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.

3882. And she stood still from bearing. That this signifies ascent by a ladder from the earth to Jehovah or the Lord, is evident from the signification of “bearing,” or of “birth,” as being truth and good; for these are births in the spiritual sense, inasmuch as man is regenerated or born anew by means of truth and good. These also are what are signified by the four sons born of Leah-Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah. “Reuben” signifies the truth which is the first of regeneration, or of the new birth; this is truth merely as to memory-knowledge, thus it is to know truth. “Simeon” signifies the truth which is the second of regeneration, or of the new birth; this is truth as to the will, thus it is to will truth. “Levi” signifies the truth which is the third of regeneration, or of the new birth; this is truth as to affection, thus it is to be affected with truth, which is the same thing as charity. But “Judah” signifies good, which is the fourth of regeneration, or of the new birth, and this is the celestial of love. When the regenerate man, or he who is born anew, arrives at this stage, the Lord appears to him, for he has then ascended from the lowest step, as by a ladder, up to the step where the Lord is.

[2] This also is the ascent which was signified by the ladder seen by Jacob in a dream, which stood upon the earth, whose top reached to heaven, and on which the angels of God ascended and descended, and upon which stood Jehovah or the Lord (concerning which see the foregoing chapter, verse). Hence it is evident that such is the signification of “standing still from bearing.” That by “conceiving and bearing,” here mentioned four times, is signified advancement from external to internal, or from truth to good, that is, from earth to heaven, may be seen above (n. 3860, 3868, 3874, 3879). Descent follows afterwards, for man cannot descend unless he has first ascended.

Descent is nothing else than looking at truth from good, as from a mountain upon which he has climbed, a man views the things which lie beneath. That he then can comprehend in one view innumerable things more than they who stand beneath or in the valley, is manifest; and the case is precisely the same with those who are in good (that is, in love to the Lord and in charity toward the neighbor), as compared with those who are only in truth, that is, in faith alone.