7245. 'behold, I am uncircumcised in the lips' means that it is impure, that is to say, the law of God is impure to those who are steeped in falsities.

AC 7245a. 'And how will Pharaoh hear me?' means that for that reason those steeped in falsities are not going to accept it. This is clear from what was stated above in 7224, 7225, where the same words occur. When Moses says that he is 'uncircumcised in the lips' the meaning in the internal sense, according to what has been shown in 7225, is that the law of God is seen to be impure by those steeped in falsities. In the historical sense however, in which Moses as the head stands for the descendants of Jacob and whatever there is of the Church among them, as shown above in 7041, 'uncircumcised in the lips' means that Divine worship among that nation was of such a nature. For the worship among that nation was impure, since they venerated outward things and totally rejected inner values, which are faith and charity. Indeed they spurned any actual recognition of inner realities, such as all those which religious observances served to mean and represent. And because that nation was like this their worship was impure; for they were led to worship Jehovah by self-love and love of the world, not by love to Him and love towards the neighbour. This impure worship is meant in the historical sense when Moses says that he is 'uncircumcised in the lips'; but the meaning in the internal sense is as explained above in 7225.

7041. 'And he was on the way in the lodging-place' means that the attention of the descendants of Jacob was focused on outward forms without their inner meaning. This becomes clear from the representation of 'Moses' here. In what has gone before and in what will follow the subject in the internal sense is the spiritual Church, meant by 'the children of Israel'; but the three verses here deal with how the Church was to have been established among Jacob's descendants but could not in fact be established among them because their attention was focused on outward forms without their inner meaning. Here therefore Moses does not represent the Law or the Word; instead he represents that nation, descendants of Jacob, whose leader he was to become, and so represents that nation's worship as well. For everywhere in the Word a leader, judge, or else king represents the nation or people whose leader, judge, or king he is since he is its head, see 4789. This explains why Moses is not referred to here by name, though he is meant by the one who 'was on the way in the lodging-place', and why Jehovah at this point 'came to meet him and sought to kill him', when yet previously He had commanded him so clearly to go and return to Egypt. His being 'on the way means what is established, while 'the lodging-place' means the external natural or that which exists on the level of the senses, 5495. And since, as has been stated, the subject is the Church that was to have been established among Jacob's descendants, the level on which that nation focused is meant, namely an external level without any internal level, and so an external natural level or that of the senses, separated from any inner level. When separated from any inner level the sensory level is full of illusions and consequently falsities, and it stands in opposition to forms of the truth and good of faith, see 6948, 6949.

[2] Before the things that come next are explained, see what has been shown already regarding the descendants of Jacob:

Among them there was a representative of the Church, but no real Church, 4281, 4288, 6304.

Divine worship among them was wholly external without anything internal, and they were driven to that worship by external means, 4281, 4433, 4844, 4847, 4865, 4899, 4903.

They were not chosen, yet they stubbornly insisted that they should be the Church, 4290, 4293.

They were such that they could represent holy things even though they were governed by bodily and worldly kinds of love, 4293, 4307.

That nation was like this right from the start, 4314, 4316, 4317.

Very many other things which have been shown concerning that nation, 4444, 4459 (end), 4503, 4750, 4815, 4818, 4820, 4825, 4832, 4837, 4868, 4874, 4911, 4913, 5057, 6877.