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.

3651. Everyone may see that these words contain arcana, and that unless these arcana are disclosed it is impossible to know what is meant by “them that are in Judea fleeing to the mountains;” by “him that is upon the housetop not going down to take anything out of his house;” and by “him that is in the field not returning back to take his garment.” Unless the internal sense were to teach what these words signify and enfold within them, the investigators and interpreters of the Word might be led away and fall into opinions altogether foreign to the truth; or it might even happen that those who at heart deny the holiness of the Word might come to the conclusion that such expressions merely describe flight and escape on the approach of an enemy; consequently that there is nothing more holy contained therein; when yet by these words of the Lord there is fully described a state of the devastation of the church in respect to the goods of love and the truths of faith; as may be seen from the following explication of the words in question.

770. 'Noah's wife' means the Church itself, and 'the three wives of his sons with them' the derivative Churches themselves. This is clear from what has been stated, that is to say, when the member of the Church is mentioned by name, the all of the Church is meant, or as it is called, the head of the Church. 'Wife' in that case is the Church, as shown already in 252, 253. It is different when 'man and wife' or 'male and female' are mentioned in the Word. In that case 'man' and 'male' mean things of the understanding, which are the truths of faith, while 'wife' and 'female' mean things of the will, which are the goods of faith.