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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.

Commentary

 

Roll and little book

  

'The roll,' in Ezekiel, and 'the little book' in the Apocalypse, signify the divine truth.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 5620; Ezekiel 3:3; Revelation 10:9-11)

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Arcana Coelestia #10028

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10028. 'And shall pour out all the blood at the base of the altar' means the whole of Divine Truth present on the level of sensory perception, which is the lowest level of life in a person. This is clear from the meaning of 'the blood' as Divine Truth springing from the Lord's Divine Good, dealt with just above in 10026; and from the meaning of 'the base of the altar' as the level of sensory perception, which is the lowest level of life in a person. 'The base of the altar' has this meaning because the altar was representative of the Lord's Divine Human, and therefore the base of it means that which forms the lowest level of life in the human being, and that which forms the lowest level of life in the human being is called outward sensory perception, which is what is meant here. The altar was the chief representative of the Lord's Divine Human, see 9388, 9389, 9714, 9964, 'the base', it is self-evident, being the lowest level of it. As regards this level in the human being, that it is outward sensory perception, and as regards the nature of it, see 9212, 9216, 9996.

[2] The implications of all this must be stated briefly. When a person is being purified he first of all learns the kinds of truths that someone who thinks on the sensory level can grasp; these are truths such as exist in the literal sense of the Word. Afterwards he learns more internal truths such as are gathered from the Word by those who have enlightenment; for these gather its inner meaning from various places where the literal sense there is explained. Then, once these truths are known, even more internal ones are taken in by those who have become enlightened. These even more internal truths together with the previous ones serve the Church as doctrinal teachings, the even more internal truths serving members of the internal Church, the other truths serving members of the external Church. Both groups of people, if they have led lives in accord with those truths, are raised to heaven among angels, and there they are endowed with angelic wisdom, which is the product of truths still more internal, and finally of inmost truths in the third heaven. These truths together with the previous ones in their own order terminate in the last and lowest, which belong to outward sensory perception, and exist together within them. From this it is evident that interior truths reside all together in the truths belonging to the literal sense of the Word, for the latter are the last and lowest, as has been stated. Within things that are last and lowest those which are more internal ones position themselves all in sequence, and within them they exist all together, see 9828, 9836. From this it is evident what should be understood by the whole of Divine Truth present on the level of sensory perception, meant by the requirement that all the blood was to be poured out at the base of the altar.

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