10375. 'And He gave to Moses, when He had finished talking to him from Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the Testimony' means a joining of the Lord to a person by means of the Word. This is clear from the representation of 'Moses' as the Word, dealt with in the places referred to in 9372; from the meaning of 'when He had finished talking to him' as after all things had been instituted, for what Jehovah talked about to Moses on Mount Sinai was the things to be instituted among the children of Israel, thus things of the Church; from the meaning of 'Mount Sinai' as heaven, where Divine Truth comes from, dealt with in 8805, 9420; from the meaning of 'the two tablets' as the law in its entirety, thus the Word, dealt with in 9416; and from the meaning of 'the Testimony' as the Lord in respect of Divine Truth, dealt with in 8535, 9503. The joining to a person by means of the Word is meant by the fact that the tablets were two in number and were joined together as if by a covenant, see 9416. 'Two' furthermore means a joining together, 5194, 8423. From all this it is evident that 'Jehovah gave to Moses, when He had finished talking to him from Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the Testimony' means that after the Church has been established a joining of the Lord to a person is accomplished by means of the Word sent down from Him out of heaven.

The Word is the means by which the Lord flows in with a person, talks to him, and is joined to him, see 1775, 2310, 2899, 3476, 3735, 3982(end), 4217, 9212(end), 9216(end), 9357, 9380, 9396, 9400, 9401, 10290.

9380. 'And the people shall not come up with him' means no joining whatever to the outward without the inward. This is clear from the meaning of 'coming up' as being joined to, as above in 9373, at this point no joining since it says 'shall not come up'. The reason why no joining to the outward sense of the Word without the inward is meant is that the children of Jacob, to whom 'the people' refers here, were restricted to external things devoid of anything internal, see 3479, 4281, 4293, 4307, 4429, 4433, 4680, 4844, 4847, 4865, 4868, 4874, 4899, 4903, 4911, 4913, 6304, 8588, 8788, 8806, 8871. Their devotion to external things devoid of anything internal is plainly evident from their worship of the golden calf forty days on from that time. They would have behaved differently if they had been conscious at the same time of internal things, that is, of the good of love to and faith in Jehovah, that good being what is inward. Those who have been joined to Him by this good cannot depart into the worship of an idol, because their heart is far away from this. But since that people were not joined to the Lord except through outward forms, by which inward realities were represented, it says that 'the people shall not come up', meaning that there shall be no joining whatever to the outward without the inward. Representations without any knowledge of, belief in, or affection for the inner realities that are represented cause the thing to be joined but not the person.

[2] The situation is similar with those who keep solely to the literal sense of the Word and acquire no teaching at all from the Word, because they are separated from the internal sense, the internal sense being such teaching itself. The Lord joins Himself to outward images of the Word through its inner contents. Therefore if the inner contents have been separated no joining of the Lord to the outward images can exist other than one resembling a bodily gesture that is not in accord with the heart. The situation is similar also with those who have a perfect, detailed knowledge of the teachings of their Church, yet do not apply them to life. They too are restricted to external things devoid of anything inward, for the truths contained in such teachings occupy an external position with those people if they have not been inscribed on their life. There is no joining of the Lord to these people's truths, because the Lord enters a person's truths of faith by way of his life, thus by way of the soul within the truths.