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.

2133. Of the Lord’s Divine mercy heaven has on two or three occasions been so far opened to me that I have heard a general glorification of the Lord, which is of such a nature that a number of societies glorified the Lord together and with one mind, and yet each society did so by itself, with distinct affections and the derivative ideas. It was a heavenly voice, heard far and wide, to an extent so immense that the hearing failed to reach its end (as fails the sight when it beholds the universe), and this was attended with inmost joy and inmost happiness. A glorification of the Lord has also been sometimes perceived like an irradiation flowing down and affecting the interiors of the mind. This glorification takes place when the angels are in a state of tranquillity and peace, for it then flows from their inmost joys, and from their happinesses themselves.

1795. 'And the steward of my house' means the external Church. This is clear from the meaning in the internal sense of 'steward of the house', that is, in reference to the Church. The external Church is called 'the steward of the house' when the internal Church itself is 'the house' and the head of the household is the Lord. The position which the external Church occupies is nothing other than this, for all stewardship belongs to the external side of the Church, such as the performance of rituals and many other duties connected with the Temple and the Church itself, that is, Jehovah's or the Lord's House.

[2] The external things of the Church when they are without the internal things are of no value. It is to those internal things that they owe their existence, and in character they are the same as those internal things. The situation with them is as it is with man: with him what is external or bodily is in itself something valueless unless that which is internal exists to give it soul and life. As is the character therefore of that which is internal, so is the character of that which is external; or, as is the character of the disposition and mind (animus et mens), so is the worth of all the things which come forth through that which is external or bodily. The things of the heart make man, not those of the lips and gestures. It is the same with the internal things of the Church. Nevertheless the external things of the Church are as the external things with man, in that they serve as stewards or overseers; or what amounts to the same, the external or bodily man may be called the steward or overseer of the house when 'the house' is that which belongs to interior things. From this it is evident what 'childless' means, namely a time when no internal dimension of the Church exists, only an external, as it was at the time regarding which the Lord made complaint.