'Being sent' means coming forth, (or going forth), in the internal sense, as in John 17:8. In similar manner, it is said of the holy of the spirit, that it was 'sent,' that is, it goes forth from the divine of the Lord, as in John 15:26, 16:5, 7.

So, too, the prophets were called 'the sent,' because the words which they spoke went forth from the holy of the spirit of the Lord.

'To be sent,' as in Genesis 37:13, signifies teaching.

(Verweise: Arcana Coelestia 2397; John 15:7)

698. In addition to the hells there are also vastations, about which much is stated in the Word. For a person brings with him into the next life, as the result of sins of his own doing, countless evils and falsities which he accumulates and couples to himself. Even people who have led upright lives do so. Before these can be raised up into heaven their evils and falsities must be dispersed, and this dispersing is called vastation. There are many kinds of vastation, and the time they last may be quite long or quite short. Some people are taken off to heaven within a fairly short period of time, some immediately after death.