9380. And the people shall not come up with him. That this signifies no conjunction whatever with the external apart from the internal, is evident from the signification of "coming up," as being conjunction (as above, n. 9373); here no conjunction, because it is said they "shall not come up." That it denotes no conjunction with the external sense of the Word apart from the internal, is because the sons of Jacob, who are here meant by "the people," were in what is external without what is internal (see n. 3479, 4281, 4293, 4307, 4429, 4433, 4680, 4844, 4847, 4865, 4868, 4874, 4899, 4903, 4911, 4913, 6304, 8588, 8788, 8806, 8871). That they were in what is external without what is internal, is very manifest from the worship of the golden calf forty days after this time. They would have acted differently if they had been at the same time in what is internal, that is, in the good of love to and of faith in Jehovah; for this is what is internal. Those who have been conjoined by this cannot go away to the worship of an idol, because their heart is far from it and because that people was conjoined with the Lord merely by external things, by which they represented internal things, therefore it is said "the people shall not come up," by which is signified that there is no conjunction whatever with an external that is devoid of an internal. The representations that are devoid of the knowledge, faith, and affection of the interior things that are represented, conjoin the thing, but not the person.
[2] The case is the same with those who remain in the mere literal sense of the Word, and gather from it nothing of doctrine; for they are separated from the internal sense, because the internal sense is doctrine itself. The conjunction of the Lord with the external things of the Word is through its interior things; and therefore if the interior things have been separated, there is possible no other conjunction of the Lord with the external things than as with a gesture of the body without any agreement of the heart. It is the very same with those who are perfectly acquainted with all the particulars of the doctrine of their church, and yet do not apply them to life. These also are in external things devoid of what is internal, for with them the truths of doctrine are outside so long as they have not been inscribed on their life. The reason why there is no conjunction of the Lord with their truths, is that the Lord enters into a man's truths of faith through his life; thus through the soul which is in the truths.