7041. 'And he was on the way in the lodging-place' means that the attention of the descendants of Jacob was focused on outward forms without their inner meaning. This becomes clear from the representation of 'Moses' here. In what has gone before and in what will follow the subject in the internal sense is the spiritual Church, meant by 'the children of Israel'; but the three verses here deal with how the Church was to have been established among Jacob's descendants but could not in fact be established among them because their attention was focused on outward forms without their inner meaning. Here therefore Moses does not represent the Law or the Word; instead he represents that nation, descendants of Jacob, whose leader he was to become, and so represents that nation's worship as well. For everywhere in the Word a leader, judge, or else king represents the nation or people whose leader, judge, or king he is since he is its head, see 4789. This explains why Moses is not referred to here by name, though he is meant by the one who 'was on the way in the lodging-place', and why Jehovah at this point 'came to meet him and sought to kill him', when yet previously He had commanded him so clearly to go and return to Egypt. His being 'on the way means what is established, while 'the lodging-place' means the external natural or that which exists on the level of the senses, 5495. And since, as has been stated, the subject is the Church that was to have been established among Jacob's descendants, the level on which that nation focused is meant, namely an external level without any internal level, and so an external natural level or that of the senses, separated from any inner level. When separated from any inner level the sensory level is full of illusions and consequently falsities, and it stands in opposition to forms of the truth and good of faith, see 6948, 6949.

[2] Before the things that come next are explained, see what has been shown already regarding the descendants of Jacob:

Among them there was a representative of the Church, but no real Church, 4281, 4288, 6304.

Divine worship among them was wholly external without anything internal, and they were driven to that worship by external means, 4281, 4433, 4844, 4847, 4865, 4899, 4903.

They were not chosen, yet they stubbornly insisted that they should be the Church, 4290, 4293.

They were such that they could represent holy things even though they were governed by bodily and worldly kinds of love, 4293, 4307.

That nation was like this right from the start, 4314, 4316, 4317.

Very many other things which have been shown concerning that nation, 4444, 4459 (end), 4503, 4750, 4815, 4818, 4820, 4825, 4832, 4837, 4868, 4874, 4911, 4913, 5057, 6877.

4874. 'And she said, Your seal' means a token of consent. This is clear from the meaning of 'a seal' as a token of consent. The reason 'a seal' means a token of consent is that in ancient times decrees were authenticated by means of one, and therefore 'a seal' strictly speaking means authentication itself, and so a witness to the truth of the matter. Tamar's demand for his seal, cord, and rod as a pledge that the kid of the she-goats (which subsequently she did not accept) would be sent holds an arcanum which cannot in any way be known without the internal sense. The arcanum is this: 'A kid of the she-goats' meant that which belonged to genuine marriage, and consequently meant everything internal, for everything genuine is at the same time something internal. But nothing like this existed on Judah's side, and therefore, as is evident from what follows, Tamar did not accept the kid of the she-goats, but instead took something external with which the internal aspect of the Church, meant by 'Tamar', could be joined. The external aspect of the Church is meant by the seal, cord, and rod - actual consent by 'the seal', external truth by 'the cord', and the power of that truth by 'the rod'. These are also pledges assuring a joining to the external or natural man.

[2] The joining of internal truth to something external, that is, to the semblance of religion existing among the Jewish nation, is represented by Tamar's being joined to Judah as a daughter-in-law joined to her father-in-law under the pretext that the duty of a near kinsman was being performed. But the joining of the semblance of religion existing among the Jewish nation to the internal aspect of the Church is represented by Judah's being joined to Tamar as to a prostitute. This is exactly what these joinings together are like, but it is not so easy to give an intelligible explanation of the essential nature of them. Their essential nature is laid quite bare before the eyes of angels and good spirits, for it is set before them in the light of heaven. In this light the arcana of the Word are laid bare in broad daylight so to speak, quite unlike their appearance in the light of the world which man sees by. Let just a brief word be said about this. The representatives which had been established among the descendants of Jacob were not exactly the same as those which existed in the Ancient Church. For the most part they were like those in the Church established by Eber, which was called the Hebrew Church. Within this Church many new forms of worship existed, such as burnt offerings and sacrifices, which had been unknown in the Ancient Church, and other forms besides these. To these representatives the internal aspect of the Church was not linked in the way it had been to the representatives of the Ancient Church. But in what way the internal aspect of the Church was linked to the representatives among the Jewish nation, and these representatives to that internal aspect, is described in the internal sense by Tamar's being joined to Judah as a daughter-in-law to her father-in-law under the pretext that the duty of a near kinsman was being performed, and by Judah's being joined to Tamar as to a prostitute. Regarding the Hebrew Church, see 1238, 1241, 1327, 1343, 3031, 4516, 4517; and for information about the sacrifices offered in this Church not being a feature of the Ancient Church, 923, 1128, 1343, 2180, 2818.