Today we begin the story of Moses. We have learned that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph each represented the Lord. But because there are so many things in the Lord - indeed there are infinite things in Him - therefore each one of these men stood for, or represented, some particular thing in the Lord.

What, would you conclude, did Moses represent? The Word. For, as you will learn later on, and indeed as you probably know even now, it was to Moses that the Lord gave the Ten Commandments for him to give to the people. In fact, the first five books of the Word were written by the Lord through Moses, and are therefore called "the five books of Moses." Because Moses was going to write the Word, therefore he represented the Word from the beginning of his life, even while a babe.

We read that his mother "took for him an ark of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch and put the child therein." This was in order to keep the child from harm. And that is what we do with our copies of the Word, is it not? In our churches, and sometimes in our homes, we have a case or shrine of some kind, which we call "the repository" for the Word. It is an ark, to keep the book safe from dust and smoke and accident, and to set it apart because it is holy. The minister opens it at the beginning of service on Sundays, and when the service comes to an end, he closes it again. In heaven, also, in every temple, the angels have a sacred repository, in which is kept a copy of the Word. The copy of the Word so kept in every large society is written by angels inspired by the Lord, so that no change can be made in it.

Arks are made variously, according to the necessities of each case. Our arks or repositories are generally made of very fine and expensive woods, to show how highly we value the Word. The tables of stone which the Lord gave to Moses, and on which He had written the Ten Commandments with His finger, were kept in a very beautiful ark made of shittim wood overlaid inside and outside with gold. In the same ark were placed later the scrolls on which Moses wrote the other laws, statutes, testimonies, precepts and commandments which the Lord gave for the government of the people. The ark had a lid of pure gold, with two cherubim of hammered gold rising out of the two ends.

The infant Moses, who represented the Word, was placed in a different kind of ark -one that could float on water, and keep the babe safe, so that the water could not come in and hurt it.

Now, can you tell me what the Word really is?

When I speak a word to you, what is it? Is it the sounds which I make with my mouth, and which you hear with your ears? It is that, and more. It is sounds and the meaning conveyed from my mind to your mind by means of the sounds. It is the idea or thought which I convey to you. So when I write a word, what is it? Is it the handwriting or the type on the paper which you see with your eyes? It is that, and more. It is handwriting or type and the meaning conveyed by it. Indeed a word is a thought clothed in sounds, or in written or printed symbols. There are therefore two parts to a word: the inside and the outside. The inside is the meaning or the thought. The outside is the expression. Do you remember our lesson about the ladder or stairway which Jacob saw in a dream? There we learned that the meaning of a word can also have an inside, and that the Word of the Lord, that is all that the Lord has written through Moses and the Evangelists, has several inside or inner meanings, one inside of another.

The outside meaning of the Word, which tells us sometimes about dark and evil things, is like the ark of rushes daubed with dark bitumen and pitch; but the inside meaning is always beautiful, like the warm, living baby Moses, that was in the ark. The ark therefore represented the outside or literal meaning, and the baby Moses represented the inside or inner meaning.

While we are talking about the Word, can you tell me the books of which it consists? The books of the Word of the Old Testament are divided into three divisions. First come the historical books, which may also be called "the Law," because they contain the Law revealed through Moses; and afterward come the prophetical books. Between the two are the Psalms of David.

The books of the Word of the Old Testament are: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges 1 and 2, Samuel 1 and 2, Kings 1 and 2, The Psalms of David and the prophetical books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. The books of the Word of the New Testament are Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and the Revelation or Apocalypse. The rest of the books which are bound up with them in our Bibles are very good books, but they are not the Word of the Lord, for they have not a continuous internal sense which treats of the Lord. This important fact has been revealed to the New Church by the Lord through His servant Emanuel Swedenborg.

If the historical books are represented by Moses, are the prophetical books also represented by someone? Yes, by Elijah or, as he is called in the New Testament, Elias. Read the beautiful story in Matthew 17:1-9.

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