9506. 'And you shall make a mercy-seat from pure gold' means the hearing and reception of all things that belong to worship arising from the good of love. This is clear from the meaning of 'the mercy-seat' as the cleansing from evils or forgiveness of sins, consequently the hearing and reception of all things that belong to worship, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'gold' as the good of love, dealt with in 113, 1551, 1552, 5658, 6914. The truth that 'the mercy-seat' means the cleansing from evils and forgiveness of sins is clear from those places in the Word where propitiation or expiation is referred to. ¹ The reason why the hearing and reception of all things belonging to worship is also meant is that only those who have made propitiation or expiation, that is, been cleansed from evils, are heard by the Lord and have their worship accepted by Him; it does not happen with those who are steeped in evils, that is, have not made expiation or propitiation. Therefore also Aaron was not allowed to approach the mercy-seat until he had been cleansed and had made propitiation for himself and the people.

[2] The truth that 'the mercy-seat' consequently means the hearing and reception of all things that belong to worship is also clear from the consideration that Jehovah spoke to Moses over the mercy-seat between the cherubs. The reason why worship arising from the good of love is that which is received is that no one is allowed to enter heaven and so approach the Lord other than a person who is governed by good, that is to say, by the good of love to the Lord and the good of charity towards the neighbour, see 8516, 8539, 8722, 8772, 9139, 9227, 9230, 9274; no one else is heard nor can anyone else's worship be received. This also explains why there were cherubs over the mercy-seat; for watchfulness and providence are meant by 'the cherubs', guarding against access to the Lord except through the good of love, that is, guarding against entrance into heaven by any apart from those who are governed by good, and also guarding against those in hell gaining access to the inhabitants of heaven and doing them harm. All this shows what was meant by the presence of the mercy-seat over the ark and by that of the cherubs over the mercy-seat, and by the fact that the mercy-seat and the cherubs too were made from pure gold; for 'gold' means the good of love, and 'the ark' heaven where the Lord is.

[3] The truth that 'the mercy-seat' means the cleansing from evils, and so the forgiveness of sins, is clear from places in the Word where 'propitiation' or 'expiation' ² is referred to, as in David,

O Jehovah, expiate our sins for Your name's sake. Psalms 79:9.

In the same author,

He, being merciful, has expiated iniquity. Psalms 78:38.

In the same author,

You will expiate me with hyssop and I shall become clean; You will wash me and I shall be made whiter than snow. Psalms 51:7.

In Isaiah,

Evil will come upon you, which you will not know how to ward off; calamity will befall you, which you will not be able to expiate. Isaiah 47:11.

And in Moses,

Sing, O nations, the people of Him who will avenge the blood of His servants, and will expiate His land, His people. Deuteronomy 32:43.

[4] Expiations were effected by means of sacrifices; and it says that when they were offered the priest would expiate him from sin, and he would be pardoned, ³ Leviticus 4:26, 31, 35; 5:6, 10, 13, 16, 18; 6:7; 9:7; 15:15, 30. Expiation was also effected by 'silver', Exodus 30:16; Psalms 49:7. Hence also the day of expiations ⁴ before the feast of tabernacles, Leviticus 23:27-32. But it should be recognized that none of those expiations constituted a real cleansing from evils or forgiveness of sins; it only represented it. For every religious observance among the Israelite and Jewish nation was merely representative of the Lord, His kingdom and Church, and such realities as belong to heaven and the Church. How representations brought such realities to angels' awareness in heaven, see 9229.

[5] Since the cleansing from evils and forgiveness of sins was meant by 'the mercy-seat', the hearing and reception of all things that belonged to worship was also meant; for one who has been cleansed from evils is heard and his worship is received. This was represented by Jehovah's speaking above the mercy-seat to Moses and His commanding what the children of Israel should do, as is clear from verse 22 of the present chapter, where it says,

And I will meet with you there, and I will speak to you from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubs which are over the ark of the Testimony, [declaring] everything that I shall command you for the children of Israel.

The like occurs elsewhere,

Whenever Moses spoke to Jehovah he heard the voice speaking from above the mercy-seat that was over the ark of the Testimony, from between the two cherubs. Numbers 7:89.

The fact that a person was heard and his worship was received when he had been cleansed from evils was represented by Aaron's not going into the holy place within the veil before the mercy-seat unless he had first made expiation for himself and the people, by ceremonial washing, sacrifices, incense, and blood, as stated in Leviticus 16:2-16, which concludes,

In this way he shall expiate the holy place from the uncleannesses of the children of Israel, and from their transgressions in regard of all their sins.

It also says in verse 2 that Jehovah would appear at the mercy-seat 'in the cloud', meaning in Divine Truth adjusted to people's ability to receive and understand it, such as the Word is in the sense of the letter, 4060, 4391, 5922, 6343 (end), 6752, 8106, 8443, 8781.

脚注:

5828. 'And I said, He has surely been torn to pieces' means a perception that it was destroyed by evils and falsities. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' as perception, dealt with often; and from the meaning of 'being torn to pieces as being destroyed by evils and internal good represented by 'Joseph' was destroyed, 5805. 'Being torn to pieces' has this meaning because no other kind of tearing to pieces takes place in the spiritual world than that of good by evils and falsities. It is the same with death and anything having to do with death, by which is meant in the spiritual sense not natural death but spiritual death, which is damnation. No other kind of death occurs in the spiritual world. So too with 'a tearing to pieces'. This does not mean in the spiritual sense the kind of tearing to pieces that wild animals engage in, but the tearing to pieces of good by evils and falsities. Also, in the spiritual sense, 'wild animals that tear to pieces' means evil desires and derivative false ideas; and such ideas are also represented in the next life by wild animals.

[2] The good which constantly comes from the Lord to a person is destroyed by nothing other than evils and derivative falsities, and by falsities and consequent evils. For as soon as that constantly inflowing good, coming by way of the internal man, reaches the external or natural man it encounters evil and falsity, which - acting like wild animals - employ various methods to tear apart and annihilate that good. For that reason the inflow of good by way of the internal man is blocked and halted, and the interior mind through which the inflow comes is consequently closed. Only as much of what is spiritual is allowed through as will enable the natural man to reason and speak, though he does so in terms that are solely earthly, bodily, and worldly, either in opposition to what is good and true, or else in keeping with such but in a false or deceitful way.

[3] It is a universal law that an inflow adjusts itself to the outflow, and if the outflow is blocked, so is the inflow. Through the internal man there is an inflow of good and truth from the Lord, and through the external there should be an outflow, an outflow into life, that is, in the exercise of charity. As long as that outflow is taking place the inflow from heaven, that is, from the Lord by way of heaven, is continuous. If however no outflow takes place but something stands in the way in the external or natural man, namely evil and falsity which tear the inflowing good to pieces and annihilate it, it follows from the universal law mentioned above that the inflow adjusts itself to the outflow. All this being so, the inflow of good holds itself back and accordingly closes the internal through which the inflow comes; and that closing of it leads to stupidity in spiritual matters, which is so great that the person who is like this neither knows nor wishes to know anything at all about eternal life. At length he becomes so senseless that he raises falsity as an obstacle to truth, calling falsities truths and truths falsities, and raises evil as an obstacle to good, regarding evils as forms of good and forms of good as evils. In this way he tears good completely to pieces.

[4] The word 'torn' occurs in various places in the Word, the proper meaning of which is falsities that arise from evils, while that which is destroyed by evils is called 'a carcass'. When however the expression 'torn' is used by itself, both ideas are meant since the one includes the meaning carried by the other. It is different when the one is referred to together with the other, because in that case a distinction is being made. Since what had been torn meant in the spiritual sense what had been destroyed by falsities arising from evils, people were forbidden in the representative Church to eat anything torn. They would never have been forbidden to eat it if that spiritual evil had not been meant in heaven. Apart from this, what evil could have lain in eating flesh torn by a wild animal?

[5] Regarding their not eating anything torn the following is stated in Moses,

The fat of a carcass and the fat of that which has been torn may be put to any use, provided that you do not eat it at all. Leviticus 7:24.

In the same author,

He shall not eat a carcass or that which has been torn, to be defiled by it. I am Jehovah. Leviticus 12:8.

In the same author,

You shall be men who are sanctified to Me; therefore you shall not eat flesh torn in the field, you shall throw it to the dogs. Exodus 21:31.

In Ezekiel,

Ah Lord Jehovih! The prophet says, Behold, my soul has not been polluted, and from my youth even till now I have not eaten any carcass or that which has been torn, so that abominable flesh has not come into my mouth. Ezekiel 4:14.

From these quotations it is evident that it was an abomination to eat what had been torn, not because it had been torn but because a tearing to pieces of good by falsities arising from evils was meant, 'a carcass' on the other hand being the death of good caused by evils.

[6] A tearing to pieces of good by falsities and evils is also meant in the internal sense of the following places in David,

The wicked is like a lion, he desires to tear, and like a young lion who sits in hiding-places. Psalms 17:12.

Elsewhere,

They opened their mouth against me - a lion tearing and roaring. Psalms 22:13.

And in yet another place,

Lest like a lion they seize my soul, tearing it to pieces and there is none to deliver. Psalms 7:1.

'A lion' stands for those who lay waste the Church. Above, where Joseph was the subject - at the point where he was sold by his brothers, and his tunic, which had been dipped in blood, was sent to his father - his father too said at that time,

My son's tunic! An evil wild animal has devoured him; Joseph has been torn to pieces. Genesis 37:33.

'His having been torn to pieces' means being scattered by falsities arising from evils, see 4777.