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.

8325. 'You will bring them in' means raising up. This is clear from the meaning of 'bringing in', when used to denote taking to heaven, as raising up. The words 'raising up' are used because heaven beheld by outward sight that spirits possess is on high; and when beheld by inward sight such as angels possess heaven occupies an inward position. Everything inward in the next life manifests itself in a representative fashion as something above, and everything outward as something below; consequently heaven appears up above and hell down below, 2148, 3084, 4599, 5146. For states of truth and good, and in the contrary sense states of falsity and evil, are what positions high up and those deep down, in short, distances and places, represent in the next life, see 2625, 2837, 3356, 3387, 4321, 4882, 5605, 7381.

[2] The following experience alone enables one to infer how difficult it is for a natural man to apprehend spiritual things, consequently things that belong to heaven. Can anyone like him see that space and time do not exist in heaven, but states instead? Or to be more precise, that states of good or states of being (esse) exist there, presenting themselves as extents of space, and states of truth or states of coming-into-being (existere), presenting themselves as periods of time? Will not a merely natural man suppose that where time and space do not exist there is complete emptiness and nothingness? From this it is evident that if a natural man makes up his mind to believe nothing apart from what he can apprehend he lays himself open to grossly mistaken ideas. And as it is with space and time, so it is also with many other matters. For example, a natural man inevitably falls into a nonsensical way of thinking about God when with notions involving the passage of time he contemplates what God was doing before the creation of the world, that is, what He was engaged in from eternity up to then. Nor can he be extricated from that tangled knot until notions of time and space are banished. When angels contemplate that eternity they never do so with notions of time but with ideas of state.

[3] In the next life two statues appear, partly of flesh and partly of stone. They are stationed on the edge of the created universe, in front over to the left. They are said to swallow up those who contemplate what God was doing from eternity before He created the world. The swallowing up represents the consideration that since a person cannot contemplate anything without notions involving space and time he cannot extricate himself from the difficulty unaided. He does so only with the aid of God, either by ceasing to contemplate the matter or by banishing notions involving time.