From Swedenborg's Works

 

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

 

John 1:19-30

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19 And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou?

20 And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ.

21 And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No.

22 Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?

23 He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.

24 And they which were sent were of the Pharisees.

25 And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet?

26 John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not;

27 He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose.

28 These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.

29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

30 This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me.

  

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #831

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831. 19:17 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, "Come and gather together for the supper of the great God." This symbolizes the Lord, out of Divine love and so out of Divine zeal, calling all people who have a spiritual affection for truth and think about heaven, and summoning them to the New Church and to conjunction with Himself, thus to eternal life.

The angel standing in the sun means the Lord in His Divine love. The angel means the Lord, and the sun His Divine love. Crying with a loud voice means, symbolically, out of Divine zeal, for a voice or influx coming from the Lord out of Divine love is an expression of Divine zeal, inasmuch as zeal is a characteristic of love. Birds that fly in the midst of heaven symbolize all people who have a spiritual affection for truth and so think about heaven. To come and gather together for the supper of the great God symbolizes a calling and summoning to the New Church and to conjunction with the Lord; and because conjunction with the Lord is attended by eternal life, therefore this, too, is symbolically meant. To cry "come" symbolizes a calling, and "gather together" symbolizes a summoning.

[2] That an angel in the Word means the Lord may be seen in nos. 5, 170, 258, 344, 465, 649, 657, 718 above, and the more so here because he was seen standing in the sun, and no angel appears in the sun. For the Lord is the sun in the spiritual world, and therefore the Lord alone is present in it. That the sun in reference to the Lord symbolizes Divine love may be seen in nos. 53 and 414. Clearly, to cry with a loud voice in reference to the Lord in His Divine love means, symbolically, to speak or flow in out of Divine zeal; for Divine zeal is a characteristic of Divine love, in this case for the salvation of humankind. That birds symbolize such things as are connected with the intellect and consequent thought may be seen in no. 757 above, and in this case people who have a spiritual affection for truth and think about heaven, since the cry is addressed to birds that fly in the midst of heaven, and to fly in the midst of heaven means, symbolically, to discern, focus on, and think (nos. 245, 415). That the supper of the great God symbolizes the New Church and thus conjunction with the Lord, may be seen in no. 816, where that supper is called the marriage supper of the Lamb.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.