same meaning: 3941, 7605. When the Word mentions bread and water, they mean good actions that come from love and truths that belong to our religious faith: 9323. In the ancient churches breaking bread represented mutual love: 5405. Spiritual food consists of knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom, and therefore of goodness and truth, because the former come from the latter (3114, 4459, 4792, 5147, 5293, 5340, 5342, 5410, 5426, 5576, 5582, 5588, 5655, 8562, 9003), and because knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom nourish the mind (4459, 5293, 5576, 6277, 8418). When someone in the Word is sustained by food, it means spiritual nourishment and the inflow of goodness and truth from the Lord: 4976, 5915, 6277.

[2] The bread on the table in the tabernacle meant the divine goodness of the Lord's divine love: 3478, 9545. The grain offerings in sacrifices, which took the form of unleavened cakes and wafers, meant worship from the goodness of love: 4581, 10079, 10137. The specific meanings of the grain offerings of various kinds: 7978, 9992, 9993, 9994, 10079.

[3] When the ancients spoke of bread in a general sense, they meant food of all kinds. See Genesis 43:16, 31; Exodus 18:12; Judges 13:15, 16; 1 Samuel 14:28, 29; 20:24, 27; 2 Samuel 9:7, 10; 1 Kings 4:22, 23; 2 Kings 25:29.