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.

3318. And he was weary. That this signifies a state of combat, is evident from the signification of “weary,” or “weariness,” as being the state after combat; here, a state of combat, because the subject is the conjunction of good with truth in the natural man. That “weary” here signifies a state of combat, cannot appear except from the series of things in the internal sense, and especially from the consideration that good cannot be conjoined with truth in the natural man without combats, or what is the same, without temptations. That it may be known how the case herein is in respect to man, it shall be briefly told.

[2] Man is nothing but an organ, or vessel, which receives life from the Lord; for man does not live from himself (n. 290, 1954, 2021, 2536, 2706, 2886-3001). The life which inflows with man from the Lord is from His Divine love. This love, or the life thence derived, inflows and applies itself to the vessels which are in man’s rational, and to those which are in his natural. In consequence of the hereditary evil into which man is born, and of the actual evil which he acquires, these vessels are in a contrary position within him relatively to the inflowing life, yet insofar as the life which flows in can dispose the vessels to receive it, it does so dispose them. These vessels in the rational man, and in the natural, are what are called truths, but in themselves they are merely perceptions of the variations of form of these vessels, and of the changes of state according to which in divers ways these variations come forth, being effected in the most subtle substances, by methods inexpressible (n. 2487). Good itself, which has life from the Lord, or which is life, is that which flows in and disposes.

[3] When therefore these vessels, which are to be varied as to forms, are as before said in a contrary position and direction in respect to the life, it is evident that they must be reduced to a position in accordance with the life, or into compliance with it. This cannot possibly be effected so long as the man is in that state into which he is born, and to which he has reduced himself; for the vessels are not obedient, being obstinately resistant, and hardening themselves against the heavenly order according to which the life acts; for the good which moves them, and with which they comply, is of the love of self and of the world; which good, from the gross heat that is in it, causes them to be of such a quality; and therefore before they can be rendered compliant and fit to receive anything of the life of the Lord’s love, they must be softened. This softening is effected by no other means than temptations; for temptations remove all that is of the love of self and of contempt for others in comparison with self, consequently all that is of self-glory, and also of hatred and revenge on this account. When therefore the vessels have been somewhat tempered and subdued by temptations, they begin to become yielding to, and compliant with, the life of the Lord’s love, which continually flows in with man.

[4] Hence then it is that good begins to be conjoined with truths; first in the rational man, and afterwards in the natural; for as before said truths are nothing else than perceptions of the variations of form according to states that are continually being changed; and these perceptions are from the life which flows in. This is the reason why man is regenerated, that is, made new, by temptations; or what is the same, by spiritual combats; and that he is afterwards gifted with another nature; being made mild, humble, simple, and contrite in heart. From these considerations it may now be seen what use temptations promote, namely, that good from the Lord may not only flow in, but may also dispose the vessels to obedience, and thus conjoin itself with them. That truths are vessels receptive of good, may be seen above (n. 1496, 1832, 1900, 2063, 2261, 2269). Here therefore, because the subject is the conjunction of good and truth in the natural man, and the first of conjunction takes place by means of combats, which are those of temptations, it is evident that by “he was weary” is signified a state of combat.

[5] But as regards the Lord, who in the supreme sense is here treated of, He by the most grievous temptation combats reduced all things in Himself into Divine order, insomuch that there remained nothing at all of the human which He had derived from the mother (n. 1444, 1573, 2159, 2574, 2649, 3036), so that He was not made new as are other men, but altogether Divine. For the man who is made new by regeneration still retains in himself an inclination to evil, and even evil itself; but is withheld from evil by an influx of the life of the Lord’s love, and this with a force exceedingly great; whereas the Lord utterly cast out all the evil that was hereditary to Him from the mother, and made Himself Divine, even as to the vessels, that is, as to truths. This is that which in the Word is called “glorification.”

735. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels, signifies the combat between those who are for the life of love and charity and for the Divine of the Lord in His Human, against those who are for faith alone and faith separate and are against the Divine of the Lord in His Human. This is evident from the signification of "Michael and his angels," as being those who are for the Divine of the Lord in His Human, and for the life of love and charity (of which presently); also from the signification of "the dragon," as being those who are for faith alone and separated from the life of love and charity, and also against the Divine of the Lord in His Human. That those who are in faith separated from charity, which faith is called faith alone, are meant by "the dragon," has been shown above (n. 714-715, 716).

The same are also against the Divine of the Lord in His Human, that is, against the Divine Human, because most of those who have confirmed themselves in faith alone are merely natural and sensual, and the natural and sensual man separated from the spiritual can have no idea of the Divine in the Human, for they think of the Human of the Lord naturally and sensually, and not at the same time from any spiritual idea; therefore they think of the Lord in the same way as they think of an ordinary man altogether like themselves, and this they also teach; consequently in the idea of their thought they set the Divine of the Lord above His Human, and thus they altogether separate those two, namely the Divine and the Human of the Lord; and this they do although their doctrine, which is the doctrine of Athanasius respecting the Trinity, teaches otherwise, for this teaches that the Divine and Human are a united person, and that the two are one like soul and body. Let any one of them examine himself, and he will perceive that such is their idea respecting the Lord. From this it is clear what is meant by "Michael and his angels" who fought with the dragon, namely, those who acknowledge the Lord's Divine Human and are for the life of love and charity, for they who are such cannot do otherwise than acknowledge the Divine Human of the Lord, and for the reason that otherwise they could not be in any love to the Lord nor in any charity towards the neighbor thence, since this charity and love are solely from the Lord's Divine Human, and not from a Divine separated from His Human, nor from the Human separated from His Divine; consequently also after the dragon was cast down into the earth with his angels a voice said out of heaven:

Now is come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ (verse 10).

From this it is clear what is meant by "Michael and his angels."

[2] As to Michael in particular, it is believed from the sense of the letter that he is one of the archangels; but there is no archangel in the heavens. There are, indeed, higher and lower angels, also wiser and less wise; and in the societies of angels there are governors who are set over the rest; but yet there are no archangels in obedience to whom others are held by any authority. There is no such government in the heavens, for no one there acknowledges in heart anyone above himself except the Lord only; this is what is meant by the Lord's words in Matthew:

Be not ye called teacher, for one is your Teacher, Christ, but all ye are brethren. And call no man your father on earth, for one is your Father, who is in the heavens. Neither be ye called masters, for one is your Master, Christ. He that is greatest among you shall be your minister (Matthew 23:8-11).

But by those angels that are mentioned in the Word, as "Michael" and "Raphael," administrations and functions are meant, and in general, limited and certain departments of the administration and function of all the angels; so here "Michael" means that department of angelic function that has been referred to above, namely, the defense of that part of the doctrine from the Word that teaches that the Lord's Human is Divine, and that man must live a life of love to the Lord and of charity towards the neighbor that he may receive salvation from the Lord, consequently that department of function is meant that is for fighting against those who separate the Divine from the Human of the Lord, and who separate faith from the life of love and charity, and who even profess charity with the lips but not in the life.

[3] Moreover, in the Word "angels" do not mean angels in the spiritual sense, but Divine truths from the Lord (See above, n. 130, 302), for the reason that angels are not angels from what is their own [proprium], but from the reception of Divine truth from the Lord. It is the same in respect to archangels, who signify that Divine truth, as has been said above. Angels, moreover, in the heavens do not have such names as men on earth have, but they have names expressive of their functions, and in general, to every angel a name is given according to his quality; this is why "name" signifies in the Word the quality of a thing and state. The name Michael means, from its derivation in the Hebrew, "who is like God;" therefore Michael signifies the Lord in relation to that Divine truth that the Lord is God even as to the Human, and that man must live from Him, that is, in love to Him from Him, and in love towards the neighbor. Michael is mentioned also in Daniel 10:13, 21; 12:1, and signifies there like as here the genuine truth from the Word, which will be for those who are of the church to be established by the Lord; for "Michael" means those who will favor the doctrine of the New Jerusalem, the two essentials of which doctrine are, that the Human of the Lord is Divine, and that there must be a life of love and charity.

[4] Michael is also mentioned in the Epistle of Jude in these words:

Michael the archangel, when contending with ¹ the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not pronounce a sentence of blasphemy, but said, The Lord rebuke thee (Jude 1:9).

This the apostle Jude quoted from ancient books that were written by correspondences, and by "Moses" in those books the Word was meant, and by his "body" the sense of the letter of the Word; and as the same persons are meant here by "the devil" as are meant in Revelation by "the dragon," which is also called "Satan" and "the devil," it is evident what is signified by "Michael, contending with the devil, disputed about the body of Moses," namely, that such falsified the sense of the letter of the Word; and because the Word in the letter is such that it can be distorted by the evil from its genuine sense, and yet can be received by the good according to its meaning, it was said by the ancients, from whom these words of Jude were quoted, that "Michael durst not pronounce a sentence of blasphemy." (That in the spiritual sense "Moses" signifies the law, thus the Word, may be seen in Arcana Coelestia 4859 at the end, 5922, 6723, 6752, 6827, 7010, 7014, 7089, 7382, 8787, 8805, 9372, 9414, 9419, 9429, 10234, 10563, 10571, 10607, 10614.)

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