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.

1672. And the kings that were with him. That this signifies the apparent truth which is of that good, is evident from the signification of “kings” in the Word. “Kings,” “kingdoms,” and “peoples,” in the historical and the prophetical parts of the Word, signify truths and the things which are of truths, as may be abundantly confirmed. In the Word an accurate distinction is made between a “people” and a “nation;” by a “people” are signified truths, and by a “nation” goods, as before shown (n. 1259, 1260). “Kings” are predicated of peoples, but not so much of nations. Before the sons of Israel sought for kings, they were a nation, and represented good, or the celestial; but after they desired a king, and received one, they became a people, and did not represent good or the celestial, but truth or the spiritual; which was the reason why this was imputed to them as a fault (see 1 Samuel 8:7-22, concerning which subject, of the Lord’s Divine mercy elsewhere). As Chedorlaomer is named here, and it is added, “the kings that were with him,” both good and truth are signified; by “Chedorlaomer,” good, and by “the kings,” truth. But what was the quality of the good and truth at the beginning of the Lord’s temptations has already been stated.

5489. 'Each man's in his own sack' means wherever a receptacle exists in the natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'a sack' as a receptacle, dealt with below; and this exists in the natural because truths and factual knowledge in the natural are the subject. The reason 'a sack' has the specific meaning here of factual knowledge is that just as a sack is a receptacle for grain, so is factual knowledge a receptacle for good, in this case for good that is the product of truth, as above in 5487. Few people know that factual knowledge is a receptacle for good because few stop to reflect on such matters. Yet they can know it from the following considerations: When facts enter the memory some affection is always instrumental in their introduction there. Facts that are not introduced by means of some affection do not remain but slip away. The reason for this is that life is present within an affection but not within factual knowledge except through an affection. From this it is evident that linked to factual knowledge there are always those kinds of impulses that belong to an affection, or what amounts to the same, that are the expressions of some love or other. Consequently it has some form of good linked to it, for every expression of love is called a form of good, whether it is real good or what is mistakenly thought to be such. Factual knowledge together with such forms of good therefore constitute a kind of marriage. This being so, when that good is stimulated, so instantly is the factual knowledge to which it is linked; and conversely, when facts are called to mind, the good to which they are linked comes forth. Anyone can learn of this, if he so pleases, from what goes on within himself.

[2] From this one may now conclude that, among unregenerate persons who have cast aside the good of charity, facts existing as truths known to the Church have the kinds of impulses expressing self-love and love of the world attached to them. Thus attached to those facts there are forms of evil which, because of the delight these hold within them, are called forms of good by those unregenerate persons, who also employ wrong interpretations to present them as such. Those facts take on an attractive appearance, when self-love and love of the world reign throughout, assuming it in the degree in which these are reigning. But among regenerate persons facts existing as truths known to the Church have the kinds of impulses that belong to love towards the neighbour and love to God, thus forms of genuine good, attached to them. These forms of good are placed by the Lord within the truths known to the Church that are present with all undergoing regeneration. Therefore when the Lord inspires these people with a zeal for what is good, those truths come forth at the same time in their own proper order; and when He inspires a zeal for truth, that good is present and sets it ablaze. From all this one may see the situation so far as factual knowledge and truths are concerned - that they are the receptacles for good.