8925. 'And in order that His fear may be before your faces, and you do not sin' means consequent holy fear of the Divine, and preservation of spiritual life as a result. This is clear from the meaning of 'the fear of God' as holy fear of the Divine, dealt with below; from the meaning of 'faces' as the interiors, dealt with in 1999, 2434, 3527, 4066, 4796, 4797, 5102, 5585, 5592, so that 'the fear of God before their faces' is holy fear of the Divine in a person's interiors; and from the meaning of 'in order that you do not sin' as the preservation of spiritual life, since spiritual life is preserved by not sinning. 'Sinning' is doing and thinking what is evil and false intentionally and willingly, for things done intentionally and willingly are such as come out of the heart and render a person unclean, Matthew 15:11, 17-19, and consequently such as wipe out spiritual life with him, see above in 8910. Regarding holy fear, meant by 'the fear of God' in the Word, it should be recognized that this fear is love. That is, it is the kind of love young children feel towards parents, parents towards young children, married couples for each other, who fear to do whatever is displeasing, thus whatever injures love in any way. A fear like this is instilled into a person's love when he is being regenerated. And since this fear accords with his love, and can exist within his love, and does in actual fact exist within or united to his love, it is called holy fear; and it is a fear of sinning or acting contrary to the Commandments, thus contrary to the Lord. But this fear is different with each individual person, being determined by what his love is like and how much he has; see the things that have been shown regarding this in 2826, 3718, 3719, 5459, 7280, 7788.

4066. 'And Jacob saw Laban's face' means a change of state with that good when the good meant by Jacob was departing from it. This is clear from the representation of 'Jacob' as the good of the Natural, and from the representation of 'Laban' as intermediate good, both of which have often been dealt with already; and from the meaning of 'the face' as things that are interior, 358, 1999, 2434, 3527, 3573, in this case as changes of such interiors, or what amounts to the same, changes of state, for it is said that he saw his face 'and behold, he was not at all friendly towards him as before'. The reason why in the Word the things that are interior are meant by 'the face' is that those things shine out of a person's face, and present themselves in his face as in a mirror or in an image; and so 'the face' or the countenance means the states in which a person's thoughts and those in which his affections reside.