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.

8562. And there was no water for the people to drink. That this signifies a lack of truth and of the consequent refreshment, is evident from the signification of “water,” as being the truth of faith (see n. 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668); and from the signification of “drinking,” as being to be instructed in the truths of faith and to receive them (n. 3069, 3772, 4017, 4018), here, to be refreshed; for as water and drink refresh the natural life, so truths and the knowledges of truth refresh the spiritual life. For he who is in spiritual life longs for the sustenance thereof from such things as are called heavenly food and drink, which are the goods and truths of faith; in like manner as he who is in natural life longs for sustenance from such things as are natural food and drink.

[2] That temptation as to truth is now treated of, is because temptation as to good was treated of just before, after which temptation they received the manna, by which is signified good. For when man is endowed with good by the Lord, he comes into a longing for truth, and this longing is kindled according to the lack of truth, because good continually strives after truth. All the genuine affection of truth is from good. The case herein is like food, which without drink cannot nourish the natural life; and it is also like it in that food longs for drink, with which it may be conjoined so as to serve for use. This then is the reason why temptation as to truth follows immediately after temptation as to good. Temptation attacks that which a man loves and longs for (n. 4274, 4299).

644. 'Rooms' means the two parts of man, that of the will and that of the understanding. This is clear from what has been stated about those two parts, will and understanding, being quite distinct and separate from each other, and from the fact, as has been stated, that the human brain therefore is divided into two parts called hemispheres. To its left hemisphere belong the powers of the understanding, to the right those of the will. This is the most general difference. In addition both will and understanding are divided into countless parts, for the divisions of the things constituting man's understanding, and also of those constituting his will, are so many that not even the broad genera, still less the species, can possibly be described or counted up. Man is like some most miniature heaven. He corresponds to the world of spirits and to heaven, where all the groups and all the divisions of things constituting the understanding or the will are so distinct and separate, being so perfectly ordered by the Lord, that every smallest part is distinct and separate. These considerations in the Lord's Divine mercy will be dealt with later on. In heaven these divided parts are called communities, in the Word 'habitations', and by the Lord in John 14:2 'rooms'. Here however because they have reference to the ark, which means the member of the Church, they are called 'rooms'.