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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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Arcana Coelestia #3146

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3146. And he gave straw and provender for the camels. That this signifies instruction in truths and goods, is evident from the signification of “straw,” as being the truths of the natural man, and from the signification of “provender” as being the goods therein (concerning which see above, n. 3114). Because these things are signified by “straw and provender,” it follows that to “give straw and provender” is to instruct in truths and goods. That freedom is for the sake of these things, namely, that man may be instructed in the affection and from the affection of truth, and thus that truths may be insinuated even to the spiritual man, or even to the soul, and may there be conjoined with good, may be seen from what was shown above concerning freedom (n. 2870-2893). Such is the inrooting of faith, or of the truth which is of faith, that unless it is coupled with good in the rational, the truth of faith never receives any life, nor does any fruit come from it; for all that which is called the fruit of faith, is the fruit of the good of love and charity through the truth of faith. Unless spiritual heat, which is the good of love, operated by spiritual light, which is the truth of faith, the man would be as ground hard frozen as in winter time, when nothing grows, still less bears fruit. For as light without heat produces nothing, so faith produces nothing without love.

  
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Arcana Coelestia #10460

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10460. 'And Moses grew hot with anger' means that nation's turning away from the internal side of the Word, the Church, and worship. This is clear from the meaning of 'growing hot with anger', when it has reference to the Lord, as a person's turning away from internal and so Divine things, dealt with above in 10431. The like is meant by 'growing hot with anger' when this is attributed to Moses, because 'Moses' represents the Word or Divine Truth which comes from the Lord, or what amounts to the same thing, the Lord in respect of Divine Truth, regarding which representation, see in the places referred to in 9372. The expression 'from the internal side of the Word, the Church, and worship' is used because the person who turns away from what exists on the internal side of the Word turns away as well from what exists on the internal side of the Church and also on the internal side of worship, since what resides internally in the Church and internally in worship derives from that which resides internally within the Word. For the Word teaches what a member of the Church must be like or what the Church as it exists with a person must be like, and also what the worship with a member of the Church must be like. For the forms of good and the truths of love and faith are what compose the Church internally and also worship internally; they are what the Word teaches, and they are what compose the Word internally.

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