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.

The holy convocation described in Exodus 12:16 was made in order to represent heaven.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 7891)

5951. And the sons of Israel did so. That this signifies the effect from spiritual truths in the natural, is evident from the signification of “did,” as being the effect; and from the representation of the sons of Israel, as being spiritual truths in the natural (see n. 5414, 5879). What spiritual truths in the natural are, must be told. Truths of faith outside of man, spirit, or angel, are not truths of faith, for they have not been applied to any subject, in which they become such. But when they are applied to man, spirit, or angel as a subject, they then become truths of faith, but with a difference according to the states of life of each one. With those who are learning them for the first time, they are only memory-knowledges. Afterward if these persons devoutly reverence them, the truths advance further, and become truths of the church; and when they are affected with them and live according to them, they then become spiritual truths; for the good of love and of charity, which is solely from the spiritual world, then fills them and causes them to live; for to be affected with them and to live according to them is from this good. The quality of the truths that are called truths of faith, with those who live according to them, and with those who do not live according to them, has been shown me. With those who do not live according to them, they appeared like white filaments; and with those who had these truths, but nothing of good, they appeared brittle; but with those who live according to them they appeared like fibers from the brain filled with spirit, and soft. Thus these latter truths were animate, but the former were inanimate. From this it may be known that the quality of truths with men is according to the state of life of each. The truths that are represented by the sons of Jacob are truths not yet spiritual, because not yet made of the life. But the truths that are represented by them as sons of Israel are spiritual, because from having been made of the life they have been filled with the good of love and of charity. These latter truths are here meant, because the subject treated of has been the initiation to conjunction of the truths in the natural (which are the sons of Jacob) with internal good (which is Joseph), through the intermediate (which is Benjamin), and also through spiritual good (which is Israel).