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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.

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Arcana Coelestia #1672

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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.

  
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Arcana Coelestia #7127

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7127. 'By no means do I give you straw' means that the most general factual knowledge was no longer made available from that source. This is clear from the meaning of 'by no means giving' as no longer supplying; and from the meaning of 'straw' as the most general factual knowledge of all, dealt with in 7112. What these words imply has been stated [in that paragraph] above. But in addition to this it should be mentioned that in the next life the ones who toss straw - that is, the most general factual knowledge of all - in the way of the upright whom they molest are primarily people who have belonged to the Church. They are people who convinced themselves that faith alone saved, yet did not lead a life of faith but a life of evil. In the next life these people are the same as they were in the world; they know the arguments that are used to substantiate faith alone, which they say saves a person irrespective of the life he has been leading.

[2] But those substantiations are nothing else than reasonings that agree with the initial proposition; for anything at all, even that which is extremely false, can be substantiated by means of reasonings, and can also be presented to simple persons as the truth by the use of clever speaking and drawing of conclusions. For this purpose those people use chiefly the most general statements of all in the Word, which without the internal sense of the Word can be twisted to support any opinion at all. These kinds of statements are what they toss in the way of those who belong to the spiritual Church; they use such to molest them. But these statements are still no more than 'straw for making bricks'. For those people exclude the absolutely essential virtue, namely charity. They do, it is true, say that the works of charity are the fruits of faith; but they still consider them to be worthless and convince others that regardless of what kind of life a person has led he is saved by faith alone, even during the last hour of his life, and so is saved by faith without its fruits, thus without a life of faith and charity.

[3] So long as such ideas are tossed in their way the upright in the next life possess arguments to fight with and can defend themselves; for they see that reasonings are unsound when the essential virtue, which is charity, is so excluded, and also when they see that such people set no store by the life a person leads. These are the considerations that every single facet of the next life enables them to see, as in broad daylight. These then are the things that are to be understood by the basest kind of factual knowledge, the most general of all, meant by 'straw'. People who have convinced themselves that faith alone saves and yet have led a life of evil are in hell, quite deep down and slightly in front over to the right, from where - as I have heard them - they molest the upright with their reasonings. But being led by the Lord by means of angels, the upright have rejected those reasonings as worthless, and they have also detected the fallacies contained in proofs and arguments based on general truths in the Word.

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