10607. 'And no one shall come up with you' means that the Israelite nation is incapable of standing in Divine Truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'not coming up', in this instance of not coming up with Moses onto Mount Sinai, as not going into heaven from which Divine Truth is revealed, thus as being incapable of standing in Divine Truth. For 'Mount Sinai' means heaven, from which the revelation of Divine Truth comes, see 8805, 8931, 9420, 10605; and 'Moses' represents the outward form taken by the Church, worship, and the Word, which is where Divine Truth is received. The fact that the Israelite nation is meant is self-evident, for the prohibitions 'no one shall come up with you' and 'no one shall be seen on all the mountain' refer to members of that nation.

[2] The fact that 'Moses' at this point represents the outward form taken by the Word, the Church, and worship, which is where Divine Truth is received, is clear from all the details in the present chapter, such as these:

1. The requirement that Moses should go up onto Mount Sinai and stand there at the top of it, and that the people should be moved back from it.

2. Jehovah's talking to Moses, in the verses that follow, as if He were doing so only to him and not to the people ¹ - All the people in whose midst you are will see that this is a marvel which I am doing with you, verse 10. Observe that which I command you this day. Behold, I am driving out from your face, verse 11. Take care, lest by chance you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land onto which you come, verse 12. You shall not bow down to any other god, verse 14. Lest by chance you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they call you, and you eat of their sacrifice, verse 15. You are not to take their daughters for your sons, verse 16. And so on in verses after these.

3. The gleaming of the skin on Moses' face, described later on in this chapter, and the people's fear to approach him, so that he put a veil over his face whenever he talked to the people.

[3] From all these details it is evident that in the present chapter Moses represents the outward form taken by the Word, the Church, and worship, which is where Divine Truth is received and so is that through which the Divine Truth within shines out. The fact that Moses represents that outward form and not what it holds within it is likewise evident from all the details in the present chapter, such as the reference to Jehovah's descending in the cloud and His standing with him (for 'the cloud means the outward form which the Word takes) and then His commanding him what the external observances of the Church and worship were to be, but not what the internal ones were. Something similarly external or outward was represented by Moses in the previous chapter, as is evident in verses 7-11 and verses 17-23, see 10563, 10571. But an external unreceptive of anything internal existed among the Israelite nation.

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7268. 'See, I have made you a god to Pharaoh' means the law of God and the power it has over those steeped in falsities. This is clear from the meaning of 'making you a god' as Divine Truth, or what amounts to the same thing, the Divine Law, and also the power it has, for in the Word when truth and also the power of truth are referred to the name 'God' appears, but when good is referred to the name 'Jehovah' does so, see 300, 2586, 2769, 2807, 2822, 3910, 3921 (end), 4287, 4295, 4402, 7010; and from the representation of 'Pharaoh' as those who are steeped in falsities and engage in molestation, dealt with in 6651, 6679, 6683. To pursue further the meaning of GOD, it should be recognized that in the highest sense 'God' is the Divine which is above the heavens, but that in the internal sense 'God' is the Divine which is within the heavens. The Divine which is above the heavens is Divine Good, whereas the Divine within the heavens is Divine Truth. For Divine Good is the source from which Divine Truth springs, and Divine Truth springing from Divine Good makes heaven and brings order into it. What is properly called heaven is nothing other than the Divine that has been given form there, for the angels in heaven are human forms receptive of the Divine, which together constitute an all-embracing form which is that of a Human Being.

[2] The use of 'God' in the Old Testament Word to mean Divine Truth within the heavens explains why the word for God in the original language is Elohim, a plural form. It also explains why the angels in heaven, being receivers of Divine Truth, are called 'gods', as in David,

Who in heaven will compare himself to Jehovah? Who will be likened to Jehovah among the sons of gods? Psalms 89:6-8.

In the same author,

Give to Jehovah, O sons of gods, give to Jehovah glory and strength. Psalms 29:1.

In the same author,

I said, You are gods, and sons of the Most High, all of you. Psalms 82:6.

In John,

Jesus said, Is it not written in your Law, I said, You are gods? If ¹ He called them gods, with whom the Word of God came to be . . . John 10:34-35.

In addition there are those places in which the Lord is called 'God of gods' and 'Lord of lords', such as Genesis 46:2, 7; Deuteronomy 10:17; Numbers 16:22; Daniel 11:36; Psalms 136:2-3. From all this one may see in what sense Moses is called 'a god', here 'a god to Pharaoh' and in Exodus 4:16 'a god to Aaron' - that he was called such because Moses represented the Divine Law, which is Divine Truth and is called the Word. This also explains why here Aaron is called his 'prophet', and in a previous place his 'mouth', that is, one who declares in a way suitable for the understanding Divine Truth which comes forth directly from the Lord and surpasses all understanding And since a prophet is one who teaches and declares Divine Truth in a way suitable for the understanding, 'a prophet' also means the teachings of the Church, a subject dealt with in what follows next.

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