8403. 'And all the assembly of the children of Israel grumbled' means grief and [therefore] complaint on account of the severity of the temptation. This is clear from the meaning of 'grumbling' as grief caused by the bitterness of the temptation, and complaint, dealt with in 8351, 'the assembly of the children of Israel' being those who belong to the spiritual Church, as above in 8398. The subject here is a third temptation, which arises because there is a lack of delight and good. This temptation follows the previous one in the series, which arose because there was a lack of truth.

[2] People uninformed about human regeneration suppose that a person can be regenerated without temptation, and some that he has been regenerated after he has undergone a single temptation. But let it be known that no one can be regenerated without temptation, and that he suffers very many temptations, following one after another. The reason for this is that regeneration takes place to the end that the life of the old man may die and a new, heavenly life may be instilled. From this one may recognize that conflict is altogether inevitable; for the life of the old man stands its ground and refuses to be snuffed out, and the life of the new man cannot enter except where the life of the old has been snuffed out. From this it is evident that fierce conflict takes place between mutually hostile sides, since each is fighting for its life.

[3] Anyone thinking with enlightened reason can see and perceive from all this that a person cannot be regenerated without conflict, that is, without spiritual temptation, and also that a person is not regenerated by undergoing a single temptation, only by undergoing very many of them. For there are numerous kinds of evil that have formed the delight of the former life, that is, have constituted the old life. All those evils cannot be subdued on one occasion and all together. They cling stubbornly to the person, for they become deeply rooted in his forebears going back many centuries and are for that reason innate in him. They have also been made stronger since early childhood by the evils of his own doing. All these evils are diametrically opposed to the heavenly good that is to be instilled and that must constitute the new life.

5356. 'In the land of my affliction' means where the temptations were undergone. This is clear from the meaning of 'the land', in this case the land of Egypt, as the natural, dealt with in 5276, 5278, 5280, 5288, 5301; and from the meaning of 'affliction' as temptation, dealt with in 1846. From these meanings it is evident that 'in the land of my affliction' means in the natural where the temptations were undergone and therefore the place where truth from good was multiplied. Since that fruitfulness, or multiplication of truth from good, is brought about primarily by means of temptations, such words have therefore been used here. The reason why fruitfulness is brought about primarily by means of temptations is that temptations take away self-love and love of the world, and so evils too; and once these have been taken away, an affection for goodness and truth from the Lord flows in, see just above in 5354.

[2] Another thing temptations do is to provide a person with the kind of discernment he has about what is good and true; they provide it through the opposites that evil spirits introduce at such times. From his discernment of those opposites a person can make comparisons which enable him to see what the whole is like. For no one can know what good is unless he also knows what is not good; and he does not know what truth is unless he knows what is not true. Also, temptations serve to strengthen goods and truths; for in temptations a person battles against evils and falsities, and through being victorious in such he goes on to hold on more firmly to those goods and truths. In addition to this temptations also serve to subdue evils and falsities so completely that they do not dare to rise up again. Thus temptations serve to cast evils and falsities away to the fringes, where they hang downwards, in a limp condition. But forms of good together with truths are in the centre, and in the measure that the zeal of genuine affection is present they are raised upwards - up to heaven, towards the Lord who does the raising up.