6828. 'And he led the flock to the back of the wilderness' means after the temptations they - those guided by the truth that went with simple good - had undergone. This is clear from the meaning of 'the flock' as the Church where those who were guided by the truth that went with simple good were, dealt with immediately above in 6827; and from the meaning of 'the wilderness' as a state of temptation. 'A wilderness' can mean that which is sparsely inhabited and cultivated or else that which is totally uninhabited and uncultivated, and so in the spiritual sense means a person who has experienced vastation as regards good and desolation as regards truth. It therefore means a person undergoing temptation, for a person undergoing temptation experiences vastation and desolation. The falsity and evil present in him come out into the open, blotting out and virtually removing the influx of truth and good from the Lord. And the truth that does flow in does not seem to that person to possess the kind of life that can dispel falsities and evils. Furthermore evil spirits are present at this time, injecting a feeling of distress and making him despair of salvation. The fact that 'a wilderness' means a state such as this is clear from very many places in the Word, see 2708; and since 'the wilderness' meant a state of temptation, and the number 'forty' meant its duration, of whatever length, 730, 862, 2272, 1273, the children of Israel were for that reason in the wilderness forty years, and the Lord was for the same reason in the wilderness forty days when He was tempted, Matthew 4:2; Mark 1:13.

6827. 'And Moses was feeding the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian' means that the law from God instructed those who were guided by the truth that went with simple good, 'the priest of Midian' being the good of the Church where those people were. This is clear from the representation of 'Moses' as the Lord in respect of the law of God, dealt with in 6752 (initially 'Moses' represented the Lord in respect of the truth that the law from God possessed, 6771, but here he represents Him in respect of that law itself - one is allowed to speak in this way of stages of development that took place in the Lord before He became the law of God itself in respect of His Human. The whole of the Word deals in its inmost or highest sense solely with the Lord and the glorification of His Human; but since that inmost or highest sense goes far beyond human understanding, let it be the internal sense of the Word that is explained here, the sense in which the subject is the Lord's kingdom, the Church and the establishment of it, and also the regeneration by the Lord of members of the Church. These are the subject in the internal sense because human regeneration is an image representative of the Lord's glorification, see 3138, 3212, 3245, 3246, 3296, 3490, 4402, 5688);

[2] from the meaning of 'feeding' as instructing, dealt with in 3795, 5201; from the meaning of 'the flock' as one who learns and is led by means of truth to the good of charity, dealt with in 343, so that in a general sense 'the flock' is the Church, 3767, 3768, here the Church where those people are who are guided by the truth that goes with simple good, who are meant by 'Midian', 3242, 4756; from the meaning of 'father-in-law' as the good from which, as from a father, sprang the good that was joined to truth, here the truth that the law from God possessed, which 'Moses' represents, see 6793 ('Jethro' being the essential nature of that good); and from the meaning of' the priest of Midian' as the good of the Church where those who were guided by the truth that went with simple good were, dealt with in 6775. From all this it is evident that 'Moses was feeding the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian' means that the law from God instructed those who were guided by the truth that went with simple good, and that 'the priest of Midian' is the good of the Church where those people were.