10546. 'And pitched it for himself outside the camp, far from the camp' means remote from the external things in which the interest of that actual nation lay. This is clear from the meaning of 'pitching the tent' as providing, arranging, and setting in order the things that belong to the Church and worship, for 'the tent' means the holiness of the Church, worship, and the Word, dealt with immediately above in 10545, so that 'pitching it' means providing, arranging, and setting those things in order; and from the meaning of 'the camp' as the heavenly order which heaven and the Church arise from and conform to. And since all the truths and forms of good of heaven and the Church are elements of that order, that which contains them is also meant. The reason why these elements are meant by 'the camp' is that by 'the children of Israel' who made up the camp all truths and forms of good in their entirety are meant. But when the children of Israel worshipped the calf instead of Jehovah their camp had a contrary meaning, namely hellish order and also that which contains the falsity and evil that compose hell. Whether you speak of the external things of worship and the Church without anything internal or you speak of hell, it amounts to the same thing; for people whose worship is external and not at all internal are ruled by self-love and love of the world, and self-love and love of the world come from hell. From this it is evident why 'Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp' - for 'the tent', as has been stated above, meant the holiness of worship, the Church, and the Word - and why those words mean remote from the external things in which the interest of the Israelite nation lay.

'The camp' means heavenly order, and 'encamping' means arranging good and truth into heavenly order, see 4236, 8103(end), 8130, 8131, 8155, 8193, 8196.

[2] Consequently 'the camp' means heaven and the Church, in that they contain that good and truth, 10038, and in the contrary sense hell, 10458.

Also, the external side of worship and of the Church separated from the internal constitutes hell, 10483, 10489, because people whose interest lies in external things separated from what is internal never receive any Divine influx at all, 10429, 10472, and are therefore incapable of possessing any faith in the Lord or love to Him, 10396, 10400, 10411.

They look solely in the direction of their own loves, thus in the direction of hell, 10422, and consequently worship self as their god, 10407, 10412.

The interest of the Israelite nation lay in external things separated from what was internal, see in the places referred to in 9380, and also what is said in 9373, 9381, 10396, 10401, 10407, 10492, 10498, 10500, 10533.

10500. 'Perhaps I shall make expiation for your sin' means the possibility owing to the Lord's Divine Power for this to come about among those who have so turned themselves away. This is clear from the meaning of 'expiating' as causing no attention to be paid any longer to this, thus causing their worship to be nevertheless received and heard, for 'expiation' may also mean the hearing and acceptance of all the things composing worship, see 9506, at this point therefore the possibility for this to be brought about among those who have so turned themselves away; and from the meaning of 'sin' as a total turning away from the Divine, as above in 10498. The reason why all this is meant by those words is that the subject in the whole of the present chapter is the turning away of the Israelite nation from the Divine and the possibility in spite of this for contact to be established with heaven through the external things in which alone they were interested.

[2] For any knowledge to exist of the real nature of these things a little more must be stated. The Church on earth is established solely to the end that the world, that is, the human race, may be in contact with heaven, that is, with the Lord through heaven; for without the Church there is no contact, and without such contact the human race would perish, 10452. But human contact with heaven is achieved by means of spiritual and celestial things that reside with a person, not by means of worldly and bodily things without these. Or what amounts to the same thing, it is achieved by means of internal things, not by means of external ones without them. Since therefore the Israelite nation's interest lay in external things and not in internal ones, and yet something of a Church was to be established among them, the Lord made provision nevertheless for contact with heaven to be accomplished by means of representatives, which were the external forms of worship among that nation. But such contact was accomplished in a wondrous manner; regarding this contact, see in the places introduced above in 10499.

[3] But two things were necessary before this could be accomplished. One was that the internal with them should be completely shut off, and the other that an outward holiness should exist when they engaged in worship. For when the internal has been completely shut off, the internal side of the Church and of worship is neither repudiated nor acknowledged; it is as though none exists. In these circumstances an outward holiness can exist and also be raised up, since no obstacle stands in the way. Therefore also that nation was completely ignorant of the inward things connected with love to the Lord and belief in Him, and with eternal life attained through these. But as soon as the Lord came into the world and revealed Himself, and He taught that people should love and believe in Him, that nation on hearing these things began to repudiate them, and so they could no longer be maintained in the kind of ignorance they had been in before. Therefore they were then driven out of the land of Canaan, to prevent them from defiling internal things and rendering them profane by their renunciation of them in that land, where since most ancient times all locations had been made representative of such things as have to do with heaven and the Church, see 1585, 3686, 4447, 5136, 6516.

[4] For these reasons, to the extent at the present day that they have a knowledge of internal things and set their minds firmly against them and repudiate them, they can no longer possess an outward holiness, because a negative attitude of mind not only shuts off the internal but also takes away any holiness from the external, and so any contact with heaven. The situation is similar with Christians who have a knowledge, derived from the Word or from the teachings of the Church, of internal things and yet in their heart repudiate them, as is the case when they lead an evil life and have evil thoughts, no matter how outwardly devout and holy they may seem to be when they take part in worship.