9373. Come up unto Jehovah. That this signifies conjunction with the Lord, is evident from the signification of “coming up,” as being to be raised toward interior things (see n. 3084, 4539, 4969, 5406, 5817, 6007), consequently also to be conjoined (n. 8760). That it denotes conjunction with the Lord, is because by “Jehovah” in the Word is meant the the Lord, (n. 1343, 1736, 1793, 2004, 2005, 2018, 2025, 2921, 3023, 3035, 5663, 6280, 6303, 6905, 8274, 8864, 9315). A secret which also lies hidden in the internal sense of these words, is that the sons of Jacob, over whom Moses was the head, were not called and chosen; but they themselves insisted that Divine worship should be instituted among them (according to wh at has been said in n. 4290, 4293); and therefore it is here said, “and He said unto Moses, Come up unto Jehovah,” as if not Jehovah, but another, had said that he should come up. For the same reason in what follows it is said that “the people should not go up” (verse 2); and that “Jehovah sent not His hand unto the sons of Israel who were set apart” (verse 11); and that “the appearance of the glory of Jehovah was like devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the sons of Israel” (verse 17); and lastly that Moses, being called the seventh day, “entered into the midst of the cloud.” For by “the cloud” is meant the Word in the letter (n. 5922, 6343, 6752, 6832, 8106, 8443, 8781); and with the sons of Jacob the Word was separated from its internal sense, because they were in external worship without internal, as can be clearly seen from the fact that now, as before, they said, “all the words which Jehovah hath spoken we will do” (verse 3); and yet scarcely forty days afterward they worshiped a golden calf instead of Jehovah; which shows that this was hidden in their hearts while they were saying with their lips that they would serve Jehovah alone. But nevertheless those who are meant by “the called and the chosen” are those who are in internal worship, and who from internal worship are in external; that is, those who are in love to and faith in the Lord, and from this in love toward the neighbor.

Elijah (referred to as Elias in the New Testament) was the renowned prophet sent to the split kingdoms of Israel and Judah. His first appearance is in Chapter 17 of I Kings where he comes to speak to Ahab, king of Israel. He contends with Ahab, and Ahab’s wife Jezebel, and later Ahab’s son Ahaziah. These contentions have passed down to us in many well known stories.

In II Kings, Chapter 2, Elijah is carried up to heaven in a chariot of fire, and his mantle is given to Elisha, his disciple and successor. Elijah represents the Lord as He comes to us in the Word, that is, the way we think about the Lord when we read the Word (especially the prophetic parts of the Word). Elijah and John the Baptist are similar in their symbolic meaning.

(Verweise: Arcana Coelestia 5247 [6], 6752, 9372 [2])

2395. 'For we are destroying this place' means that the state of evil which was theirs would condemn them. This is clear from the meaning of 'destroy', when used of the Lord, as - in the internal meaning - to perish from evil, that is, to be condemned; and also from the meaning of 'place' as a state of evil, 2393. The expression 'Jehovah destroys' occurs many times in the Word, but in the internal sense the meaning is that man destroys himself, for Jehovah or the Lord destroys no one. But because it does seem as though Jehovah or the Lord were the author of such destruction since He sees every single thing and governs every single thing, that expression occurs in various places in the Word, for the reason that it holds men to the very general idea that all things are before the Lord's eyes and all things under His guidance. Once they are held to that idea men can then be taught easily, for explanations of the Word giving its internal sense are nothing other than the details that fill out the general idea. There is the further reason that those who do not have love are held in fear, and in that fear revere the Lord and flee to Him for deliverance. From this it is evident that it does no harm to believe the sense of the letter, even though the internal sense teaches something other, provided that such belief is that of a simple heart. But these points are dealt with more fully further on at verse 24, in 2447, where it is said that 'Jehovah rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire'. Because they have the internal sense angels are so far removed from thinking of Jehovah's or the Lord's destroying anybody that they do not tolerate the very idea. Consequently when man reads these and similar statements in the Word, the sense of the letter is so to speak pushed to the back and at length merges into the teaching that evil itself is what destroys a person and that the Lord destroys nobody, as becomes clear from the example referred to in 1875.