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.

2804. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood. That this signifies that love and righteousness were present, is evident from the signification of “fire,” as being love (see n. 934); and from the signification of “wood for a burnt-offering,” as being the merit of righteousness (see n. 2784).

369. (Verse 5) And when he had opened the third seal. That this signifies prediction concerning a further succeeding state with those who belong to the church where the Word is, is manifest from what has been said above (n. 351, 352, 361); for the subject treated of in this and the following chapter is the state of the Christian Church, or the church where the Word is, from its beginning to its end, or from the time of the Lord's coming even to the Last Judgment. For the new church, which is called the Christian Church, [and which] was begun by the Lord when He was in the world, and afterwards extended, has decreased successively down to the present time, which is its last time, in which judgment takes place. The predictions concerning these successive states of the church are here manifested as from a book, by various representatives; but it is to be observed, that such predictions were not seen and read in a book, after its seals were opened, but were manifested through the heavens from the Lord, before the angels of the inmost heaven; and were represented in the ultimates of heaven by such things as are related in this chapter, namely, by horses of various colours, and afterwards by earthquakes, darkenings of the sun and moon, and the falling of the stars to the earth.

[2] These, however, were appearances before the angels of the ultimate heaven, signifying such things as were heard and perceived in the inmost heaven, where there were no such appearances; for whatever is heard, thought, and perceived in the inmost heaven from the Lord, when it descends through the middle heaven to the last, is turned into such appearances; thus are the mysteries of Divine Wisdom promulgated before the angels of the ultimate heaven. Those there, who are intelligent, perceive these mysteries from correspondences; but the lowest of them do not perceive, but only know, that mysteries are therein, nor do they inquire further; John was with the latter when in spirit or in vision. These things are mentioned that it may be known how the Word was written, namely, from such things as were seen and heard in the ultimates of heaven, thus from pure correspondences and representatives, in each of which lie concealed innumerable and ineffable mysteries of Divine Wisdom.