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.

Commentary

 

Son of God

  

The works of Swedenborg offer different takes on the phrase "the Son of God," sometimes saying that it refers to the "divine human" and sometimes saying it refers to the "divine truth." That seems confusing, but that problem is largely with the way we tend to think about truth or true ideas. Generally, when asked to think of the "truth," people will think of written rules like the 10 commandments, or logical proofs, or mathematical equations that are undeniably accurate. But that is really only a very external idea of truth. Consider: We've all had the experience of struggling to understand something, blundering along as someone tries to explain it. Then, all of a sudden, it clicks. You see the pattern, see the logic, see the whole picture. In an instant, you go from "not getting it" to "getting it." But how easy is it to put that "it" into words? Usually not easy at all. And it's not easy to draw in a picture, or express in an equation. But it's very real -- in a way all the more real, because it expresses something deeper. In a sense, then, the divine truth really is the divine human. When we get "it," we see Him as the infinite human, and everything we could ever know is there. Take that click, that "it" that you suddenly got and multiply it by a factor of infinity, and that's where divine truth is. Imagine if in a click you could "get" God that way -- the whole picture, the purposes, the plans, the love, the patience, the forgiveness, the ebb and flow running constantly and completely with everyone on earth. That click would be a glimpse at divine truth -- a blinding snapshot moment seeing all that God is.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #32

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32. Unto God and his Father. That this signifies Divine truth and Divine good, is evident from this, that God denotes Divine truth and Jehovah Divine good, and that therefore, in the Word, the Lord is called God where Divine truth is treated of, and Jehovah, where Divine good is (see n. 2586, 2769, 2807, 2822, 3921, 4287, 4402, 7010, 9167.) But here, instead of Jehovah, the word Father is used, because the Father of the Lord was Jehovah, and by Father is meant the same as by Jehovah. By both, God and Father, the Lord alone is meant, the Father being in Him as the soul is in the body (as may be seen above, n. 10 and 26); for He was conceived of Jehovah; and the soul of every one is from him of whom he is conceived. Therefore, when the Lord made mention of the Father, He meant His Divine in Himself; this is why He said, that, the Father was in Him and He in the Father (John 10:38; 14:10, 11); that the Father and He were one (John 10:30); that He was not alone, but He and the Father (John 16:32). (That the Lord called the Divine of Jehovah, which was in Himself from conception and which was the Being (Esse) of His life in His Human, the Father, and the Divine truth which is from Divine good, the Son, see n. 2803, 3704, 7199, 8328, 8897; that the Son of man is Divine truth, and the Father Divine good, see n. 1729, 1733, 2159, 2628, 2803, 2813, 3255, 3704, 7499, 8897, 9807. See also the citations from Arcana Coelestia, in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, concerning the union of the Divine, which is called Jehovah the Father, with the Divine Human of the Lord, n. 304.)

  
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Translation by Isaiah Tansley. Many thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.