9405. And they saw the God of Israel. That this signifies the coming and presence of the Lord in the Word, is evident from the signification of "seeing," when it is the Lord who is seen, as being, His coming and presence (see n. 4198, 6893). That "the God of Israel" denotes the Lord, is evident from all those passages in the Word where He is called "the Holy One of Israel" and "the God of Israel" (see n. 7091). "The God of Israel" denotes the God of the spiritual church, because by "Israel" is signified this church (of which above, n. 9404). That it is the coming and presence of the Lord in the Word which is signified by "they saw the God of Israel," is because by the laws promulgated from Mount Sinai is signified in a wide sense all Divine truth, thus the Word as to each and all things of it (see n. 6752, 9401). That the coming and presence of the Lord in the Word is signified, is because the Word is the Divine truth that proceeds from the Lord, and that which proceeds from the Lord, is the Lord Himself. And therefore they who read the Word and at the same time look to the Lord-acknowledging that all truth and all good are from Him, and nothing from themselves-are enlightened, and see truth and perceive good, from the Word. This enlightenment is from the light of heaven, which light is the Divine truth itself that proceeds from the Lord, for this appears as light before the angels in heaven (n. 2776, 3195, 3339, 3636, 3643, 3862, 3993, 4302, 4413, 4415, 5400, 6032, 6313, 6608). [2] The coming and presence of the Lord in the Word are also meant by "seeing the Son of man," as in Matthew:
Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and glory (Matt. 24:30; see also n. 4060);
for a "cloud" denotes the literal sense of the Word; and "power and glory" its internal sense. The literal sense of the Word is called a "cloud" because it is in the light of the world; and the internal sense is called "glory" because it is in the light of heaven (see the preface to Genesis 18, and n. 5922, 6343, 6752, 8106, 8267, 8427, 8443, 8781). Moreover, in the internal sense of the Word, the Lord alone and His kingdom and church are treated of. From this comes the holiness of the Word, and also the coming and presence of the Lord with those who, as above said, while reading the Word do not look to themselves, but to Him and the neighbor, that is, to the good of one's fellow citizen, of our country, of the church, and of heaven (n. 6818-6824, 8123). The reason is that those who look to the Lord suffer themselves to be raised by Him into the light of heaven; whereas those who look to themselves do not suffer themselves to be raised, for they keep their view fixed on themselves and the world. From this it can be seen what is meant by "seeing the Lord in the Word."
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