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.

1672. And the kings that were with him. That this signifies the apparent truth which is of that good, is evident from the signification of “kings” in the Word. “Kings,” “kingdoms,” and “peoples,” in the historical and the prophetical parts of the Word, signify truths and the things which are of truths, as may be abundantly confirmed. In the Word an accurate distinction is made between a “people” and a “nation;” by a “people” are signified truths, and by a “nation” goods, as before shown (n. 1259, 1260). “Kings” are predicated of peoples, but not so much of nations. Before the sons of Israel sought for kings, they were a nation, and represented good, or the celestial; but after they desired a king, and received one, they became a people, and did not represent good or the celestial, but truth or the spiritual; which was the reason why this was imputed to them as a fault (see 1 Samuel 8:7-22, concerning which subject, of the Lord’s Divine mercy elsewhere). As Chedorlaomer is named here, and it is added, “the kings that were with him,” both good and truth are signified; by “Chedorlaomer,” good, and by “the kings,” truth. But what was the quality of the good and truth at the beginning of the Lord’s temptations has already been stated.

200. In crises of the spirit the Lord fights for us. The Lord alone fights for us in spiritual crises; we do nothing on our own: 1692, 8172, 8175, 8176, 8273. Of ourselves there is no way whatever that we could fight against evil and falsity, because this would be fighting against all the hells, which no one but the Lord alone can control and conquer: 1692. The hells fight against us and the Lord fights for us: 8159. Resources we use in the fight are truths and goodness, and therefore our knowledge about and love for truth and goodness. However, it is not we who are fighting, it is the Lord who is doing so by these means: 1661. When we are in crises of the spirit, we think that the Lord is absent because our prayers are not heard then the way they are when we are not in such crises, but in fact the Lord is even more present at such times: 840. When we are in spiritual crises we need to fight as though we were on our own, not drop our hands and wait for direct intervention, yet we should still believe that the Lord is the one doing the work: 1712, 8179, 8969. There is no other way we can receive a heavenly selfhood: 1937, 1947, 2882, 2883, 2891. The nature of this selfhood-it is not ours but is something within us that belongs to the Lord: 1937, 1947, 2882, 2883, 2891, 8497.

[2] A crisis of the spirit does not accomplish anything or bring about any good if even after it is over we do not believe that it was the Lord who fought and conquered for us: 8969. People who want credit for their deeds cannot fight against evils, because they fight by their own efforts and do not let the Lord fight for them: 9978. It is hard for us to be saved if we believe that we ourselves have earned heaven by going through spiritual crises: 2273.

The Lord does not test us but sets us free and leads us to goodness: 2768. Spiritual crises seem to come from the Divine, but in actuality they do not: 4299. What is meant by "Lead us not into temptation" [Matthew 6:13; Luke 11:4] in the Lord's Prayer: 1875 (which includes evidence from eyewitness experience). Contrary to the way we usually think permission ¹ works, the Lord does not condone the spiritual crises he permits us to undergo: 2768.

There is freedom in all crises of the spirit even though it does not seem so. But this freedom is deep within us from the Lord; it allows us to fight and try to win and not be overcome, which we could not do without freedom: 1937, 1947, 2881. The Lord creates this freedom through a love for truth and goodness that he has imparted to our inner self without our knowing it (5044), because all freedom is a function of love and affection and depends on what that love is like (2870, 3158, 8987, 8990, 9585, 9591).

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