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.
Exodus 23
1
Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.
2
Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment:
3
Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause.
4
If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.
5
If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him.
6
Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor in his cause.
7
Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked.
8
And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous.
9
Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
10
And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof:
11
But the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy oliveyard.
12
Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.
13
And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth.
14
Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.
15
Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)
16
And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.
17
Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD.
18
Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning.
19
The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.
20
Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.
21
Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him.
22
But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.
23
For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off.
24
Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.
25
And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.
26
There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil.
27
I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.
28
And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.
29
I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.
30
By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.
31
And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee.
32
Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.
33
They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.
Arcana Coelestia #5576
5576. And the famine became grievous. That this signifies desolation from the want of spiritual things, is evident from the signification of “famine,” as being a lack of the knowledges of good and truth (see n. 3364, 5277, 5279, 5281, 5300), and hence desolation (n. 5360, 5376, 5415); and because desolation comes from a scarcity and consequent want of spiritual things, this also is signified by “famine.”
[2] Hunger in the spiritual world or in heaven is not hunger for food, because the angels do not feed upon material food, which is for the body that man carries about in the world; but it is hunger for such food as nourishes their minds. This food, which is called spiritual food, is to understand truth and be wise in good; and wonderful to say the angels are nourished by this food; which has been made evident to me from the fact that after little children who die have been instructed in heaven in the truths of intelligence and the goods of wisdom, they no longer appear as little children, but as adults, and this according to their increase in good and truth; and also from the fact that the angels continually long for the things of intelligence and wisdom, and that when they are in the evening, that is, in a state in which these things fail, they are so far in what is relatively not happiness, and they then hunger and long for nothing more than that the morning may dawn for them afresh, and that they may return into their life of happiness, which is of intelligence and wisdom.
[3] That to understand truth and to will good is spiritual food, may also appear to everyone who reflects that when anyone is enjoying material food for the nourishment of the body, his food is more nourishing if he is at the same time in cheerful spirits and conversing on agreeable topics, which is a sign that there is a correspondence between spiritual food for the soul and material food for the body. And the same is further evident from the fact that when one who longs to imbue his mind with the things of knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom is kept from them, he begins to be saddened and distressed, and like one who is famished longs to return to his spiritual food, and thereby to the nourishment of his soul.
[4] That there is spiritual food which nourishes the soul as material food nourishes the body may also be seen from the Word, as in Moses:
Man doth not live by bread only; but by every utterance of the mouth of Jehovah doth man live (Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4).
The “utterance of the mouth of Jehovah” is in general the Divine truth which proceeds from the Lord, thus all truth of wisdom, specifically the Word, in which and from which are the things of wisdom. And in John:
Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you (John 6:27).
That this meat is the truth of wisdom which proceeds from the Lord is evident.
[5] From this too it may be known what is meant by these words of the Lord in the same chapter:
My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed (John 6:55);
namely, that the Lord’s “flesh” is Divine good (n. 3813), and His “blood” Divine truth (n. 4735); for when the Lord made His whole Human Divine, then His flesh was nothing else than Divine good, and His blood Divine truth. It is evident that in the Divine nothing material is to be understood; and therefore “food” in the supreme sense, that is, when predicated of the Lord, is the good of the Divine love for saving the human race. This food is what is meant by the Lord’s words in John:
Jesus said to the disciples, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to perfect His work (John 4:32, 34);
“to do the will of Him that sent Him, and to perfect His work” is to save the human race; the Divine from which this is done is the Divine love. From all this it is now plain what is meant in the spiritual sense by “famine.”
