9683. 'And you shall place the table outside the veil' means influx through heavenly blessings belonging to love. This is clear from the meaning of 'the table', on which the loaves of the Presence were laid, as the receptacle of heavenly blessings, dealt with in 9527, 9545; and from the meaning of 'outside the veil' as outside the uniting intermediary through which indirect influx comes, for 'the veil' means a uniting intermediary, 9670. And since this table was placed immediately behind the veil an influx through heavenly blessings belonging to the inmost heaven, which are forms of the good of love, is meant. The fact that this influx comes both indirectly from the Lord through the inmost heaven, and directly from Him, may be seen from the places referred to above at the end of 9682. The situation with all the good which constitutes heavenly life and so eternal life with man and with angel is that the inmost core of good is the Lord Himself and consequently the good of love which emanates directly from Him. The next in order is the good of mutual love, after this the good of charity towards the neighbour, and finally the good of faith. This is the order in which forms of good beginning with the inmost core succeed one another. From this it may be seen what the situation is with direct and indirect influx. In general a degree of good below other degrees, that is, good which is more external, is good in the measure that it holds more internal good within itself, for in the same measure is its closeness to the Lord Himself, who is the inmost good, as has been stated. But the ways in which succeeding degrees of good - more internal ones within more external - are arranged and set out varies from one person to the next according to the way they receive them, and the way each one receives them is conditioned by the spiritual and moral development of that person's life in the world; for the life everyone leads in the world remains with them forever.

[2] The Lord also flows directly into each individual person, for without this direct influx the indirect achieves nothing at all. The reception of direct influx is determined by order as it exists with man or angel, thus by Divine Truth emanating from the Divine, for this constitutes that order, 1728, 1919, 2447, 4839, 5703, 7995, 8512, 8513, 8700, 8988. True order for a person therefore is to lead a life of good which comes from the Lord, that is, to live from the Lord. The influx is constant; it enters into every single impulse of a person's will and turns it, as far as possible, in the direction of true order; for the will that is properly a person's own is constantly drawing him away from such order. The situation is as it is with a person's voluntary and involuntary powers. His voluntary powers are constantly drawing him away from order, but his involuntary ones are constantly bringing him back to it. For this reason the motion of the heart, which is involuntary, has been set free completely from the person's conscious will, as has the activity of his cerebellum; and the motion of the heart and the forces of the cerebellum control the powers of the will, preventing them from driving on beyond certain limits and wearing out the life of the body prematurely. Therefore the chief agents of both powers - of both involuntary powers and voluntary ones - have been joined and work together in the whole body. These matters have been mentioned to help to cast some light on the idea regarding the direct and indirect influx from the Lord of the celestial blessings which belong to love and the spiritual ones which belong to faith.

3439. 'I am the God of Abraham your father; do not fear, for I am with you' means that the Divine also was present there, that is to say, in the literal sense of the Word. This is clear from the representation of 'Abraham' as the Lord's Divine, dealt with in 2833, 2836, 3251, 3305 (end). Consequently 'Jehovah the God of Abraham' means the Lord's Divine, which 'Abraham' represents. And as the subject is the Word, which also is the Lord since the whole Word comes from Him and the whole of the Word has reference to Him, 'I am the God of Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you' therefore means that the Divine also was present there. With regard to the Divine presence in the Word the position is that the Divine itself is present in the highest sense of the Word because that is where the Lord is. The Divine is also present in the internal sense because that is where the Lord's kingdom in heaven is, and therefore that sense is called the celestial and spiritual. The Divine is also present in the literal sense of the Word because that is where the Lord's kingdom on earth is, and therefore that sense is called the external and also the natural, for this sense contains crude appearances that are quite remote from the Divine, though every single thing there is nevertheless Divine. Those three senses are related to one another as parts of the tabernacle are related. Its inmost part, or that inside the veil where the ark containing the testimony stood, was the most holy place or the holy of holies; the internal part, or that directly outside the veil where the golden table and the lampstand stood, was the holy place; while the external part, where the court was situated, was also a holy place. This was where all the people met, and therefore it was called 'the Tent of Meeting'.