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.

Generally speaking, people who are at lower levels of an organization serve those at higher levels. Bosses boss and their employees serve; coaches devise strategy and players do what the coach tells them to do; engineers design car parts and workers assemble them according to the engineers' instructions. Ideally, of course, it's a two-way street: A good boss knows he is really there to help his employees succeed; a good coach creates strategies based on his players' strengths. Even there, though, the boss and coach are really working in service of a higher goal, seeking organizational success. The same is true in the spiritual sense of the Bible. When someone serves another, they are in a lower state, serving a higher state (or a deeper evil, if they are being enslaved by people who represent evil). This can take many different forms, depending on the circumstances. In many cases, this creates a connection between "service" and intellectual things. This is because who we are is determined by what we love; our loves are the deepest part of us. What we think, our reasoning and intellect and the things we learn about, come from those loves and serve those loves.

2353. This night. That this signifies the last time, when these are no longer acknowledged, is evident from the signification of “night,” as being a time of darkness, when the things of light are no longer seen. The angels did not come in the night, but in the evening; but as it is the men of Sodom who spoke and cried out, that is, those who are in falsity and evil, it is not said in the “evening,” but in the “night.” For in the Word “night” signifies the time and state when there is no longer any light of truth, but merely falsity and evil.

[2] Thus the last time when comes the Judgment; with which signification it is often found, as in Micah:

Against the prophets that lead the people astray: It shall be night unto you that ye have no vision; and it shall be darkness to you, that ye shall not divine, and the sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be black over them (Micah 3:5-6).

“Prophets” here denote those who teach falsities; “night,” “darkness,” the “going down of the sun,” and the “blackening day,” denote falsities and evils.

[3] In John:

If anyone walk in the day, he stumbleth not; but if anyone walk in the night he stumbleth, because the light is not in him (John 11:9-10); where “night” denotes falsity from evil; “light,” truth from good; for as all the light of truth is from good, so all the night of falsity is from evil.

[4] Again:

I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day; the night cometh when no one can work (John 9:4);

“day” denotes the time and state when there is what is good and true; but “night” when there is what is evil and false.

[5] In Luke:

I say unto you, in that night there shall be two upon one bed, the one shall be accepted, the other abandoned (Luke 17:34);

here “night” denotes the last time, when there is no longer any truth of faith.

[6] Inasmuch as when the sons of Israel went out from Egypt there was represented in that country the vastation of good and truth within the church, and that there then reigned therein nothing but what was evil and false, it was commanded that they should go out at midnight (Exodus 11:4); and it also came to pass that at midnight all the firstborn of Egypt were slain (Exodus 12:12, 29-30). And inasmuch as they who are in what is good and true, who were represented by the sons of Israel, are guarded when among falsities and evils (as was Lot in Sodom), that night, in respect to them, is called “a night of the guardings of Jehovah” (verse 42).