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.

2136. GENESIS 18

1. And Jehovah appeared unto him in the oak-groves of Mamre, and he was sitting at the door of the tent, as the day was growing hot.

2. And he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold three men standing over him; and he saw, and ran to meet them from the door of the tent, and bowed himself toward the earth.

3. And he said, My Lord, if I pray I have found grace in thine eyes, pass not I pray from over thy servant.

4. Let I pray a little water be taken, and wash ye your feet, and lie down under the tree.

5. And I will take a piece of bread, and support ye your heart; afterwards ye may pass on; for therefore have ye passed over unto your servant. And they said, So do as thou hast spoken.

6. And Abraham hastened toward the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of meal of fine flour, knead, and make cakes.

7. And Abraham ran unto the herd and took a son of an ox, tender and good, and gave it to the lad, and he hasted to make it.

8. And he took butter and milk, and the son of an ox that he had made, and set before them; and he stood before them under the tree, and they did eat.

9. And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold in the tent.

10. And he said, Returning I will return unto thee about this time of life, and behold Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard at the door of the tent, and it was behind him.

11. And Abraham and Sarah were old, entering into days; it had ceased to be with Sarah in the way as of women.

12. And Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am grown old shall I have pleasure? and my lord old?

13. And Jehovah said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I indeed truly bear, and I am become old?

14. Shall anything be wonderful for Jehovah? At the set time I will return unto thee, about this time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.

15. And Sarah denied, saying, I laughed not; for she was afraid. And He said, Nay, for thou didst laugh.

16. And the men rose up thence, and looked toward the faces of Sodom; and Abraham went with them, to send them away.

17. And Jehovah said, Shall I hide from Abraham that which I do?

18. And Abraham shall surely be for a nation great and numerous, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.

19. For I know him, because he will command his sons, and his house after him, and they will keep the way of Jehovah, to do righteousness and judgment; that Jehovah may bring upon Abraham that which He hath spoken concerning him.

20. And Jehovah said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah has become great, and because their sin has become very grievous.

21. I will go down I pray, and I will see whether they have made a consummation according to the cry thereof which is come unto Me, and if not I will know.

22. And the men looked forth thence, and went toward Sodom; and Abraham as yet he was standing before Jehovah.

23. And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt Thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?

24. Peradventure there be fifty righteous in the midst of the city; wilt Thou also destroy and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous that are in the midst of it?

25. Be it far from Thee to do according to this thing, to cause the righteous to die with the wicked, so that the righteous be as the wicked; be it far from Thee; shall not the Judge of all the earth do judgment?

26. And Jehovah said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous in the midst of the city, I will spare all the place for their sake.

27. And Abraham answered and said, Behold I pray I have taken upon me to speak unto my Lord, and I am dust and ashes.

28. Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous; wilt Thou destroy all the city for five? and He said, I will not destroy it, if I find there forty and five.

29. And he added yet to speak unto Him, and said, Peradventure forty shall be found there; and He said, I will not do it for forty’s sake.

30. And he said, Oh let not my Lord be angry, and I will speak: peradventure thirty shall be found there; and He said, I will not do it if I find thirty there.

31. And he said, Behold I pray I have taken upon me to speak unto my Lord: peradventure twenty shall be found there; and He said, I will not destroy it for twenty’s sake.

32. And he said, Oh let not my Lord be angry, and I will speak but this once: peradventure ten shall be found there; and He said, I will not destroy it for ten’s sake.

33. And Jehovah went when He had completed His speaking unto Abraham; and Abraham returned unto his place.

THE CONTENTS.

In the first place, this chapter treats concerning the Lord’s state of perception in the Human and concerning the communication with the Divine at that time, before the perfect union of His Human Essence with the Divine Essence, which state is also that in regard to which the Lord says, “No one hath seen God at any time, the Only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father” (John 1:18).

4528. The eye, or rather the sight of the eye, corresponds in particular to those communities in the next life which are surrounded by paradise gardens, which appear up above, in front and slightly to the right. There one can see gardens containing trees and flowers belonging to genera and species so numerous that in comparison with them those found on this entire planet are few. Each object there holds a measure of intelligence and wisdom shining out of it, enabling you to say that the people in those gardens are at the same time in the paradise gardens of intelligence and wisdom. Those gardens stir the inner feelings of the people there, and so gladden not only the eye but also at the same time the understanding.

[2] The paradise gardens are in the first heaven, on the verge leading to the inner parts of that heaven. They are representations which come down from the heaven above it when the angels of that higher heaven are engaged in serious discussion about the truths of faith. To communicate with one another the angels there rely on spiritual and celestial ideas to serve them as verbal expressions, and on consecutive sequences of representations, the beauty and loveliness of which cannot be described in any way at all. It is these beautiful and lovely expressions of ideas that are represented in the lower heaven as paradise gardens.

[3] This heaven is divided into many separate heavens, to which the individual parts within the chambers of the eye correspond. There is a heaven where the paradise gardens referred to above may be found. There is a heaven where different coloured skies may be seen, where the whole air is flashing so to speak with gold, silver, pearls, precious stones, very tiny flowers, and countless other things. There is a rainbow heaven where very beautiful rainbows appear, large and small, variegated with most splendid colours. Each of these is a product of the light from the Lord which holds intelligence and wisdom within it, and therefore every single object there holds some measure of intelligence and wisdom - the attributes of truth and good respectively - which is manifested in this representative fashion.

[4] Those who do not have any concept of heaven or of the light there can scarcely be led to believe that such things exist there. Consequently if those who bring that absence of belief with them into the next life have been governed by the truth and good of faith, they are taken by angels to those sights, and when they see them they are astounded. Concerning the paradise gardens, the skies, and the rainbow scenes, see previous descriptions of my experience of them in 1619-1626, 2296, 3220; also in the heavens consecutive representations occur constantly, 1807, 1808, 1971, 1980, 1981, 2299, 2763, 3213, 3216-3218, 3222, 3350, 3475, 3485.