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.

310. In the spiritual sense murders mean all manners of killing and destroying human souls. These are of many and varied kinds, for instance, turning them away from God, religion and the worship of God, making these things the subject of scandal, and persuading people of things which cause them to be hated and rejected. Such are all the devils and satans in hell, and linked with them are those in this world who offer violence to and prostitute the holiness of the church. It is those who destroy souls by means of falsities who are meant by the king of the abyss, called 'Abaddon' or 'Apollyon', that is, the destroyer, in Revelation 9:11; and in the prophetic parts of the Word by 'the slain', as in these passages:

Jehovah God has said, Feed the sheep to be slain, which their owners slaughtered, Zechariah 11:4-5, 7.

We were slain all day long; we were considered sheep for slaughter, Psalms 44:22.

Jacob will cause those who are to come to take root; has he not been slain even as he slew others? Isaiah 27:6-7.

A thief ¹ does not come except to steal and slaughter sheep; I have come so that they may have life and plenty, John 10:10.

There are further passages of this kind, such as Isaiah 14:21; 26:21; Ezekiel 37:9 ² ; Jeremiah 4:31; 12:3; Revelation 9:4-5; 11:7. This is why the devil is called 'a murderer from the beginning' (John 8:44).

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