8177. Verses 15-18 And Jehovah said to Moses, Why do you cry to Me? Speak to the children of Israel, and let them travel on. And you, lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it; and let the children of Israel come into the middle of the sea on dry ground. And I, behold, I am hardening the hearts of the Egyptians, and they will come after them, and I will be glorified in Pharaoh, and in all his army, in his chariots, and in his horsemen. And the Egyptians will know that I am Jehovah, when I am glorified in Pharaoh, in his chariots, and in his horsemen.

'And Jehovah said to Moses' means an admonition. 'Why do you cry to Me?' means that there is no need of intercession. 'Speak to the children of Israel' means influx and perception. 'And let them travel on' means a further stage, continuing until their preparation has been accomplished. 'And you, lift up your rod' means the power of Divine Truth. 'Stretch out your hand over the sea' means the exercising of power where the hell of falsity arising from evil is situated. 'Divide it' means dispersing falsity from there. 'And let the children of Israel come into the middle of the sea on dry ground' means in order that those belonging to the spiritual Church may pass through in safety and without falsity flowing in. 'And I, behold, I am hardening the hearts of the Egyptians' means obstinate resistance by falsity arising from evil. 'And they will come after them' means the attempt to do violence by flowing in with falsity arising from evil. 'And I will be glorified in Pharaoh, and in all his army, and in his chariots, and in his horsemen' means that they are about to see the accomplishment of the dispersing of falsity and reasonings by the Divine Good of the Lord's Divine Human. 'And the Egyptians will know that I am Jehovah' means in order that it may be known that the Lord alone is God, and apart from Him there is no other. 'When I am glorified in Pharaoh, in his chariots, and in his horsemen' means, as above, [known] from this, that they are about to see the accomplishment of the dispersing of falsity, of teachings upholding it, and of reasonings, by the Lord alone.

2891. Those who have become spirits only recently torment themselves very much by trying to grasp the idea that no one is able to do good of himself, or to think what is true of himself, but that he does so from the Lord. For they believe that if that idea is true they would accordingly be like mere machines and have control of nothing at all; and that being so they would let hands hang down and allow themselves to be acted upon. But they are told that they ought by all means to think, to will, and to do good of themselves, and that in no other way could they have a heavenly proprium and heavenly freedom. But they are also told that they ought nevertheless to acknowledge that good and truth do not originate in themselves but in the Lord, and they are informed that such acknowledgement and indeed perception that this is so exists with all angels. And the more keenly they perceive that they are led by the Lord and so abide in Him the more they are in freedom.