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.

4792. As food and nourishment correspond to spiritual food and nourishment, therefore taste corresponds to the perception and affection of this food. Spiritual food is knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom, for from these, spirits and angels live and are nourished, and they desire and have appetite for them just as men who are hungry desire and have appetite for food. Hence appetite corresponds to this desire. And wonderful to say, from this food they grow to maturity; for little children who die appear in the other life no otherwise than as little children, and also are such as to understanding; but as they increase in intelligence and wisdom, they appear not as little children, but as advancing in age, and at last as adults. I have conversed with some who had died in infancy, and were seen by me as young men, because they were then intelligent. From this it is evident what spiritual food and nourishment are.

8792. 'Jehovah will come down before the eyes of all the people' means, the coming of the Lord will occur, and enlightenment at that time. This is clear from the meaning of 'coming down', when said of Jehovah, that is, the Lord, as His presence through influx, thus His coming - the coming of the Lord being meant here by Jehovah's coming down before the eyes of all the people. Jehovah appeared in an outward form before those people because they could not perceive His presence in any other way; for they were inwardly devoid of the goodness and truth in which the Lord is present with others, 8787. Enlightenment at that time is meant by 'before the eyes of all the people', for 'the eye' in the internal sense is the understanding, and consequently the sight of the eye is the perception belonging to faith, which owes its existence to the light of heaven, so that 'before the eyes' is enlightenment. For the meaning of the eye as the understanding, and its sight as the perception belonging to faith, see 4403-4421, 4523-4534.