10560. 'See, You say to me, Cause this people to go up' means the solemn promise of a Church among that nation. This is clear from the meaning of 'You say to me', when what had been said had been said by Jehovah, as a solemn promise; and from the meaning of 'cause this people to go up' as that the Church may be established among that nation. These are the things that are meant in the internal sense by those words; but in the proximate sense ¹ the meaning is that they would be led into and take possession of the land of Canaan. For this meaning of being led into and taking possession of the land of Canaan as establishing the Church, see above in 10559. What all this entails has been shown in various places in what has gone before, that is to say, places which show that no Church could be established among that nation, only what was representative of the Church, because their interest lay in external things separated from what was internal; that people such as these cannot receive any influx from the Divine; and that yet the Church resides with a person in what is internal in him, not in what is external separated from it. People such as these are indeed able to represent the Church, but not to be a Church. To represent the Church but not to be a Church is the situation when people cultivate things of an external nature, calling them holy and Divine, yet do not acknowledge or perceive them with faith and love derived from heaven. See what has been stated above in 10526 about the meaning of 'causing the people to go up into the land'.

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