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.

2803. That the Divine Truth is the “son,” and the Divine Good the “father,” is evident from the signification of a “son,” as being truth (see n. 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2633); and of a “father,” as being good; and also from the conception and birth of truth, which is from good. Truth cannot be and come forth [existere] from any other source than good, as has been shown many times. That the “son” here is the Divine Truth, and the “father” the Divine Good, is because the union of the Divine Essence with the Human, and of the Human Essence with the Divine, is the Divine marriage of Good with Truth, and of Truth with Good, from which comes the heavenly marriage; for in Jehovah or the Lord there is nothing but what is infinite; and because infinite, it cannot be apprehended by any idea, except that it is the being and the coming forth [esse et existere] of all good and truth, or is Good itself and Truth itself. Good itself is the “Father,” and Truth itself is the “Son.” But because as before said there is a Divine marriage of Good and Truth, and of Truth and Good, the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father, as the Lord Himself teaches in John:

Jesus saith unto Philip, Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in Me ? Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in me (John 14:10-11).

And again in the same Evangelist:

Jesus said to the Jews, Though ye believe not Me, believe the works; that ye may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father (John 10:36, 38).

And again:

I pray for them; for all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine; and that they all may be one, as Thou Father art in Me, and I in Thee (John 17:9-10, 21).

And again:

Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; if God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself. Father, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee (John 13:31-32; 17:1).

[2] From this may be seen the nature of the union of the Divine and the Human in the Lord; namely, that it is mutual and alternate, or reciprocal; which union is that which is called the Divine Marriage, from which descends the heavenly marriage, which is the Lord’s kingdom itself in the heavens—thus spoken of in John:

In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you (John 14:20).

And again:

I pray for them, that they all may be one, as Thou Father art in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us, I in them and Thou in Me; that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them (John 17:21-23, 26).

That this heavenly marriage is that of good and truth, and of truth and good, may be seen above (n. 2508, 2618, 2728, 2729 and following numbers).

[3] And because the Divine Good cannot be and come forth without the Divine Truth, nor the Divine Truth without the Divine Good, but the one in the other mutually and reciprocally, it is therefore manifest that the Divine Marriage was from eternity; that is, the Son in the Father, and the Father in the Son, as the Lord Himself teaches in John:

And now O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thyself, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was (John 17:5, 24).

But the Divine Human which was born from eternity was also born in time; and what was born in time, and glorified, is the same. Hence it is that the Lord so often said that He was going to the Father who sent Him; that is, that He was returning to the Father. And in John:

In the beginning was the Word (the “Word” is the Divine Truth itself), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; the same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:1-3, 14; see also John 3:13; 6:62).

1573. 'And the Canaanite and the Perizzite were then dwelling in the land' means evils and falsities in the external man. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'the Canaanite' as hereditary evil from the mother in the external man, dealt with already in 1444, and from the meaning of 'the Perizzite' as derivative falsity, dealt with in what follows below. That hereditary evil from the mother resided with the Lord in His external Man, see what has been stated already in 1414, 1444. The fact that falsity resulted from that hereditary evil follows, for where there is hereditary evil falsity is present also. The one is born from the other, but falsity from evil cannot be born until a person has been endowed with facts and cognitions. Evil has nothing to work on or flow into except facts and cognitions. In this way evil belonging to the will part of the mind is turned into falsity in the understanding part, and therefore this falsity also was hereditary because it was born from what was hereditary, though not the falsity that is based on false principles. But it existed in the external man as that which the internal man could see was falsity.

[2] Because hereditary evil from the mother was present before the Lord had been endowed with facts and cognitions, that is, before 'Abram sojourned in Egypt' it is said in verse 6 of the previous chapter that 'the Canaanite was in the land' but not that the Perizzite was there, whereas in the present verse, now that He had been endowed with facts and cognitions, it is said that 'the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelt in the land'. From these considerations it is clear that 'the Canaanite' means evil and 'the Perizzite' falsity. It is also clear from the consideration that the mention of the Canaanite and the Perizzite does not bear any relation to the historical events among which it occurs, for nothing is said about either of them in what has gone before or in what follows. The same is also true with the mention of the Canaanite in verse 6 of the previous chapter. From this it is evident that some arcanum lies concealed here which one cannot know except from the internal sense.

[3] To some it may come as a surprise to say that hereditary evil from the mother was present with the Lord, but as such evil is spoken of so plainly here, and as in the internal sense the Lord is the subject, there can be no doubt that it was present. For no human being can possibly be born from another human being without deriving evil from him or her. But the hereditary evil that is derived from the father is one thing, that from the mother is another. Hereditary evil from the father is more internal and remains for ever, since it can never be rooted out. Such evil did not exist with the Lord because He was born of Jehovah as His Father, and thus was Divine, or Jehovah, as regards internals. But hereditary evil from the mother belongs to the external man, as it did with the Lord, and it is called 'the Canaanite in the land', and derivative falsity 'the Perizzite'. The Lord was in this sense born as any other, and had weaknesses as any other has them.

[4] That the Lord derived hereditary evil from the mother is quite clear from the fact that He underwent temptations. Nobody can ever be tempted who has no evil, for it is the evil present with man that tempts and by means of which he is tempted. That the Lord was tempted, undergoing temptations so serious that no other could ever endure one ten thousandth part of them, that He suffered all alone, and by His own power overcame evil, or the devil and the whole of hell, is also clear. Those temptations are spoken of in Luke as follows,

Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. He was tempted for forty days by the devil, so that He ate nothing in those days. But after the devil had ended every temptation he departed from Him for a time. From there He returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee. Luke 4:1-2, 13-14.

[5] And in Mark,

The Spirit, driving Jesus, made Him go away into the wilderness; and He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted; and He was with the wild beasts. Mark 1:12-13.

Here 'beasts' means hell. In addition to this He is spoken of as being tempted to the point of death, so that His sweat was [like] drops of blood,

And when He was in agony He prayed more earnestly; and His sweat became as great drops of blood falling down upon the ground. Luke 22:44.

[6] No angel can possibly be tempted by the devil, the reason being that as an angel abides in the Lord, evil spirits cannot approach him, even when they are a long way off, but are instantly seized with horror and fright. Much less could hell have approached the Lord if He had been born Divine, that is, without evil from the mother clinging to Him.

[7] That the Lord bore the iniquities and evils of the human race is also a statement commonly made by preachers, yet the diversion of iniquities and evils to Himself can never come about except through a hereditary channel. The Divine cannot take evil upon Itself, and therefore in order that He might overcome evil by His own powers - which no human being has ever been able to do or ever can do - and in so doing might make Himself alone Righteousness, He was willing to be born like any other. Otherwise there would have been no need for Him to be born at all, for the Lord could have assumed Human Essence without going through the process of birth, as He had indeed sometimes done when seen by members of the Most Ancient Church, and also by prophets. Therefore in order that He might be furnished with evil against which He was to fight and over which He was to conquer, and in so doing might join together in Himself the Divine Essence to the Human Essence, He came into the world.

[8] In the Lord however there was no evil of His own, that is, He committed no actual evil, as He Himself also says in John,

Who of you is going to convict Me of sin? John 8:46.

From these considerations it may now be quite evident what is meant by the statement immediately preceding - 'there was strife between Abram's herdsmen and Lot's herdsman'. The reason was that 'the Canaanite and the Perizzite were dwelling in the land'.