80. Saying to me, Fear not. That this signifies renewal, is evident from the series of things in the internal sense. For John lay as dead, and the Lord, appearing as the Son of man, laid His right hand upon him, and said to him, Fear not. His lying as dead signified a failing of his own life; the Lord's laying His right hand upon him, signified life from Him; hence His saying to him, Fear not, signified renewal; for all who come suddenly from their own life into a life which is in some degree spiritual, are at first afraid, but are renewed by the Lord. This renewal is effected by the Divine presence, and the fear on that account, being accommodated to reception.

The Lord is indeed present with all in the universe, but nearer and more remotely, according to the reception of good by means of truths with them from Him. For it is good in which the Lord is present with angels, spirits, and men. Hence, according to the quantity and quality of good which they possess from the Lord is the degree and quality of His presence with them; if the presence is in excess, it causes anguish and tremor, whereas by accommodation to the state of reception, it produces renewal, as is also evident from what has just been said and shown above (n. 78). This renewal is signified by "Fear not" also in other places, where it is said by the Lord, or by the angel of the Lord, "Fear not," as in Daniel 10:12; 19; Luke 1:12, 13; 2:8, 9, 10 Matthew 28:5, 9, 10.

The renewal, which is caused by accommodation to reception, appears in the spiritual world, when it is presented visibly, as a cloud; such clouds encompass as with a veil all the societies there, and are more dense or attenuated, according to the state of reception. That the angels also are veiled with a thin correspondent cloud, lest they should be hurt by a nearer influx of the Divine of the Lord, may be seen n. 6849. (What clouds in the spiritual world are, and hence what they signify in the spiritual sense, may be seen above, n. 36.)

6849. 'For he was afraid to look at God' means for fear that they should suffer harm from the presence of the Divine itself. This is clear from the meaning of 'being afraid' as for fear that they, interior things, should suffer harm (for this was the reason for his fear); and from the meaning of 'looking at God' as the presence of the Divine itself. For the only way in which the Lord can make Himself present before a person is through the persons inner seeing, through seeing Him with the eye of faith that belongs to charity. If the Lord does manifest Himself in an outward visible form to someone, it is still the inner levels of mind that are affected, for the Divine reaches into the deepest parts of him. With regard to the meaning here, that interior things should not suffer harm from the presence of the Divine itself, and that therefore they were to be protected, the situation is this: The Divine itself is pure love, and pure love is like a fire hotter than the fire of the sun in this world. Consequently if Divine Love in its purity were to flow into any angel, spirit, or man, he would be completely destroyed, which is why so many times in the Word Jehovah or the Lord is called a consuming fire. To ensure therefore that the angels in heaven suffer no harm from the flow of heat from the Lord as the sun, each of them is veiled with a kind of thin cloud suited to the individual, which moderates the heat flowing in from that sun.

[2] The truth that without this form of preservation everyone would be destroyed by the presence of the Divine had been well known to the ancients, which was why they were afraid of seeing God, as is clear in the Book of Judges,

Gideon saw that he was the angel of Jehovah, therefore Gideon said, O Lord Jehovah! Inasmuch as I have seen the angel of Jehovah face to face. And Jehovah said to him, Peace be to you; do not fear, for you will not die. Judges 6:12, 23.

In the same book,

Manoah said to his wife, We shall surely die, for we have seen God. Judges 13:22.

And in the Book of Exodus,

Jehovah said to Moses, You cannot see My face, for no man will see My face and live. Exodus 33:20.

[3] When therefore Moses was allowed to see God, he was placed in a cleft of the rock, Exodus 33:22, which represented the dimness of his faith, and the clouds that hid and protected him. How dangerous it can be for angels to be beheld by the Divine without being covered by a cloud is made very clear by the fact that when angels look at any spirit who is governed by evil he seems to change into something resembling a lifeless object, as I have often been allowed to see. The reason why this happens is that when the angels look at someone there is cast in his direction the light and heat of heaven, and the truth of faith and the good of love with them, which - when these penetrate - virtually deprive the evil of life.

[4] If this is what happens when angels look at them, what would happen if the Lord did so? This explains why the hells are utterly remote from heaven, and why those who are there wish to be remote, for if they are not they suffer dreadful torment. This makes plain the meaning of the following words, They will say to the mountains and rocks, Rush down on us and hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne. Revelation 6:16; Luke 23:30; Hosea 10:8.

[5] Thus the presence of the Divine itself is such that no angel can bear it unless he is protected by a cloud which tempers and moderates the rays of light and the heat from that sun. From this one may recognize plainly that the Lord's Human is Divine, for if it were not Divine it could never have become so united to the Divine itself, called the Father, that they are one, according to the Lord's words in John 14:10 and following verses, and elsewhere. For that which is to receive the Divine in this way must be wholly Divine; what was not Divine from such a union would be plainly reduced to nothing. Let me use a comparison. Can anything be thrown into the fire of the sun and not be destroyed, unless it is similar in nature to the sun? So, can anyone enter the intense heat of infinite love unless he has in him the heat of the same kind of love, consequently unless he is none other than the Lord? The truth that the Father is within Him and that the Father does not show Himself except within His Divine Human is clear from the Lord's words in John,

Nobody has ever seen God; the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known. John 1:18.

And elsewhere in the same gospel,

You have never heard His voice nor seen His shape. John 5:37.