9380. 'And the people shall not come up with him' means no joining whatever to the outward without the inward. This is clear from the meaning of 'coming up' as being joined to, as above in 9373, at this point no joining since it says 'shall not come up'. The reason why no joining to the outward sense of the Word without the inward is meant is that the children of Jacob, to whom 'the people' refers here, were restricted to external things devoid of anything internal, see 3479, 4281, 4293, 4307, 4429, 4433, 4680, 4844, 4847, 4865, 4868, 4874, 4899, 4903, 4911, 4913, 6304, 8588, 8788, 8806, 8871. Their devotion to external things devoid of anything internal is plainly evident from their worship of the golden calf forty days on from that time. They would have behaved differently if they had been conscious at the same time of internal things, that is, of the good of love to and faith in Jehovah, that good being what is inward. Those who have been joined to Him by this good cannot depart into the worship of an idol, because their heart is far away from this. But since that people were not joined to the Lord except through outward forms, by which inward realities were represented, it says that 'the people shall not come up', meaning that there shall be no joining whatever to the outward without the inward. Representations without any knowledge of, belief in, or affection for the inner realities that are represented cause the thing to be joined but not the person.

[2] The situation is similar with those who keep solely to the literal sense of the Word and acquire no teaching at all from the Word, because they are separated from the internal sense, the internal sense being such teaching itself. The Lord joins Himself to outward images of the Word through its inner contents. Therefore if the inner contents have been separated no joining of the Lord to the outward images can exist other than one resembling a bodily gesture that is not in accord with the heart. The situation is similar also with those who have a perfect, detailed knowledge of the teachings of their Church, yet do not apply them to life. They too are restricted to external things devoid of anything inward, for the truths contained in such teachings occupy an external position with those people if they have not been inscribed on their life. There is no joining of the Lord to these people's truths, because the Lord enters a person's truths of faith by way of his life, thus by way of the soul within the truths.

9373. 'Come up to Jehovah' means being joined to the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of 'coming up' as being raised to more internal things, dealt with in 3084, 4539, 4969, 5406, 5817, 6007, and therefore also being joined to them, 8760. The reason why it is a joining to the Lord is that 'Jehovah' in the Word means the Lord, 1343, 1736, 1793, 2004, 2005, 2018, 2025, 2921, 3023, 3035, 5663, 6280, 6281, 6303, 6905, 8274, 8864, 9315. A further arcanum which lies concealed within the internal sense of these words is that the children of Jacob, over whom Moses presided as their head, were not called or elected; rather, they themselves insisted that Divine worship should be established among them, as accords with what has been stated in 4290, 4293. This is why it says, And He said to Moses, Come up to Jehovah, as though not Jehovah but another was telling him to go up. For the same reason it says in what follows that the people should not come up, verse 2, and that Jehovah did not lay a hand on the children of Israel who had been set apart, verse 11; also that the sight of Jehovah's glory was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel, verse 17; and finally that Moses, when he was called on the seventh day, went into the middle of the cloud, [verses 16, 18.] 'The cloud' means the Word in the letter, 5922, 6343 (end), 6752, 6832, 8106, 8443, 8781; and among the children of Jacob it was the Word separated from its internal sense, since their worship was external devoid of anything internal. This becomes perfectly clear from the fact that they now said, as they had done before [at Exodus 19:8], All the words which Jehovah has spoken we will do, verse 3; yet scarcely forty days went by after this time and they were worshipping the golden calf instead of Jehovah. From this it is evident that such idolatry lay concealed in their heart when they said with their lips that they would serve Jehovah alone. However, the people who are meant by the called and the elect are those with whom internal worship exists, and also external worship springing from internal, that is, those with whom love to the Lord and faith in Him, and consequently love towards the neighbour are present.