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.

1672. And the kings that were with him. That this signifies the apparent truth which is of that good, is evident from the signification of “kings” in the Word. “Kings,” “kingdoms,” and “peoples,” in the historical and the prophetical parts of the Word, signify truths and the things which are of truths, as may be abundantly confirmed. In the Word an accurate distinction is made between a “people” and a “nation;” by a “people” are signified truths, and by a “nation” goods, as before shown (n. 1259, 1260). “Kings” are predicated of peoples, but not so much of nations. Before the sons of Israel sought for kings, they were a nation, and represented good, or the celestial; but after they desired a king, and received one, they became a people, and did not represent good or the celestial, but truth or the spiritual; which was the reason why this was imputed to them as a fault (see 1 Samuel 8:7-22, concerning which subject, of the Lord’s Divine mercy elsewhere). As Chedorlaomer is named here, and it is added, “the kings that were with him,” both good and truth are signified; by “Chedorlaomer,” good, and by “the kings,” truth. But what was the quality of the good and truth at the beginning of the Lord’s temptations has already been stated.

4417. I once held a conversation with spirits about life, to the effect that no one has any life at all of himself but receives it from the Lord, even though he does seem to live of himself; compare 4320. The conversation centred first around what life is - that it consists in having the mental powers of understanding and will; and as understanding is altogether a matter of comprehending what is true and will is altogether a matter of desiring what is good, 4409, it is in an intelligent understanding of what is true and in a will desiring what is good that life consists. But some spirits then spoke who were reasoners; for spirits exist who must be called reasoners because they always reason whether something is really true, and who for the most part dwell in obscurity so far as all truth is concerned. Some spirits, as I say, then spoke, who declared that those without any intelligent understanding of truth or any will desiring what is good do nevertheless have life. Indeed such people, they said, believe that they have life more truly than all others. I was led to say in reply to them that the life of the evil does indeed look to them like life, but this is the life that is called spiritual death. I also told them that they could recognize this from the consideration that if understanding truth and desiring good constitute life from the Divine, then understanding falsity and desiring evil cannot constitute life since evils and falsities are the opposites of life itself.

[2] To convince them of this they were shown what their own life was like. When presented visually it was seen as smoke-filled light emitted from a charcoal fire. While dwelling in that inferior light they cannot do other than suppose that the life of their thought and of their will is the only life there is, all the more so from the fact that the light of the understanding of truth, which is the light of life itself, cannot be seen by them at all. For as soon as they enter that light their own inferior light becomes darkened, so much so that they cannot see anything distinctly, and so cannot perceive anything either. They were also shown what their state of life was like at that time by the removal of the delight they derived from falsity, which removal is effected in the next life by separating them from the spirits in whose community they dwell. Once this was done, they appeared with pallid faces, like those of corpses, so that one might have called them death masks. Regarding the life of animals however, this will in the Lord's Divine mercy be dealt with as a separate subject.