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.

8512. 'And Jehovah said to Moses' means that the appearance of the Divine had become obscured. This is clear from the meaning of 'Jehovah said', which includes what comes after it, namely the accusation that they were not keeping the commandments and laws, thus that for them the appearance of the Divine had become obscured. This happens when people do not live lives in keeping with God's commandments; for when people's lives are in keeping with them they are in keeping with Divine order, because God's commandments are truths and forms of good that originate in order. And when people live lives in keeping with order they live and abide in the Lord, because the Lord is true order. From this it follows that anyone who does not live a life in keeping with the commandments and laws that belong to Divine order does not live and abide in the Lord, and the consequence for that person is that the Divine becomes obscured. By living a life in keeping with order one should here understand being led by the Lord through good. But by living a life not as yet in keeping with order one should understand being led through truth; and when a person is led through truth the Lord does not appear. Therefore also at this time the person walks in darkness, in which he does not see truths. It is different when a person is led through good; then he walks in the light, in which he does see truths. Regarding these matters, see what has been stated just above in 8505, 8506, 8510.