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.

4015. 'And he stripped white strips on them - an exposing of the white which was on the rods' means an ordering effected by the interior power of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'stripping' and of 'strips' as peelings away of the exterior parts so that the interior may be laid bare, and so as exposings; from the meaning of 'while' as truth, dealt with above in 3993, 4007; and from the meaning of 'a rod' as power, dealt with just above in 4013, in this case an interior power because the surface of the rods beneath their outer covering is meant. By an ordering effected by the interior power of truth is meant the power of the interior man acting on the exterior man, that is, of the spiritual man acting on the natural man. For all ordering of good and truth within the natural man comes from the spiritual man, that is, it comes from the Lord by way of the spiritual man - by way of the truth there. For the Lord flows into the good of the spiritual or interior man; and through the truth there He flows into the natural man. But He does not flow in directly by way of good into the natural until the person has been regenerated. All ordering within the natural man therefore is effected by the interior man. The natural - that is, the natural man - cannot possibly be ordered, that is, regenerated, in any other way.

[2] The fact that this ordering is effected by the interior man is evident from a person's acknowledgement of truth. Unless this acknowledgement is made by the interior man it is not acknowledgement; nor is it so unless it is made by conscience too, which is the acknowledgement by the interior man, and also by perception. Because the ordering by the interior man is effected by means of truth, power is therefore attributed to truth, as it is also to a rod, by which power is meant, as well as to the hand, by which likewise power is meant, 3091, as may be substantiated from very many places in the Word. Not that the power which truth possesses is from that truth but from good; and so it is truth empowered by good, that is, by the Lord through good. This shows to some extent what is meant by an ordering effected by the interior power of truth. In the highest sense, where the Lord is the subject, His own power is meant, for the power which the Divine has is His own power since it does not come from another.