Generally speaking, people who are at lower levels of an organization serve those at higher levels. Bosses boss and their employees serve; coaches devise strategy and players do what the coach tells them to do; engineers design car parts and workers assemble them according to the engineers' instructions. Ideally, of course, it's a two-way street: A good boss knows he is really there to help his employees succeed; a good coach creates strategies based on his players' strengths. Even there, though, the boss and coach are really working in service of a higher goal, seeking organizational success. The same is true in the spiritual sense of the Bible. When someone serves another, they are in a lower state, serving a higher state (or a deeper evil, if they are being enslaved by people who represent evil). This can take many different forms, depending on the circumstances. In many cases, this creates a connection between "service" and intellectual things. This is because who we are is determined by what we love; our loves are the deepest part of us. What we think, our reasoning and intellect and the things we learn about, come from those loves and serve those loves.

424. And he cried with a great voice, signifies Divine command. This is evident from the signification of "a great voice," when from the Lord, as meaning Divine command. The command itself, uttered by the voice, also follows, namely, that "the four angels hurt not the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, till the servants of God were sealed on their foreheads." It is said "a great voice" and "he cried," because "great" and also "crying" are predicated in the Word of the good of love (that "great" is predicated of the good of love, and "many" of truths from good, see above, n. 336, 337; and "crying" of the affections that are of love, see above, n. 393); here, therefore, as this command was from the Divine love and from the Divine will, it is said, "he cried with a great voice."

393. Verse 10. And they cried out with a great voice, signifies their grief of mind. This is evident from the signification of "to cry out," as being vehement grief of mind, for this manifests itself by the sound of crying out in speech; consequently "crying out" in the Word signifies grief. Moreover, every affection, whether of grief or joy, expresses itself by sounds, and ideas of thought by the expressions in the sound. This is why sound in speech manifests both the quality and measure of the affection, and this more clearly in the spiritual world than in the natural world, for the reason that it is not permitted there to show forth any affections other than those that are the mind's own. In the spiritual world, therefore, anyone who is wise can hear and perceive the affection of another, solely from his speech. (That with spirits and angels sounds belong to affection, and words to the ideas of the thought, see in the work on Heaven and Hell 241, and above, n. 323.) That "to cry out," and "a crying out," in the Word, signify grief, is evident from many passages there, of which I will cite this only from Isaiah:

Heshbon cried out, and Elealeh; their voice was heard even to Jahaz; therefore the armed men of Moab shall shout; his soul shall be ill within him. My heart crieth out over Moab: for a crying out closeth round about the border of Moab, the howling thereof even unto Eglaim (Isaiah 15:4, 6, 8).

Because "crying out" signifies grief, it is customary to speak of "crying out unto God," when the mind is in a state of grief (as in Isaiah 19:20; 30:19; 65:19; Jeremiah 14:2 elsewhere). That "crying out" in the Word is predicated of various affections, such as interior lamentation, beseeching and supplication from anguish, attestation and indignation, confession, supplication, and also exultation and other states (See Arcana Coelestia 2240, 2821, 2841, 4779, 5016, 5018, 5027, 5323, 5365, 5870, 6801, 6802, 6862, 7119, 7142, 7782, 8179, 8353, 9202).