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Arcana Coelestia #9373

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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.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for the permission to use this translation.

The Bible

 

2 Kings 1:8

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8 And they answered him, He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said, It is Elijah the Tishbite.

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Arcana Coelestia #4154

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4154. And he went out of Leah’s tent, and came into Rachel’s tent. That this signifies the holy of that truth, is evident from what has just been said. The case with truths (as with goods) is that they are exterior and interior; for there is an internal man and an external. It is the goods and truths of the internal man that are called internal goods and truths, and the goods and truths of the external man are called external goods and truths. The goods and truths of the internal man are of three degrees, such as there are in the three heavens. The goods and truths of the external man are also of three degrees and they correspond to the internal ones; for there are goods and truths midway between the internal and external man (that is, mediating ones); for without middle or mediating goods and truths no communication is possible. There are goods and truths proper to the natural man, which are called external goods and truths; and there are also goods and truths of the senses which are of the body, and thus outermost ones. These last mentioned goods and truths of three degrees belong to the external man, and as before said they correspond to as many goods and truths of the internal man; concerning which of the Lord’s Divine Providence elsewhere.

[2] The goods and truths of each degree are most distinct from one another, and are by no means confused together. Those which are more interior are component, and those which are more exterior are composite. Although these goods and truths are most distinct from one another, they nevertheless do not appear to man as distinct. The sensuous man sees no otherwise than that all interior things, nay, internal things themselves, are only sensuous, for he sees from sensuous things, thus from outermost ones. Interior things cannot be seen from outermost things, but outermost things can be seen from interior things. He who is a natural man (that is, who thinks from memory-knowledges) knows no otherwise than that the natural things from which he thinks are inmost, when in fact they are external. The interior man, who judges and concludes from analytic principles that have been disclosed by virtue of natural memory-knowledges, believes in like manner that these are the inmost things which man possesses, because they appear as the inmost to him; and yet these are below his rational things, so that relatively to genuine rational things they are exterior or lower. Such is the case with man’s apprehension. The things just spoken of are those of the natural or external man in three degrees; but as before said those of the internal man are also in three degrees such as there are in the three heavens.

[3] From all that has been said it may now be seen how the case is with the truths signified by the “teraphim,” in that they were not found in the tents of Jacob, Leah, or the handmaids, but in Rachel’s tent, that is, in the holy of the affection of interior truth. All the truth that is from the Divine is in that which is holy, for it cannot be otherwise, because the truth that is from the Divine is holy. It is said to be holy from the affection (that is, from the love) which flows in from the Lord, and causes the man to be affected with the truth.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for the permission to use this translation.