8858. A person's whole character is determined by the nature of whatever dominates his life; this is what marks him off from others. His heaven is formed in accordance with it if he is good, or his hell if he is bad. For it constitutes his true will and so the true being of his life, which is unchangeable after death. From all this one may see what the life is like in a person who has been regenerated, and what it is like in one who has not been regenerated.

9411. 'And they saw God' means faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'seeing God' as being endowed with intelligence and faith. 'Seeing' in the internal sense means seeing in a spiritual manner, and seeing in a spiritual manner implies seeing with the gift of faith; this is why 'seeing' in the Word means having faith, 2325, 3863, 3869, 4403-4421, 5400, 6805, 9128. The reason why they saw the God of Israel, that is, the Lord, is that in a broad sense the laws declared from Mount Sinai mean the Word in its entirety, and the Word is Divine Truth from the Lord, which deals in its highest sense with the Lord alone. All this being so, those who receive enlightenment when they read the Word see the Lord; they do so because of the faith and the love they have. They see Him solely in the Word and in no other writing whatever. From this it is evident why Moses, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders saw Him. The fact that these saw Him and not the children of Israel who had been set apart is evident from the preceding verses 9 and 10, which say, 'Moses and Aaron went up, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. And they saw the God of Israel', and the present verse says, 'And on the children of Israel who had been set apart He did not lay a hand'. The reason why the former saw God and not the latter was that 'Moses and Aaron' represented the Word in respect of its inward and outward senses, 9374, 'Nadab and Abihu' teachings derived from both senses, 9375, and 'the seventy elders' all who are governed by good which results from truths received from there, 9376, 9404, whereas 'the children of Israel who had been set apart' represented those who are restricted to the outward sense of the Word, separated from the inward.

10106. 'And Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram' means the making of spiritual good their own by those who are at home with internal things, from the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of 'eating' as making one's own, dealt with in 3168, 3513(end), 3596, 4745; from the representation of 'Aaron and his sons' as the Lord in respect of Divine Good and Divine Truth, dealt with in 9806, 9807, 10068, at this point that Good and Truth in the heavens since 'filling the hand', which means the transmission and the reception of them, is the subject; and from the meaning of 'the flesh of the ram' as the good of the internal man or good on internal levels ('flesh' means good, see 3813, 7850, 9127, and 'the ram' the good of innocence and charity in the internal man, 9991, 10042). The words 'the Lord in respect of Divine Good and Divine Truth in the heavens, and the transmission and the reception of that Good and Truth there' are used because the Lord is above the heavens. He is the Sun of heaven and is also actually seen by those in heaven as the Sun; and all the light the heavens have comes from this. By means of the light and heat from it He is present in the heavens, so much so that He seems to be present there entirely; for He fills the heavens and constitutes them. The light radiating from Him as the Sun is essentially Divine Truth, from which angels derive the wisdom and intelligence they possess. And the heat radiating from Him as the Sun is the Divine Good of His Divine Love there. The transmission and the reception of this Divine Good and that Divine Truth in the heavens is what 'filling the hand' means.

The Lord is the Sun of heaven, the source of the light and heat in the heavens from which angels derive the life, that is, the wisdom and love, they possess, see 3636, 3643, 4321(end), 5097, 7078, 7083, 7171, 7173, 7270, 8644, 8812.