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.

98. It is in fact a tenet of belief in the church to-day, and also supported from the Word, that the Father and the Son, that is, the Divine and the Human, are united in the Lord like the soul and the body. Yet there are scarcely five in a hundred, or fifty in a thousand, who know this. The reason is the doctrine of justification by faith alone, so zealously propagated by many of the clergy, who seek a reputation for learning for the sake of honours and preferment, to such a point that that doctrine occupies and besets every point in their minds. Because it has made their thoughts drunk, just as the spirits of wine called alcohol, they have, like drunkards, failed to see this most essential tenet of the church, that Jehovah God came down and took human form. Yet that union is the sole means by which man is linked to God, and by being so linked is saved. It is evident that salvation depends upon the knowledge and acknowledgment of God, if anyone considers that God is all in all in heaven, and so all in all in the church, and therefore all in all in theology.

[2] Here I shall first prove that the union of the Father and the Son, that is, the Divine and the Human in the Lord, is like the union of soul and body; and, secondly, that this is a reciprocal union. The concept of a union as of the soul and the body has been established in the Athanasian Creed, which is accepted throughout the Christian world as the doctrine concerning God. In it we read as follows:

Our Lord Jesus Christ is God and Man; and although He is God and Man, they are not two, but one Christ. He is one, because the Divine took to itself a human. Indeed He is altogether one and is one Person, for as the soul and the body are one man, so God and Man are one Christ.

This is understood to mean that this is a union between the Son of God from eternity and the Son born in time; but because God is one and not three, so long as that union is understood to be with the one God from eternity, the doctrine agrees with the Word. There we read that He was conceived of Jehovah the Father (Luke 1:34-35); and that was the source of His soul and life. This is why He says that He and the Father are one (John 10:30); that he who sees and knows Him sees and knows the Father (John 14:9); 'if you knew Me, you would also know My Father' (John 8:19); 'he who receives Me, receives Him who sent Me' (John 13:20); that He is in the Father's bosom (John 1:18); that all things whatsoever the Father has are His (John 16:15); that He is called the everlasting Father (Isaiah 9:6); that He thus has power over all flesh (John 17:2), and all power in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). From these and many other passages in the Word it can be clearly seen that the union between the Father and the Son is like that between the soul and the body. For this reason too He is often called in the Old Testament Jehovah, Jehovah Zebaoth, and Jehovah the Redeemer (83 above).

8788. And sanctify them today and tomorrow. That this signifies the veiling over of the interiors that they may appear in the holy of faith now and afterward, is evident from the signification of “sanctifying,” as being to dispose that they appear to be in holiness in respect to what is external; and as this is effected by means of a veiling over of the interiors, therefore this is also understood by “sanctifying;” that “today and tomorrow” denote now and afterward is evident. How the case herein is may be briefly explained. The church instituted with the Jews was not a church in respect to them, but was only the representative of a church; for in order that there may be a church, there must be with the man of the church faith in the Lord, and also love to Him, and likewise love toward the neighbor. These make the church. But these were not with the people which was called “Jacob,” for it did not acknowledge the Lord, and thus was not willing to hear about faith in Him, still less about love toward Him, nor even toward the neighbor; for it was in the love of self and the love of the world, which loves are utterly opposed to love to the Lord and love toward the neighbor. This disposition is inrooted in that people from their first parents. For this reason it is, that with that people no church could be set up, but only a representation of the things which are of the church.

[2] The church is represented when the man makes worship consist in external things, but in such as correspond to heavenly things. Then internal things are represented by the external ones, and the internal things are open in heaven, with which there is thus conjunction. In order therefore that the Israelitish people might be representative, although their interiors were devoid of the faith and love of heaven, and were even full of the love of self and of the world, these interiors were veiled over, and thus their external things could be communicated to spirits, and through them to the angels, without their internal things; whereas if their internal things had not been veiled over, these would have lain open, and then the representation would have perished, because unclean things would have burst forth and caused contamination. The Israelitish people above all others could be thus veiled over, because it, more than others, adored external things, and made holiness, and even what is Divine, consist in them. From this it can be seen what is meant by “sanctifying,” namely, the veiling over of the interiors so that they may appear to be in the holiness of faith; yet not to themselves, but to the angels with them. (See what has been already shown concerning this people and concerning the institution of the church with it, n. 4208, 4281, 4288, 4289, 4293, 4307, 4314, 4316, 4317, 4429, 4433, 4444, 4459, 4500, 4844, 4847, 4865, 4899, 4911, 4912, 7048, 7051, 8588.) That sanctifications with them were nothing else than appearances of holiness in external things, and yet without anything holy appertaining to them, can be seen from the rites by means of which they were sanctified, namely, the sacrifices, the washings, the sprinklings of blood, the anointings, which do not touch internal things in the slightest degree.