9517. 'The faces of the cherubs shall be towards the mercy-seat' means the interiors looking unceasingly towards good, thus towards the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of 'the mercy-seat' as the good of love, from which comes the hearing and reception of all things that belong to worship, dealt with above in 9506, thus also as the Lord since all the good of love originates in the Lord and is the Lord Himself as He resides with angel and man; from the meaning of 'the faces' as the interiors, dealt with immediately above in 9516; and from the meaning of 'the cherubs' as watchfulness and providence, guarding against access to the Lord except through the good of love, dealt with in 9509.

[2] What happens is this: Heaven and the Church, or the angels of heaven and members of the Church, receive protection from the Lord by having their interiors raised towards Him; and when they are raised they are suffused with the good of love to Him and the good of love towards the neighbour. This is what being raised towards the Lord is; and in this way, as has been stated, angels in heaven and members of the Church receive protection. Those who are raised by the Lord turn their face constantly towards the Lord, because the Lord keeps them joined to Himself through the good of love, whereas those who are not raised turn their face away from the Lord. All this shows what is meant by the requirement that the faces of the cherubs should be 'towards the mercy-seat'. But regarding that turning of themselves towards the Lord something will in the Lord's Divine mercy be stated from experience elsewhere.

8781. 'Behold, I am coming to you in the thickness of a cloud' means that it will be made in a form utterly natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'coming to you' - when said by Jehovah to Moses, who represents the truth from God which the spiritual Church possesses, 8760 - as revelation; and from the meaning of 'the thickness of a cloud' as in a form utterly natural, like that in which the Old Testament Word exists in the letter. For the meaning of 'a cloud' as the Word in the letter, see preface to Genesis 18, and 4060, 4391, 5922, 6343 (end), 6752, 8106, 8443. 'Thickness' means dimness, such as that of a person's thought when it is lit solely by the inferior light of the senses, that is, by wholly natural light. It was in dimness such as this that the descendants of Jacob at that time thought about the Divine, and also that the Jews at the present day think about Him; for the Divine cannot be seen by anyone except in ways that are in keeping with his state of life and consequent discernment. So it is that heavenly light cannot be seen by those ruled by self-love and love of the world, which that nation more than others was ruled by, except as 'the thickness of a cloud'. The letter of the Word, especially the prophetical part, is nothing else in contrast to its internal sense. In its internal sense light exists such as may be compared to the light of the sun on top of clouds, the light which in the Word is called 'the glory'. This also explains why the Word says that Jehovah is carried on top of the clouds, rides above the clouds, flies above them, has His triclinium ¹ above them, that the Lord is going to come in the clouds of heaven, and many more statements like these, which would never have been made to describe Jehovah, that is, the Lord, unless they had meant the bright light of truth in which He is present in heaven, and 'clouds' had meant a shadowy light of truth in which those below heaven see.

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