9874. 'Enclosed in gold shall they be in their settings' means that all of them in general and each in particular must emanate from the good belonging to the love that is received from the Lord and shown to the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of 'gold' as the good of love, dealt with in 113, 1551, 1552, 5658, 6914, 6917, 8932, 9490, 9510; and from the meaning of 'being enclosed in it in their settings' as emanating from that good. For every single stone was surrounded by and so enclosed in gold, and since 'gold' means the good of love what is enclosed means that which exists or emanates from that good. The like is meant in verse 11 of the present chapter by the sockets of gold which surrounded the two shoham stones placed on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod.

[2] The implications of all this are that the breastplate and its twelve stones represented every good and truth in the heavens and so represented all heaven, as shown above. Moreover not only the heavens but also every community in the heavens, indeed each angel within a community, is surrounded by a Divine sphere, which consists of Divine Good and Truth emanating from the Lord, see where this is dealt with in 9490-9492, 9498, 9499, 9534. And since the good and truth of this sphere is received by the angels, so also every single thing present with them emanates from there; for each angel is heaven in the smallest form it takes. The actual good emanating from the Lord is what the gold around the stones and enclosing them represents.

[3] The truth that this good is the good of love that is received from the Lord and shown to the Lord may be recognized from the consideration that all good belongs to love, for what a person loves he calls good and also feels to be such. From this it is evident that heavenly good is the good of love to the Lord, for this love is what joins angel and man to the Lord; through this love they are brought to Him and enjoy all the good of heaven. It is well known in the Church that this good comes from the Lord, for the teaching of the Church is that all good originates in God and none at all in oneself. From this it is evident that the good of love shown to the Lord must come from the Lord, and that good from any other source is not good.

8931. 'You have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven' means all things in the Word coming through influx from God by way of heaven. This is clear from the meaning of 'speaking from heaven', when done by Jehovah addressing members of the Church, who are represented by 'the children of Israel', 8930, as God's truth, or the Word coming from God by way of heaven. For what is spoken by Jehovah is God's truth, thus the Word existing within the Church; and what He speaks comes by way of heaven.

[2] It should be recognized that heaven does not exist in some fixed and exact location; that is, it is not up on high, as it is commonly thought to be. Rather heaven exists wherever the Divine is present. This being so, it exists with and within everyone possessing charity and faith, since charity and faith are what constitute heaven, because they are what come from the Divine. There also angels live. The truth that heaven is where the Divine, that is, the Lord, is present is evident from the fact that Mount Sinai, from which the Lord spoke, is called 'heaven' here. This also is the reason why 'Mount Sinai' means heaven, from which Divine Truth flows, 8805.

[3] The reason why all things in the Word are meant is that Jehovah or the Lord now begins to reveal the Word that is to serve the human race in what they teach and the way they live, first through Moses and later on through the Prophets. In order therefore that people might know that the Word came from the Divine by way of heaven, the Lord Himself was willing to come down and declare the Ten Commandments vocally, and in doing this to show that everything else which comes after them in the law, that is, in the Word, came in the same way through influx from the Divine by way of heaven.