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.

200. In crises of the spirit the Lord fights for us. The Lord alone fights for us in spiritual crises; we do nothing on our own: 1692, 8172, 8175, 8176, 8273. Of ourselves there is no way whatever that we could fight against evil and falsity, because this would be fighting against all the hells, which no one but the Lord alone can control and conquer: 1692. The hells fight against us and the Lord fights for us: 8159. Resources we use in the fight are truths and goodness, and therefore our knowledge about and love for truth and goodness. However, it is not we who are fighting, it is the Lord who is doing so by these means: 1661. When we are in crises of the spirit, we think that the Lord is absent because our prayers are not heard then the way they are when we are not in such crises, but in fact the Lord is even more present at such times: 840. When we are in spiritual crises we need to fight as though we were on our own, not drop our hands and wait for direct intervention, yet we should still believe that the Lord is the one doing the work: 1712, 8179, 8969. There is no other way we can receive a heavenly selfhood: 1937, 1947, 2882, 2883, 2891. The nature of this selfhood-it is not ours but is something within us that belongs to the Lord: 1937, 1947, 2882, 2883, 2891, 8497.

[2] A crisis of the spirit does not accomplish anything or bring about any good if even after it is over we do not believe that it was the Lord who fought and conquered for us: 8969. People who want credit for their deeds cannot fight against evils, because they fight by their own efforts and do not let the Lord fight for them: 9978. It is hard for us to be saved if we believe that we ourselves have earned heaven by going through spiritual crises: 2273.

The Lord does not test us but sets us free and leads us to goodness: 2768. Spiritual crises seem to come from the Divine, but in actuality they do not: 4299. What is meant by "Lead us not into temptation" [Matthew 6:13; Luke 11:4] in the Lord's Prayer: 1875 (which includes evidence from eyewitness experience). Contrary to the way we usually think permission ¹ works, the Lord does not condone the spiritual crises he permits us to undergo: 2768.

There is freedom in all crises of the spirit even though it does not seem so. But this freedom is deep within us from the Lord; it allows us to fight and try to win and not be overcome, which we could not do without freedom: 1937, 1947, 2881. The Lord creates this freedom through a love for truth and goodness that he has imparted to our inner self without our knowing it (5044), because all freedom is a function of love and affection and depends on what that love is like (2870, 3158, 8987, 8990, 9585, 9591).

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