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.

8864. 'I am Jehovah your God' means the Lord in respect of the Divine Human reigning universally, in every single aspect of goodness and truth. This is clear from the consideration that in the Word no one other than the Lord is meant by 'Jehovah', 1343, 1736, 2921, 3023, 3035, 3448, 5663, 6280, 6281, 6303, 8274, or likewise by 'Jehovah Zebaoth', 'the Lord Jehovih', and 'Jehovah God', 2921, 3023, 3448, 6303; and from the consideration that the Lord is called 'Jehovah' by virtue of the Divine Good, which is the Divine Being (Esse), and 'God' by virtue of Divine Truth, which is the Divine Coming-into-being (Existere), 6905, and also 709, 732, 1096, 2586, 2769, 2807, 2822, 3921 (end), 4402. The reason why the Lord's Divine Human is what 'Jehovah God' is used to mean here is that the Lord in respect of that Divine Human is meant in the Word both by 'Jehovah' and by 'God'. Divine Good, which He is also in respect of the Human is meant by 'Jehovah', while Divine Truth, which He is because it goes forth from Him, is meant by 'God'.

[2] The reason why the Lord's Divine Human is meant by 'Jehovah God' is that the Divine Itself which is within the Lord cannot be seen in heaven or even perceived, thus cannot be received in faith and love; only the Divine Human can. The truth that the Divine Itself cannot be communicated to angels in heaven, still less to people on earth, except through the Divine Human is well known in the Churches from the Lord's words in the Gospels, where He says that He is the Door; that He is the Mediator; that nobody can come to the Father except through Him; that no one except Himself knows the Father; and that no one has seen the Father, not even some shape He might take. From all this it is evident that it is the Lord who is meant here by 'Jehovah God'. It is also well known that He is also the one who has redeemed the human race and delivered them from hell.

This truth is meant by the words that follow, by 'I brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves'. From all this it is now evident that Jehovah God, who spoke from Mount Sinai, is the Lord in respect of the Divine Human.

[3] The reason why this is the first truth to be stated by the Lord from Mount Sinai is that it must be present, reigning universally in each and every truth that follows. For what is stated first must be held in mind and must be seen to reside universally in everything that follows. What 'universally reigning' describes will be seen below. The truths which were stated by the Lord are all of this nature. That is to say, truths stated first must reign in those stated next and incorporate them; these in turn must reign in and incorporate those after that, and so on sequentially. In the present chapter the truths stated next are the Ten Commandments, which are inward truths, and after these the statutes, which are outward truths. The latter and the former must have the Lord - His Divine Human - reigning within them, for they spring from Himself, and are Himself. For, to be sure, truths which are truths all emanate from Him; and the things which emanate from Him are Himself. The truth that the Lord's Divine Human is what must reign in every single part of faith is also well known in the Churches; for they teach that there is no salvation without the Lord, and that all the truth and good of faith comes from Him. Thus since He is the source of faith He is the faith present with a person; and if He is the faith He is also all the truth contained in teachings about faith that are drawn from the Word. This also is the reason why the Lord is called 'the Word'.

[4] The truth that what comes first must reign in what comes next, and so on sequentially, as stated above, is clear from the individual parts of the things spoken by the Lord, in particular from His prayer called the Lord's Prayer. All its parts follow one another in such a sequence that they constitute a pillar so to speak, widening from the top down to the base and holding inside itself the things that appear earlier in the sequence. What is first there is inmost, and what comes after in sequence adds itself gradually to the inmost and in that way grows wider. What is inmost then reigns in all the surrounding parts; it reigns universally, that is, in every detail, for it is essential to the existence of them all.

1919. That 'Abram said to Sarai' means perception is clear from what has been stated above in 1898. The perception which the Lord had was represented and is here meant by 'Abram said to Sarai', but thought which sprang from that perception is meant by 'Sarai said to Abram' - perception being the source of thought. The thought possessed by those who have perception comes from no other source. Yet perception is not the same as thought. To see that it is not the same, let conscience serve to 'illustrate this consideration.

[2] Conscience is a kind of general and thus obscure dictate which presents those things that flow in from the Lord by way of the heavens. Those things that flow in manifest themselves in the interior rational man where they are enveloped so to speak in cloud. This cloud is the product of appearances and illusions concerning the goods and truths of faith. Thought is, in truth, distinct and separate from conscience; yet it flows from conscience, for people who have conscience think and speak according to it. Indeed thought is scarcely anything more than a loosening of the various strands that make up conscience, and a converting of these into separate ideas which pass into words. Hence it is that the Lord holds those who have conscience in good thoughts regarding the neighbour and withholds them from evil thoughts. For this reason conscience can never exist except with people who love the neighbour as themselves and have good thoughts regarding the truths of faith. These considerations brought forward here show how conscience differs from thought, and from this one may recognize how perception differs from thought.

[3] The Lord's perception came directly from Jehovah, and so from Divine Good, whereas His thought came from intellectual truth and the affection for it, as stated above in 1904, 1914. No idea, not even an angelic one, is adequate as a means to apprehend the Lord's Divine perception, and thus this lies beyond description. The perception which angels have - described in 1384 and following paragraphs, 1394, 1395 - adds up to scarcely anything at all when contrasted with the perception that was the Lord's. Because the Lord's perception was Divine, it was a perception of everything in heaven; and being a perception of everything in heaven it was also a perception of everything on earth. For such is the order, interconnection, and influx that anyone who has a perception of heavenly things has a perception of earthly as well.

[4] But after the Lord's Human Essence had become united to His Divine Essence, and had become at the same time Jehovah, the Lord was then above what is called perception, for He was above the order which exists in the heavens and from there upon earth. It is Jehovah who is the source of order, and therefore one may say that Jehovah is Order itself, for from Himself He governs order, not merely, as is supposed, in the universal but also in its most specific singulars, for it is these singulars that make up the universal. To speak of the universal and then separate such singulars from it would be no different from speaking of a whole that has no parts within it and so no different from speaking of something consisting of nothing. Thus it is sheer falsity - a figment of the imagination, as it is called - to speak of the Lord's Providence as belonging to the universal but not to its specific singulars; for to provide and govern universally but not specifically is to provide and govern absolutely nothing. This is true philosophically, yet, strange to say, philosophers themselves, including the more eminent, understand this matter in a different way and think in a different way.