7038. That they may serve Me. That this signifies elevation into heaven in order to perform uses therefrom, is evident from the signification of “serving Jehovah,” or the Lord, as being to perform uses; and as this is said of those of the spiritual church who have been saved by the coming of the Lord, and who before His coming were in the lower earth, and were afterward elevated into heaven (n. 6854, 6914), and thereby came into a state of performing uses, therefore by “that they may serve Me” is signified elevation into heaven in order to perform uses therefrom. That “to serve the Lord” denotes to perform uses, is because true worship consists in the performance of uses, thus in the exercises of charity. He who believes that serving the Lord consists solely in frequenting a place of worship, in hearing preaching there, and in praying, and that this is sufficient, is much mistaken. The very worship of the Lord consists in performing uses; and during man’s life in the world uses consist in everyone’s discharging aright his duty in his station, thus from the heart being of service to his country, to societies, and to the neighbor, in dealing sincerely with his fellow, and in performing kind offices with prudence in accordance with each person’s character. These uses are chiefly the works of charity, and are those whereby the Lord is chiefly worshiped. Frequenting a place of worship, hearing sermons, and saying prayers, are also necessary; but without the above uses they avail nothing, because they are not of the life, but teach what the life must be. The angels in heaven have all happiness from uses, and according to uses, so that to them uses are heaven.

[2] That happiness is from Divine order according to uses, can be seen from the things in man which correspond to those which are in the Grand Man; as those from the external senses, namely, from sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch, which as has been shown at the end of many chapters, are correspondent. These senses therefore have delights exactly in accordance with the uses which they perform; the most delightful is the sense of conjugial love, on account of its greatest use, because from this comes the propagation of the human race, and from the human race, heaven; the delight of taste follows next, because it serves for the nourishment and thereby for the health of the body, in accordance with which is the sound action of the mind; the delight of smell is less, because it merely serves for recreation: and thus also for health; the delight of hearing and that of sight are in the last place, because they merely take up those things which will be of service to uses, and wait upon the intellectual part, and not so much the will part.

[3] From these and other like facts it becomes plain that it is uses according to which happiness is given in heaven by the Lord; and that it is uses through which the Lord is mainly worshiped. From this it is that John lay on the Lord’s breast at table, and that the Lord loved him more than the rest; but this was not for his own sake, but because he represented the exercises of charity, that is, uses. (That John represented these, see the preface to Genesis 18 and Genesis 22, 760, 3934.)

7038a. And if thou refuse to send him away. That this signifies obstinacy even to the last, is evident from the signification of “refusing to send him away,” as being not to liberate in consequence of obstinacy (as above, n. 7032).

7032. And I will harden his heart, and he will not send away the people. That this signifies obstinacy, and thus not yet liberation, is evident from the signification of “hardening,” as being obstinacy, and from the signification of the “heart,” as being the will (see n. 2930, 3888), thus by these words is signified obstinacy from the will, consequently from the delight of doing evil, because that which is of the will is delightful, and this is from the love; and from the signification of “not sending away the people,” as being from obstinacy not to be willing to set at liberty, thus not yet liberation. It is said here and in what follows that “Jehovah hardened the heart of Pharaoh.” This is so said from the appearance, and from the common notion of the Divine as doing all things; but this is to be understood in the same way as when evil, anger, fury, devastation, and other like things are attributed to Jehovah or the Lord (see n. 2447, 6071, 6991, 6997).

[2] As regards the obstinacy of those who are in falsities and the derivative evils, and in evils and the derivative falsities, be it known that the obstinacy is such as cannot be described; for they never desist except through grievous punishments and the consequent fears; exhortations and threats are of no avail whatever, because the delight of their life is to do evil. They contracted this delight during their life in the world, especially from the fact that they loved themselves only and not the neighbor, thus being in no Christian charity. As people of this kind do not suffer themselves to be led by the Lord, they act from their own proper will, which is evil by heredity, and also by actual life; and they who act from their own will, do evil from love; for that which is of the will is of the love; and from this they have the delight of doing evil, and so far as they are in this delight, so far they are in obstinacy.

[3] That this is so does not appear in the world, because in the world they are withheld by the love of self and the love of the world, for they fear the loss of reputation, and of the consequent gain and honor, if they were to do evil openly. Moreover, the laws and the fear of the loss of life restrain them; but if these did not stand in the way, they would rush to destroy all who do not favor them, and would plunder them of all their property, and would mercilessly kill anyone. Such is man interiorly, that is, such is man as to his spirit, however much in this world he may appear different. This can be very plainly seen from them in the other life, for then the externals are taken away from those who have been such in the world, and they are left to their will, thus to their loves; and when they are left to these, they perceive nothing more delightful than to do evil, which also they do with such obstinacy that, as before said, they never desist except through punishments, and afterward by repeated sinkings down into hell. From all this it can be seen what a man is who is in no charity toward the neighbor; and also that everyone’s life awaits him; not the civil life which was external and apparent in the world, but the spiritual life which was internal and did not appear in the world.