8946. 'In order that your nakedness may not be revealed on it' means the mental picture of those things, which in that event is full of falsities, will then be disclosed. This is clear from the meaning of 'nakedness' as being made destitute of truths, dealt with in 5433, thus a mental picture full of falsities; and from the meaning of 'being revealed' as being disclosed. The implications of all this have been explained immediately above in 8945. Those implications are that the character of any man, spirit, or angel's life becomes apparent - both the life of his thought in regard to truths, and the life of his will in regard to forms of good - if he is raised to a more internal level in heaven. For the more internal the level in the heavens, the purer the good is and the purer the truth. In order therefore that falsities belonging to thought and evils belonging to the will may not be seen but remain hidden, people are held back on lower levels, where they are in dimmer light relatively. From all this also one may see what the words 'no one can see Jehovah and live' were used to mean. For Jehovah is pure love, and from Him radiates pure light; to be seen in these is to be destroyed. Therefore also the angels themselves in heaven are protected by a cloud, 6849; and therefore all in hell are veiled by thick mists, 3340, 8137, 8138, 8814, 8819, since mists are falsities.

4210. 'Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain' means worship founded on good that stems from love. This is clear from the meaning of 'a sacrifice' as worship, dealt with in 922, 923, 2180, and from the meaning of 'the mountain' as good that stems from love, 795, 796, 1430. 'A sacrifice' means worship because sacrifices and burnt offerings were the major features of all worship in the later representative Church, which was the Hebrew Church. They also used to sacrifice on mountains, as is clear from various places in the Word, because 'mountains' on account of their height meant the things which were high, such as those are which belong to heaven and are called heavenly; and having this meaning they also meant, in the highest sense, the Lord, whom they called the Most High. It was the outward appearance that led them to think in this way, for the things that are interior give the appearance of being higher, as heaven does with man. Heaven is interiorly within him, and yet he supposes it to be on high. This is the reason why, when the expression 'high' is used in the Word, that which is interior is meant in the internal sense.

[2] In the world people inevitably take heaven to be on high. One reason why they do so is that the word 'heaven' is used for the visible expanse which encircles them on high and another is that man is a dweller within time and space and so thinks from ideas derived from these. And a further reason is that few are aware of what anything interior may be, and fewer still are aware that neither place nor time exist there. This is why the mode of expression employed in the Word is one that accords with the ideas present in man's thought. If it had not accorded with those ideas but with angelic ideas man would have perceived nothing at all, but everyone would have stood wondering what it was and whether it was anything at all, and so would have rejected it as being devoid of anything intelligible.