8307. 'In Your mercy You have led this people' means the Divine flowing in among those who have been refraining from evils and consequently receiving good. This is clear from the meaning of 'in mercy leading' as receiving the Divine; and since people receive the Divine when they refrain from evils, the Divine flowing in among them is meant. As regards mercy shown by the Lord, the Lord's mercy remains constantly with every individual person; for the Lord wishes to save all the people there are. But that mercy cannot flow into them until evils have been removed; for evils, and falsities arising from them, stand in the way and hinder it. As soon as evils are removed however, mercy flows in, that is, good flowing from the Lord out of His mercy; and that good is charity and faith. From this it becomes clear that the Lord's mercy is universal, that is, is directed towards all people, and is also particular towards those who refrain from evils.

[2] Refraining from evils is something a person can do by himself, but receiving good is not something he can do by himself. The reason why a person can refrain from evils by himself is that the Lord flows constantly into a person's will with the endeavour to do so, thereby giving him the freedom to desist from evils and also to devote himself to good. The Lord also gives him the ability to understand truth, and if he does not understand, it is because he has no wish to. He has no wish to understand it because of the evil in his life; for falsity defends evil, whereas truth condemns it. So it is that a person cannot be endowed with spiritual good from the Lord, thus cannot be led by mercy, unless he desists from evils.

8265. 'The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea' means in that as a result simply of His presence falsities arising from evil have been damned and cast into hell. This is clear from the meaning of 'the horse' as falsities belonging to a perverted understanding, for 'horse' means the power of understanding, see 2761, 2762, 3217, 5321, and in the contrary sense a perverted understanding, which is no understanding at all, and therefore falsity is meant in that contrary sense by 'horse' and false factual knowledge by 'Pharaoh's horse', 6125, 8146, 8148; from the meaning of 'rider' (or 'horseman') as reasonings based on that false knowledge, dealt with in 8146, 8148; and from the meaning of 'throwing into the sea' as damning and casting into hell. 'The sea', the Sea Suph at this point, is the hell where the falsities arising from evil are, the falsities of those belonging to the Church who have upheld separated faith and led a life of evil, see 8099, 8137, 8148, which is why they are called falsities arising from evil. The fact that those falsities were damned and cast into hell as a result simply of the Lord's presence was shown in the previous chapter. The evil cannot at all bear or put up with God's presence. His presence causes them pain, torments them, and so to speak snuffs the life out of them; they behave like those in the throes of death. The reason for this is that what is God's has the totality of power within it; it destroys and wipes out that which is opposed to it, namely falsity and evil. This is why at God's presence the life of those steeped in falsity and evil becomes burdensome and contains, in the measure that He is present, the feeling of hell within it. But in order that those steeped in falsities and evils may not be completely crushed and suffer torment they are shielded by their own falsities and evils, which act like mists. These are by nature such that they diminish, or divert, or smother the flow of what is Divine in the same way that earthly mists or clouds normally do to sunrays.

[2] These things are meant by the following words in John,

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 and from the anger of the Lamb. For the great day of His anger has come; who therefore will be able to stand firm? Revelation 6:16-17.

Evils and falsities are meant by 'the mountains and rocks' which they will address, saying that they should rush down on them and hide them. 'The anger of the Lamb' means torment, the appearance being that the Divine would cause the torment because of His anger, but the reality being that the falsities and evils themselves are responsible for it. The words contained in Isaiah 2:10, Hosea 10:8, and Luke 23:30 have a similar meaning. The fact that damnation takes place as a result simply of the Lord's presence is also meant by these words that follow in the song,

You send out Your wrath, it eats them up like stubble. And with the wind of Your nostrils the waters were heaped up, the floods stood as a heap. You blew with Your wind, the sea covered them over; they sought a deep place. You stretched out Your right hand, the earth swallowed them. Verses 7-8, 10, 12.

Words with a similar meaning occur in very many other places in the Word.