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.

491. The same things are signified by “sons” and “daughters” in this chapter (verses 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 26, 30), but such as is the church, such are the “sons and daughters” that is, such are the goods and truths; the truths and goods here spoken of are such as were distinctly perceived, because they are predicated of the Most Ancient Church, the principal and parent of all the other and succeeding churches.

6620. From all this one may now know that every item in the Word also holds infinite details within it, for the Word has come down from the Lord by way of heaven. Yet to those whose ideas are closed it seems to be utterly simple, without complexity. I once talked about this matter to spirits who refused to accept that anything lies concealed inwardly in the Word. I said that things infinite and indescribable were present within it that are indiscernible by those who possess ideas that are closed. As a consequence, I said, such people accept nothing else than the literal sense, which they interpret to suit their own pre-conceived ideas and own desires, and in so doing they block off access to what lies concealed within the Word; and as for any ideas they do have, they either rid themselves of them or lock them away. What an idea looks like when it is closed, and what it looks like when open, was also demonstrated at this time; for this is easy to demonstrate in the light of heaven. A closed idea appeared looking like a black spot in which nothing else could be seen; but an open idea looked like an area of light in which there was so to speak a fiery glow towards which every particular thing there was directed. The fiery glow represented the Lord, and the things looking towards it represented heaven. It was said that every idea received from the Lord contains an image of the entire heaven, because it comes from Him who is heaven.