9400. 'And said, Behold the blood of the covenant' means that by means of this truth the Lord's Divine Human is joined to heaven and to earth. This is clear from the meaning of 'the blood' as Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Human, dealt with above in 9393, 9399; and from the meaning of 'the covenant' as a joining together, also dealt with above, in 9396. The reason why it is a joining to heaven and to earth is that the Divine Truth which emanates from the Lord's Divine Human passes through the heavens, right on to mankind in the world; and on the way down it is adapted to suit each heaven, and ultimately mankind itself. Divine Truth on our planet is the Word, 9350-9362, which is composed in such a way that it has, in every detail, an inward sense intended for the heavens, and finally an outward sense, which is the literal sense, intended for mankind. From this it is evident that through the Word the Lord is joined to the heavens and to the world, 2143, 7153, 7381, 8920, 9094 (end), 9212 (end), 9216 (end), 9357, 9396.

[2] All this leads to the definite conclusion that without the Word on this planet heaven would not be joined to mankind, and neither therefore would the Lord, and if that conjunction did not exist the human race on this planet would entirely perish. For what composes a person's interior life is God's truth flowing in from the Lord. This truth is light itself, enlightening the person's inner sight, that is, his understanding; it is also the heavenly heat, held within that light, which is love, warming and bringing life to the will part in the internal man. Left without this light and heat therefore the inner being of a person would become blind and cold and it would die, in the same way that a person's outward being would if left without the heat and light of the worldly sun. But all this will seem to be absurd to those who do not believe that the Word is of such a nature, also to those who believe that life in a person is intrinsically his own and not something flowing in unceasingly from the Lord by way of heaven.

The life within a person is not intrinsically his but flows in from the Lord, see 4249, 4882, 5147, 5150, 5986, 6053-6058, 6189-6215, 6307-6327, 6466-6495, 6598-6626, 6982, 6985, 6996, 7055, 7056, 7058, 7147, 7270, 7343, 8685, 8701, 8717, 8728, 9110, 9111, 9223, 9276.

Before the Lord's eyes His Church, spread throughout the world, is like one human being, 9276, in the same way as heaven is, which is consequently called the Grand Man. The Church, where the Word exists, is like the heart and lungs in that human being, and all outside the Church receive life from it, even as the members, viscera, and all other organs of the body receive life from the heart and lungs, 2054, 2853, 7396.

8920. 'Speak yourself to us, [and we will hear]' means the reception of truth in an adjusted form, which - in that form - they will obey. This is clear from the meaning of 'speaking' as influx and communication, dealt with in 2951, 3060, 4131, 5481, 5797, 6225, 7270, 8128, and therefore also as reception since what flows in and is communicated is received; and from the representation of Moses, the one who should speak, as the truth from God below heaven joined to God's truth in heaven, thus the intermediary between the Lord and the people, dealt with in 8760, 8787, 8805. So it is that here 'Moses' is truth in an adjusted form.

[2] As regards truth in an adjusted form, it should be recognized that when God's truth comes down by way of the heavens to people in the world, as the Word came down, it undergoes adjustment for all on its way down, both for those in heaven and for those on earth. But the form in which God's truth exists in the heavens is completely different from that in which it exists in the world. In the heavens that truth is as it exists in the internal sense of the Word, in the world it is as it appears in the literal sense. Indeed in the heavens themselves it exists in diverse forms - in one form in the inmost or third heaven, in another in the middle or second heaven, and in yet another in the first or lowest heaven. The form that God's truth takes - that is, the perception, thought, and utterance of it - in the inmost or third heaven is so superior to the form it takes in the middle or second heaven that it is not comprehensible there; it is so Divine and matchless. It contains countless things which cannot find utterance in the second heaven; it consists of nothing other than the changes of state which the affections inherent in love undergo. Yet the form God's truth takes in the middle or second heaven is in like manner superior to the one it takes in the first or lowest heaven, and is even more superior to the form God's truth takes in the world. So it is that the things which find utterance in those heavens are of a kind that no human mind has ever perceived or any ear has heard, as those who have been raised to heaven know from experience.

[3] People who have no knowledge of this suppose that those in the heavens think in the same way and speak in the same way as on earth. But they suppose this because they do not know that the interior aspects of a person belong to a higher level of existence than exterior ones do, or that the thought and speech of those in the heavens is celestial and spiritual, whereas on earth it is natural, the difference between the two being so great that words cannot describe it. But regarding those types of speech, see 1634-1650, 1757-1759, 1876, 2157, 2472, 2476, 3342-3345, 4104, 4609, 5225, 5287, 6040, 6982, 7002, 7089, 7131, 7191, 7381, 8343, 8733, 8734.

[4] From all this also it is evident that unless God's truth or the Word appeared in an adjusted form it would be unintelligible. For if it were above people's level of perception it would not pass into understanding or accordingly into faith. This is why God's truth has been given to mankind in the form taken by the Word in the letter; for if it were to appear in the form in which it exists in heaven, it would be unintelligible to anyone in the world. As soon as anyone glanced at it and saw what was in it, it would be cast aside, since it would not consist in images such as belong to natural light. Furthermore it would be full of arcana which could not possibly find a place in a person's way of thinking because they would be entirely at odds with the appearances and illusions derived from the world through the outward senses - not to mention the copious chain of deeper arcana which lie hidden within those arcana and cannot be expressed except by variations and changes in the state of heavenly light and flame, by means of which angelic speech and thought are carried on.