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.

98. It is in fact a tenet of belief in the church to-day, and also supported from the Word, that the Father and the Son, that is, the Divine and the Human, are united in the Lord like the soul and the body. Yet there are scarcely five in a hundred, or fifty in a thousand, who know this. The reason is the doctrine of justification by faith alone, so zealously propagated by many of the clergy, who seek a reputation for learning for the sake of honours and preferment, to such a point that that doctrine occupies and besets every point in their minds. Because it has made their thoughts drunk, just as the spirits of wine called alcohol, they have, like drunkards, failed to see this most essential tenet of the church, that Jehovah God came down and took human form. Yet that union is the sole means by which man is linked to God, and by being so linked is saved. It is evident that salvation depends upon the knowledge and acknowledgment of God, if anyone considers that God is all in all in heaven, and so all in all in the church, and therefore all in all in theology.

[2] Here I shall first prove that the union of the Father and the Son, that is, the Divine and the Human in the Lord, is like the union of soul and body; and, secondly, that this is a reciprocal union. The concept of a union as of the soul and the body has been established in the Athanasian Creed, which is accepted throughout the Christian world as the doctrine concerning God. In it we read as follows:

Our Lord Jesus Christ is God and Man; and although He is God and Man, they are not two, but one Christ. He is one, because the Divine took to itself a human. Indeed He is altogether one and is one Person, for as the soul and the body are one man, so God and Man are one Christ.

This is understood to mean that this is a union between the Son of God from eternity and the Son born in time; but because God is one and not three, so long as that union is understood to be with the one God from eternity, the doctrine agrees with the Word. There we read that He was conceived of Jehovah the Father (Luke 1:34-35); and that was the source of His soul and life. This is why He says that He and the Father are one (John 10:30); that he who sees and knows Him sees and knows the Father (John 14:9); 'if you knew Me, you would also know My Father' (John 8:19); 'he who receives Me, receives Him who sent Me' (John 13:20); that He is in the Father's bosom (John 1:18); that all things whatsoever the Father has are His (John 16:15); that He is called the everlasting Father (Isaiah 9:6); that He thus has power over all flesh (John 17:2), and all power in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). From these and many other passages in the Word it can be clearly seen that the union between the Father and the Son is like that between the soul and the body. For this reason too He is often called in the Old Testament Jehovah, Jehovah Zebaoth, and Jehovah the Redeemer (83 above).

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.