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.

5569. As there is a correspondence of the bones and the skins, so there is of the hairs; for these push forth from roots in the skins. Whatever has a correspondence with the Grand Man is possessed by angels and spirits; for each one as an image represents the Grand Man; therefore the angels have hair arranged becomingly and in order. Their hair represents their natural life and its correspondence with their spiritual life. That “hair” signifies the things of natural life, may be seen above (n. 3301); and also that “to poll the hair” is to accommodate natural things so that they may be becoming and thus comely (n. 5247).

5577. In the land. That this signifies about the things that were of the church, is evident from the signification of “land” in the Word, as being the church, here therefore the things that are of the church, because anything that signifies the church, signifies also the things that are of the church; for these produce it. That in the Word “land” signifies the church is because the land of Canaan was the place where the church had been from most ancient times. So when “land” or “earth” is mentioned in the Word, the land of Canaan is meant; and when this is meant, the church is meant; for when a land is mentioned they who are in the spiritual world do not stay in the idea of the land, but in that of the nation which is there, nor in the idea of the nation, but in that of the quality of that nation; thus in the idea of the church when “land” is spoken of and the land of Canaan is meant. From this it is plain how deluded are they who believe that at the day of the last judgment a new earth and new heaven will come into existence, according to the prophecies in the Old Testament, and in John in the New (where however by the “new earth” nothing else is meant than a new external church, and by the “new heaven” a new internal church), and also they who believe that anything but the church is meant where the “whole earth” is mentioned in the Word. Hence it is plain how little they apprehend the Word who think there is no holier sense in it than that which shines forth from the letter alone. That the church was in the land of Canaan from the most ancient times may be seen above (n. 3686, 4447, 4454, 4516, 4517, 5136); that by “land” in the Word is signified the church (n. 662, 1066, 1068, 1262, 1413, 1607, 2928, 4447); and that by the “new heaven and new earth” is signified a new church internal and external (n. 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118, 3355, 4535).