9411. 'And they saw God' means faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'seeing God' as being endowed with intelligence and faith. 'Seeing' in the internal sense means seeing in a spiritual manner, and seeing in a spiritual manner implies seeing with the gift of faith; this is why 'seeing' in the Word means having faith, 2325, 3863, 3869, 4403-4421, 5400, 6805, 9128. The reason why they saw the God of Israel, that is, the Lord, is that in a broad sense the laws declared from Mount Sinai mean the Word in its entirety, and the Word is Divine Truth from the Lord, which deals in its highest sense with the Lord alone. All this being so, those who receive enlightenment when they read the Word see the Lord; they do so because of the faith and the love they have. They see Him solely in the Word and in no other writing whatever. From this it is evident why Moses, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders saw Him. The fact that these saw Him and not the children of Israel who had been set apart is evident from the preceding verses 9 and 10, which say, 'Moses and Aaron went up, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. And they saw the God of Israel', and the present verse says, 'And on the children of Israel who had been set apart He did not lay a hand'. The reason why the former saw God and not the latter was that 'Moses and Aaron' represented the Word in respect of its inward and outward senses, 9374, 'Nadab and Abihu' teachings derived from both senses, 9375, and 'the seventy elders' all who are governed by good which results from truths received from there, 9376, 9404, whereas 'the children of Israel who had been set apart' represented those who are restricted to the outward sense of the Word, separated from the inward.

7316. 'Behold, I strike with the rod which is in my hand upon the waters which are in the river' means power over falsities which are the result of illusions. This is clear from the meaning of 'the rod' as power, dealt with above in 7309; and from the meaning of 'the waters which are in the river' as falsities which are the result of illusions, also dealt with above, in 7307.

7309. 'And the rod which was turned into a serpent, take in your hand' means the same power as before. This is clear from the meaning of 'the rod' as power, dealt with in 4013, 4015, 4876, 4976, 7026 - the same power as before being meant by its saying that he was to take 'the rod which was turned into a serpent'; and from the meaning of 'hand' also as power, but spiritual power, from which natural power, which is 'the rod', springs. Both kinds of power are dealt with in 6947, 7011.