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Numbers Chapter 7

Summary of the Spiritual Sense

1. The subject here first presented is the conjunction of the spiritual heaven with the celestial; and also, generally, the chapter treats of the acknowledgement, on the part of the spiritual man, that he receives all the good things of charity and faith and doctrine from the Lord through the celestial heavens, vers. 1-8.
2. But those who constitute the spiritual heaven cannot perform the functions of the ultimate heaven, their use being to minister to and support with all their power the celestial heaven, besides which they acknowledge the Lord in genuine spiritual worship; every society, indeed, and each individual, according to his state, vers. 9-11.
3. The specific acknowledgement and worship of societies and individuals is described, vers. 12-88.
4. Revelation, internal and external, is always the consequence of genuine acknowledgement and worship, ver. 89.

1.  It coming to pass, denotes a change of state and subject, 4979; the day that Moses had made an end of setting up the tabernacle, denotes when the state of the celestial man is completely established, 487, 6315, 9784; anointing and sanctifying denote the conjunction of truth with goodness, and a holy state of good and truth thence derived, 9954, 8042, 9680; and the furniture thereof, and the altar and all the vessels thereof, denotes the worship of the Lord also fully established as to its internal and external states, 3210, 4541, 10340.

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2.  The princes of Israel, the heads of their fathers' houses offering, denotes that those who are in the primary truths of the Spiritual Church grounded in charity, which is celestial love in an image, have conjunction therewith, 8314, 3654, 3728, 7833, 5619, 37032; these being the princes of the tribes, denotes the primary things of faith and charity, 3858; and their being over them that were numbered, denotes the ordination and arrangement, from the Lord, by means of primary truths, of all inferior things, 10217.

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3.  Bringing their oblations before the Lord denotes the acknowledgement that they are the receptacles of good and truth from Him, 10227; six denotes by regeneration, and in fullness, 6-12, 737; covered wagons denote things protected from evil, and concealed by Divine Providence, 2576, 5945; twelve oxen denotes all fullness as to the natural affections, 575, 2180; a wagon for every two of the princes denotes good and truth in conjunction, 5194; for each one an ox denotes the affection of good distinguished from the affection of truth, 4149; and presenting them before the tabernacle denotes reception through heaven, 3540³.

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4.  This is evident, because by Jehovah is denoted the Divine Being as to His love, 2001; by speaking is denoted influx, 2951; by Moses is represented Divine Truth, or the Word, 7010; and by saying is denoted perception, 1791, 1822.

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5.  Taking it of them denotes that the acknowledgement that all these good things are from the Lord is accepted, 10177; to do the service in the tent of meeting denotes to be in holy spiritual worship, 7038, 3540³; giving the offerings to the Levites denotes the reception of charity as primary by acknowledgement, 10227, 3877; and every man according to his service denotes that each is in his own particular use, 7038.

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6.  Moses taking the wagons and the oxen and giving them to the Levites, denotes that thus all natural receptacles or scientifics, and all natural affections are grounded in charity, 5945, 2180, 10227, 3877.

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7.  Two wagons denote scientifics of truth conjoined with good, 5945, 5194; four oxen denote affections of good conjoined with truth, 2180, 1686; the sons of Gershon represent those who are in the Internal of the ultimate heaven, chap 3:17, 23, 9960²⁰, 1463, 9755; and according to their service, denotes adequate to their functions, 7038.

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8.  Four wagons denote scientifics of truth conjoined with good, 5945, 1686; eight oxen denote affections of good conjoined with truth, 2180, 1686; the sons of Merari denote those who are in the External of the ultimate heaven, chap 3:17, 35, 7854, 9648; according to their service denotes adequate to their functions, 7038; and under the hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest, denotes the new external man, this being subordinate to and acting from celestial natural good, 878, 9812, 725, 9946.

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9.  The sons of Kohath denote those who constitute the middle heaven, or spiritual degree, chap 3:17, 29, 9684; not giving them any denotes that they are not in the functions of those who are in the ultimate heaven, and, consequently, not in their scientifics or affections of good, vers. 7, 8; the service of the sanctuary belonging to them denotes that their ministry is to the celestial heaven, 3210, chap 4:4; and bearing it upon their shoulders denotes by supporting it from the affection of interior truth and interior good conjoined, with all their power, 1085.

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10.  The princes offering for the dedication of the altar in the day that it was anointed, even the princes offering their oblation before the altar, denotes that thus all those in the primary truths of the Spiritual Church acknowledge the Lord in genuine worship when it is from charity and faith conjoined, and this both as to Internals and Externals, 8314, 5619, 4541, 9954, 1085, 683.

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11.  The Lord saying to Moses denotes revelation from the Lord by Divine Truth, 2001, 7010, 1822; and offering his oblation each prince in his day for the dedication of the altar, denotes that each worships the Lord, by acknowledgement, according to his own state, 10227, 8314. 487, 4541.

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12.  He that offered his oblation on the first day being Nahshon the son of Amminadab of the tribe of Judah, denotes that the first are in truths immediately proceeding from Divine Love, chap 1:7, 3880, 197, 1482.

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13.  One silver charger the weight whereof was one hundred and thirty shekels, denotes all spiritual truth having relation to doctrine in perfection, because silver denotes spiritual truth, 2937; a silver charger, being a receptacle or vessel, denotes truth, or doctrine recipient of good, 3079; weight has reference to good, 3104; and one hundred and thirty denotes perfection, 2636, 5335; one silver bowl of seventy shekels after the shekel of the sanctuary, denotes all spiritual truths having relation to life in perfection and holiness, 2937, 3079, 728; after the shekel of the sanctuary denotes from the conjunction of truth with good, 2959; and both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal offering, denotes being receptacles of celestial good externally and internally, or of spiritual and celestial love, the charger signifying the external receptacle and the bowl the internal, as appears from the signification of the numbers connected with each, 2177.

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14.  One golden spoon of ten shekels full of incense, denotes the grateful hearing and reception of worship, because derived from remains and expressed in loving words and actions, 10177, 576, 10340, 3164. It is said here "expressed in loving words and actions," because a vessel, or spoon made of gold, denotes what is grounded in good in the outward life, from the understanding and the heart as all true worship ought to be.

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15.  One young bullock, one ram, and one he-lamb of the first year for a burnt offering, denotes all natural, spiritual and celestial love in all fullness and grounded in innocence, consecrated wholly to the Lord, and being perpetually from Him, 10021, 10042, 10132, 10053, 7839.

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16.  One male of the goats for a sin offering denotes faith in the Lord conjoined with some charity from which repentance is practised and evils are remitted, 4169⁴, 3400, 10122.

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17.  Two oxen denotes every good natural affection conjoined with its truth, 2180, 5194; five rams denotes every spiritual affection, 10042; five he-goats denotes all the truth of faith, 4169⁴; five he-lambs of the first year denotes all the good of innocence in the natural man, 10132, 2906⁹ ; the peace offering denotes devotion to the Lord in freedom as the result of peace and harmony between the internal and external man, 10097; and this being the oblation of Nahshon the son of Amminadab, denotes that thus they worship the Lord who are in truth immediately proceeding from the primary truth of good, ver. 12.

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18.  On the second day Nethanel the son of Zuar prince of Issachar offering, denotes the worship of those who are in celestial conjugial love, in mutual love, and humility, chap 1:8, 3956, 2001, 1 Sam 15:17, Luke 12:32, 2715³.

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19.  - 23. The contents of these verses being the same as those of vers. 13-17, the proofs are the same; and as the offerings for each of the princes were similar, these proofs need not be repeated. But these offerings are repeated in the text, and therefore their internal sense is repeated, and the interpretation of it is repeated in each case, because, although it is outwardly the same internal sense, it is not inwardly so, owing to the fact that the quality of external worship depends upon the motive or principle which rules. And as there were twelve different ruling motives or principles represented by the twelve princes, and twelve signifies all, 3858, therefore the worship of the whole heaven is here described, showing that it is various on account of the universal distinctions of angelic life. But the reason why the offerings are described as being all the same is to show that still worship throughout the whole heaven is one worship, because it is the worship of the one only Lord; and because he who truly worships the Lord, alike devotes to His service all his human affections and powers, each being a man like all other men, and endowed with the same faculties from the Lord, since he is an image and likeness of the Lord. For he embodies in himself all things finitely which are in the Lord infinitely; and these common constituents of human life are therefore adequately denoted by the several gifts mentioned.

    And, before proceeding, it is also to be observed that each prince is mentioned by name, not only before the account of his offerings, but immediately afterwards also, which appears, on the surface, to be another unnecessary repetition, but it is not so. For it evidently shows, in the internal sense, that the principle which rules inmostly with a man in his worship must be fully expressed in that worship, and thus appear in external thoughts and actions, because the external man, in heaven, is fully and perfectly represented in what is external.

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24.  On the third day Eliab the son of Helon, prince of the children of Zebulun, denotes those who are in truth conjoined with good and  derived therefrom, or in the heavenly marriage, chap 1:9, 3960-1, 2001, 3703².

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25.  - 29. See vers. 13-17.

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30.  On the fourth day Elizur the son of Shedeur, prince of the children of Reuben, denotes those who are in faith in the understanding, or in faith derived from charity, which is the foundation of the church, chap 1:5, 3863, 2760 preface, 2971, 6432, 37032.

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31.  - 35. See vers. 13-17.

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36.  On the fifth day Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai prince of the children of Simeon, denotes those who are in obedience from the good of truth, chap 1:6, 3869, 2760 preface.

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37.  - 41. See vers. 13. 17.

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42.  On the sixth day Eliasaph the son of Deuel, prince of the children of Gad, denotes those who are in good works, or in the good of life, chap 1:14, 3934, 4981, 10331, 8944.

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43.  - 47. See vers. 13-17.

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48.  On the seventh day Elishama the son of Ammihud, prince of the children of Ephraim, denotes those who are in the new understanding of truth, and in obedience thence from the life of good, chap 1:10, 6238, 5355, 2001, 2542, 3880.

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49.  - 53. See vers. 13-17.

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54.  On the eighth day Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur, prince of the children of Manasseh, denotes those who are in the new will of good in the hope of reward as if from self, the knowledge of the truth and separation from evil derived from the Lord's work of redemption, chap 1:10, 6238, 5351, 3816, 3084, 2647, 2760 preface.

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55.  - 59. See vers. 13-17.

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60.  On the ninth day Abidan the son of Gideoni, prince of the children of Benjamin, denotes those who are in truth from good springing from opposition to evil, and are a medium, chap 1:11, 4585⁵, 4592, 3703², 3923, l664. 9l63.

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61.  - 65. See vers. 13-17.

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66.  On the tenth day Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai, prince of the children of Dan, denotes those who are in the affirmation of truth and in good which aids, derived from Divine Truth, which protects man in temptation, chap 1:12, 3923, 2360, 8652, 1992.

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67.  - 71. See vers. 13-17.

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72.  On the eleventh day Pagiel the son of Ochran, prince of the children of Asher, denotes those who are in natural delight, and in opposition to evil springing from a state of spiritual trial and affliction, chap 1:13, 3939, 2001, 8200, 2535, 5221, 5222.

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73.  - 77. See vers. 13-17.

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78.  On the twelfth day Ahira the son of Enan, prince of the children of Naphtali, denotes those who are in resistance to evil, and in a principle of good derived from the truth of the Divine Word, 3928, 2360, 343, 3424.

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83.  - 83. See vers. 13-17.

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84.  This being the dedication of the altar in the day when it was anointed by the princes of Israel, denotes that thus it is acknowledged by all who are in the Spiritual Church that good is conjoined to truth in worship when they are sensible that they receive all good things from the Lord, 10227, 4541, 487, 9954, 8314, 3654; and twelve silver chargers, twelve silver bowls, and twelve golden spoons, denote all spiritual truths external and internal, and the power of expressing these in good works, which are receptacles of interior principles, 3858, vers. 13, 14.

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85.  Each silver charger being one hundred and thirty shekels, and each bowl seventy, denotes fullness and completeness, and holiness as to truth, ver. 13; all the silver of the vessels two thousand and four hundred shekels, denotes the quality, namely fullness of the conjunction of good with truth, and of truth with good, because twenty-four denotes fullness, 5313⁶, two thousand denotes the conjunction of good and truth, 10235, and four hundred denotes the conjunction of truth and good, 4248; and after the shekel of the sanctuary, denotes that all truth has its origin from good, 29595.

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86.  The twelve golden spoons full of incense weighing ten shekels apiece, after the shekel of the sanctuary: all the gold of the spoons one hundred and twenty shekels, denotes fullness, also, as to good expressed in loving words and actions, which are the receptacles of spiritual worship derived from remains, and from truth conjoined with good, the character of which is completeness and equality as to both truth and good, ver. 14, 3858, 2959, 575, 576.

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87.  All the oxen for the burnt offering being twelve bullocks, the rams twelve, the he-lambs of the first year twelve, and their meal offering; and the males of the goats for a sin offering twelve, denotes completeness as to all natural affections, as to all spiritual affections, and as to all celestial affections internal and external; and as to faith in the Lord for the remission of evil in the worship of the Lord by entire consecration, vers. 13, 15, 16, 2177, 3858.

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88.  All the oxen for the sacrifice of the peace offerings twenty and four bullocks, the rams sixty, the he-goats sixty, the he-lambs of the first year sixty; this being the dedication of the altar after it was anointed, denotes completeness as to the free and full devotion of all natural affections, of all spiritual affections, of all the good of faith, and of all the good of innocence established in the external man as well as in the internal by regeneration. And that thus it is acknowledged by the spiritual man that all his worship of the Lord is entirely from Him by the conjunction of good with truth, ver. 17, 10227, 4541, 9954, 3858, 3306.

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89.  Moses going into the tent of meeting to speak with Him, denotes when the spiritual man is, in this holy worship, desirous humbly to communicate with the Lord, 10574, 3540³, 2271, 2951; hearing the voice, denotes revelation, 9926; from the Mercy-seat, denotes from the Divine Mercy which removes evils, 9506; the ark denotes the celestial heaven, 9485; cherubim denote the Divine Providence, 308; and speaking to Him denotes operation continually by Divine Truth adapted to all his states, 2951, 2271.

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Discussion

It is interesting to be able to trace the connection between the spiritual series of one chapter of the Word and of that which immediately follows it, and to observe that the division of the chapters in the literal sense by no means agrees with the divisions of the subjects in the spiritual sense, and we have now another example of this. For the subjects of the conjunction of the celestial with the spiritual heavens commences with, or is introduced by, the blessing which concludes the last chapter. And, indeed, this blessing clearly indicates the operation, in the first place, of the Lord through the celestial heavens, while the whole of what we now have to consider speaks of the reciprocal action of the spiritual heavens. It is just, in fact, as we have already pointed out. There is no true conjunction with the Lord where there is no love for Him.

And, moreover, it is the Lord Himself Who renders man capable of love to Him. Each human being, to speak universally, is endowed by the Lord with a, particular capacity to love Him, although 'no one is compelled to develop this capacity. Let any one of us reflect upon the ruling love that he has, and is fully conscious of in its general form. Can he say that by study and labour he acquired it? By no means. It is not a thing that may be acquired, but, being conscious of it, we may develop it. We used to think that a man, by determining to do so, could choose any ruling love; but we now think experience proves the contrary. It is the Lord Who gives to every man his own ruling love, which is his new will; but He does not prevent Him from adopting the opposite evil. For the predetermination of man is between good and evil generally, in order that it may be exercised between good and evil specifically. And this is evident from the teaching of 1555, that "the will of man is formed by the Lord from infancy to childhood," during which time there is, of course, no deliberate choice on man's part, for this freedom of choice is not exercised until afterwards; and if he then chooses good and not evil, he by and by becomes conscious of the ruling love, or the new will of good, which the Lord has given him; and from it he reciprocates the Lord's love. And these remarks are made to show that, as each of the twelve princes named in our chapter represents a certain principle by which the things he offered for the dedication of the altar, which were exactly similar in each case, were modified, really making no two of their offerings exactly alike, so, comparatively, many persons may receive from the Lord, and acknowledge to be from Him, the same endowments of various kinds which are represented by the various things each prince offered, and yet these same endowments will be so modified by the ruling love or will, which each person has also from the Lord, as to constitute truly a different offering in each case. And these considerations may serve to show us in what way, for example, the silver charger of the same form and weight, and containing the same things, which was given by each of the princes, may represent, nevertheless, a different endowment because of its being modified by the ruling love of each. This, therefore, is what justifies the continual repetitions, in the literal sense of this chapter, and elsewhere in the Word, by showing that they are not repetitions in the internal sense.

The next thing to be considered is that all these gifts were for the dedication of the altar; and as the altar was the chief representative of the Lord, therefore its dedication signifies dedication to the Lord in the sincere worship of Him. Only that which is from the Lord can enable us to worship Him truly, however, and thus we see still more clearly that what was given by the princes denotes what is from the Lord, and that the giving denotes acknowledgement. And if we now study the gifts in their order, we shall cover the whole ground of our chapter. For with regard to the princes, their meaning and signification has occupied our attention previously; and it is evident that each prince making his offering on one day indicates the progressive character of regeneration. Also the wagons and horses for the service of the tent of meeting aptly denote external receptacles and intellectual powers, by means of which suitable changes of state are promoted, and the first things we have now to reconsider are the silver charger, the silver bowl, and the golden spoon with their contents. These signify the general receptacles of truth and good, and the principles of truth and good themselves which the man of the church must first receive before he can offer acceptable worship. And although these appear to be acquired by an outward way, as knowledge stored in the memory, yet we could not thus receive them, if Divine Truth from the Lord were not operative inwardly. And it is here particularly said " Divine Truth," because this is what proceeds, as the Holy Spirit, from the Lord, and is the receptacle and medium also by which we receive good inmostly. It is this Divine Good, therefore, that is represented by the contents of the receptacles, namely, by the flour mingled with oil for a meal offering, while by the incense in the golden spoon is clearly denoted acceptable worship. But, be it remembered, this only means, as far as our actual experience is concerned, the first worship of the regenerating man from spiritual principles or from truths, the order being, according to our consciousness, from external to internal things; for clearly the numbers attached to the charger, the bowl and the spoon, from their correspondence, indicate this. But still this part of the description, taken as a whole, and in relation to what follows, as we have said just above, signifies the Lord's operation inmostly.

For it is now to be observed that it is the Lord's operation from the inmost that precedes, and is followed in successive order from internals to externals, by the burnt offerings, the sin offering and the peace offerings, representative of worship internally, interiorly and externally, as is evident. Now we know that the burnt offerings signify full devotion to the Lord from pure love, and also that peace offerings in general denote worship from the same love in freedom in the external man after victory in temptation, and when the natural degree fully corresponds with the higher degrees; and hence we may see how it is that the sin offering represents interior worship, and denotes an intermediate state also in which there is the removal of evil through victory in temptations.

But we notice now that the burnt offering was threefold, consisting of a bullock, a ram, and a lamb, and knowing that they represent respectively natural, spiritual and celestial worship, we perceive at once that when man truly worships the Lord from a state of natural good received from Him, this really involves the worship from the higher degrees of good at the same time, although the man of the ultimate heaven, whose worship is signified by the bullock, may not be sensible of this. But yet he may understand that it is so, for he will know that the higher loves are those through which the Lord, as it were, descends, and produces the lower love, which enables him who is in it to be obedient, to love his neighbour as himself, and to love the Lord according to his state in the heaven which he occupies.

Again, another reason why the male of the goats takes the middle position, and thus represents the spiritual degree, is because it signifies the truth of faith, in the best sense faith conjoined with charity, and in the opposite sense faith without charity as the reference shows; and faith as distinguished from love or charity is peculiar to the spiritual man. But the good man does not separate faith from charity although he distinguishes them, and it is faith conjoined with charity which is especially instrumental in the removal of evil during the work of repentance. Hence, therefore, we now see the propriety of the goat being, in the case before us, a representative of worship for the removal of evil, which is signified by the sin offering. And, in addition to this, we may here call to mind that a goat was the sin offering on the great day of atonement, which is representative of the plenary removal of evil when man is fully regenerated.

Turning, however, to the sacrifices for the peace offering, we have to notice some other interesting particulars, for here there were two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, and five he-lambs of the first year. The reason for this, again, appears from the correspondence of the numbers. The peace offerings clearly denote the state of peace arising from the agreement and harmony between the internal and external man, and the joy and gladness brought about by the entire removal of evil and the cessation of spiritual conflict, producing the conjunction of all the natural affections with the spiritual and celestial affections; and this conjunction is signified by the number two. But besides conjunction, when the external is one with the internal man, there is fullness of life and worship in the external; and this fullness is signified by the number five. And there were oxen, rams, he-goats and lambs to denote the presence of all the degrees of life in simultaneous order in the ultimate. Thus we perceive, therefore, the spiritual value of all the expressions in relation to the peace offering.

And now, in order to complete this general review of the spiritual principles involved, and of their operation, in the internal sense of this account of the gifts of the princes for the dedication of the altar, two things more may be briefly considered, namely that all the wagons and horses were given to the Levites to do the service of the tent of meeting, and that there was revelation in consequence of the fullness of external representative worship expressed by the offering of all these gifts. From 10017 we learn that the work of the salvation of those who are in natural good is represented by the priesthood of the Levites, and therefore the same thing is also represented by the service of the Levites in the tent of meeting. And the work of salvation with the natural man is, therefore, evidently the cultivation of charity there by means of knowledge, and by means of intelligence such as is signified by the wagons and the horses, and the work done by the Levites; for we know that the Levites denote charity. Abundance of knowledge and intelligence there may be with the natural man with regard to worldly and selfish matters; and we know how keen he can be in cultivating them upon merely natural principles. But it is necessary for us all, as natural men, in the carrying out of the main object for which we are in this world, to cultivate also knowledge and intelligence in spiritual things for the sake of being established in genuine charity on the natural plane; for unless we are so established, we shall fail to enter the kingdom of heaven when we leave this world. And we know that the Lord says, "Seek you first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you " (Matt 6:33). And indeed the more we are in this charity as a governing principle, the more will the truths of the Word be revealed to us as represented by Moses going into the tent of meeting and hearing the Voice speaking to him. For, again, it is written, that "to every one that has shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that has not, even that which he has shall be taken away" (Matt 25:29). That is to say, to him who has good, or charity, as his general ruling life, will abundance of truths be given, in perfect harmony with his specific ruling life of charity, or, in other words, his specific love of performing uses without any selfish motive.