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.

4281. That by “the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint in his wrestling with him,” is signified that this conjunction was wholly injured and displaced in Jacob’s posterity, is evident from the signification of being “out of joint” in the sense in question, as being to be displaced, and thus to be injured. That the “hollow of the thigh” denotes conjunction, is manifest from what was said above (n. 4280); and because in the Word “Jacob” denotes not only Jacob, but also all his posterity, as is evident from many passages in the Word (Numbers 23:7, 10, 21, 2 23:23; 24:5, 1 24:17, 19; Deuteronomy 33:10; Isaiah 40:27; 43:1, 22; 44:1-2, 21; 48:12; 59:20; Jeremiah 10:16, 25; 30:7, 10, 18; 31:7, 11; 46:27-28; Hosea 10:11 Amos 7:2; Micah 2:12; 3:8; Psalms 14:7; 24:6; 59:13; 78:5; 99:4 and elsewhere).

[2] That Jacob and his posterity were of such a character that with them celestial and spiritual love could not be conjoined with natural good (that is, the internal or spiritual man with the external or natural man), is manifest from everything which is related of that nation in the Word; for they did not know, nor were they willing to know, what the internal or spiritual man is, and therefore this was not revealed to them; for they believed that nothing exists in man except that which is external and natural. In all their worship they had regard to nothing else, insomuch that Divine worship was to them no otherwise than idolatrous; for when internal worship is separated from external, it is merely idolatrous. The church that was instituted with them was not a church, but only the representative of a church; for which reason that church is called a representative church. That a representative of a church is possible with such people may be seen above (n. 1361, 3670, 4208).

[3] For in representations the person is not reflected upon, but the thing which is represented; and therefore Divine, celestial, and spiritual things were represented not only by persons, but also by inanimate things, as by Aaron’s garments, the ark, the altar, the oxen and sheep that were sacrificed, the lampstand with its lamps, the bread of arrangement upon the golden table, the oil with which they were anointed, the frankincense, and other like things. Hence it was that their kings, the evil as well as the good, represented the Lord’s royalty; and the high priests, the evil as well as the good, represented the things that belong to the Lord’s Divine priesthood, when they discharged their office in an outward form according to the statutes and precepts. In order therefore that the representative of a church might come forth among them, such statutes and laws were given them by manifest revelation as were altogether representative; and therefore so long as they were in them and observed them strictly, so long they were able to represent; but when they turned aside from them, as to the statutes and laws of other nations, and especially to the worship of another god, they then deprived themselves of the faculty of representing. For this reason they were driven by outward means, such as captivities, disasters, threats, and miracles, to laws and statutes truly representative; but not by internal means, as are those who have internal worship in external. These things are signified by the “hollow of Jacob’s thigh being out of joint,” taken in the internal historical sense, which regards Jacob and his posterity.

736. And they prevailed not, and their place was not found any more in heaven.- That this signifies that they were overcome, and that nowhere hereafter in the heavens will there be a place corresponding to the state of their life, which is a state of thought alone, and not one of affection for good and truth, is evident from the signification of "they prevailed not," as denoting that they were overcome in combat; and from the signification of "their place was not found any more in heaven," as denoting that in the heavens hereafter there will be no place corresponding to the state of their life, of which we shall treat presently. This will not hereafter exist, because the state of their life, which is meant by the dragon and his angels, is a state of thought alone, and not one of affection for good and truth; for those who place everything of the church and thus everything of salvation in faith alone, cannot be in any affection for good and truth, since these belong to the life. Every man has two faculties of life, called understanding and will; the understanding is that which thinks, and the will is that which is affected, thus thought belongs to the understanding and affection to the will. Therefore those who separate faith from life, merely think that a thing is so, and as a consequence of their thinking in such a manner, they say that they will be saved. And because they separate life from faith, they can be in no other than natural affection, which belongs to the love of self and of the world; consequently they conjoin the affections of these loves to the things of their faith, and this conjunction does not constitute the heavenly marriage, which is heaven, but adultery, which is hell, for it is a conjunction of truth with an affection for evil; and such adultery corresponds to the adultery of a son with a mother, as is evident from correspondences known in the spiritual world. Nevertheless, the Lord provides that there shall be no conjunction of truth with evil, by not permitting such to have any real truths, but truths falsified which are in themselves falsities. And as such conjunction pertains to a faith separated, namely, that of falsity with evil, therefore the dragon, by whom those who are in such a faith are meant, is called Satan and the devil, Satan from falsity, and devil from evil; for, as stated above, the conjunction of truth and good makes heaven with man, while the conjunction of falsity and evil makes hell in him. The reason why they have no real truths, is that everything connected with their faith is from the sense of the letter of the Word; nor do they consider that the truths which are in that sense are appearances of truth, and that to accept and defend appearances for truths themselves is to falsify the Word, according to what has been said above (n. 715, 719, 720). This is why the dragon with his angels was cast out of heaven to the earth. Their place not being found any more in heaven, signifies that hereafter in the heavens there will be no place corresponding to the state of their life, because all places in the heavens correspond to the life of the angels, consequently place signifies the state of the life, as said above (n. 731). And because the life of all the angels in the heavens is a life of affection for good and truth, and as those who are in faith alone - and are meant by the dragon and his angels - have not this affection, therefore no place exists in the heavens corresponding to the state of their life. Moreover, all the angels in the heavens are spiritual affections, and every one of them thinks from, and according to his own affection; from this it follows that when those who place everything of the church and thus of heaven in thinking, and not in living, become spirits, they think from their own affections, which are affections for evil and falsity, as said above, and in consequence their faith, which they had made a matter of thought merely and not of life, is exterminated and dissipated. In a word, no one can have any spiritual affection, which is an affection for good and truth, except from the life of faith, which is charity. Charity itself is an affection for good, and faith is an affection for truth, and both conjoined together into one make the affection for good and truth.