9415. 'Come up to Me into the mountain, and be there' means the Lord's presence with them through an intermediary. This is clear from the meaning of 'going up' as being raised towards higher, that is, more internal things, dealt with in 3084, 4539, 4969, 5406, 5817, 6007, and consequently being joined to them, 8760, 9373. The Lord's presence is meant because it says, 'Come up to Me into the mountain, and be there'; for Jehovah to whom Moses was told to go up means the Lord, see above in 9414, and 'Mount Sinai' means the Word which comes from the Lord, and in which the Lord is for that reason present, 8399, 8753, 8793, 8805. Heaven too is meant by that mountain, for the Word is Divine Truth emanating from the Lord, and heaven is a receptacle of God's truth, thus of the Lord Himself, as has often been shown before. From this it is evident that 'going up to Jehovah into the mountain' means the Lord's presence. His presence with that people is through an intermediary, because Moses now represents the people as its head, and so as an intermediary, as stated immediately above in 9414.

[2] The words 'the Lord's presence with them through an intermediary' are used here because the Lord makes Himself present with man, but man does not make himself present with the Lord. For all the good that belongs to love and the truth that belongs to faith comes from the Lord, and no good or truth whatever comes from man. Therefore the Lord's presence exists with those who let Him in, that is, with those who receive in faith and love God's truth coming from Him. That the Lord comes to them, and not they to him, is the Lord's own teaching in John,

He who loves Me keeps My word, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. John 14:23.

In the same gospel,

He who abides in Me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing. John 15:5.

And in the same gospel,

Man cannot receive ¹ anything unless it is given him from heaven. John 3:27.

Poznámky pod čarou:

3084. 'And went up' means a raising up. This is clear from the meaning of 'going up' as being raised up. The expression 'raised up' is used to describe from what is lower to what is higher, and because it is used to describe this it is also used to describe from what is exterior to what is interior, for the two are one and the same. Indeed what is lower and higher in human thought is exterior and interior in angelic thought, as with the idea of heaven. By men heaven is seen as that which is higher, but by angels as that which is interior. It is similarly so with the natural with man. In relation to his spiritual it is exterior, while the spiritual in turn is exterior in relation to the celestial. Or what amounts to the same, factual knowledge which belongs to the natural man is exterior in relation to truth, while truth is exterior in relation to good. Therefore also factual knowledge in relation to truth is called a covering as well as a garment, and so in a similar way is truth in relation to good.

[2] This explains why the expressions 'going up' to Jerusalem, but 'coming down' from Jerusalem are used; also 'going up' from Jerusalem to Zion, and 'coming down' from Zion to Jerusalem; for the parts surrounding Jerusalem mean the exterior features of the Church, Jerusalem meaning the more interior features and Zion the inmost. Since in the internal sense this verse describes the initial stage in the raising up of truth from the natural man to the rational man, therefore it is first of all said here that the affection for truth represented by Rebekah 'went down to the spring' and shortly after that 'went up'. For as stated above in 3074, Divine love flows into the affection for good, and from there into the affection for truth, and in so doing brings life and light to the things that are in the natural man, and at the same time orders them. This is the meaning of 'going down'. In this way truths are raised up from the natural man into the rational man where they are joined to good. This is the meaning of 'going up'.