9726. 'And you shall make for it a grating, a network' means the level of sensory perception, which is the last and lowest. This is clear from the meaning of 'a grating, a network' as external sensory perception, thus that which forms for a person the last and lowest level of life; and since this lowest level is meant by the grating it was placed all the way round the altar. Such sensory perception was represented by the grating because it first sifts so to speak and sorts out those things which enter the human mind and present themselves to the understanding and will, namely truths and forms of good. If the sensory perception is composed of good it does not let anything through other than forms of good, and truths derived from good, and rejects evils and the falsities arising from evil. For sensory perception is the actual ability to perceive things which belong to the understanding and to sense those which belong to the will as they exist on outermost levels, an ability that is perfectly fashioned for the affections for those things. The nature of all this may be illustrated by very many things in the body. Everywhere in the outermost parts within the body there are forms that resemble nets and there are so to speak gratings which sort out the things that flow towards them from the world. Those that are suitable are let through because they are desirable, and those that are unsuitable are rejected because they are loathsome. Extremely sensitive systems such as these exist in the stomach. These let through into the blood the suitable juices of the chyle, because these juices are useful and therefore desirable, and reject the unsuitable because they are harmful and therefore loathsome. The situation is similar with sensory perception, which is the last and lowest level of a person's life. But this level with a person has become totally wrecked, the reason why being that it stands right next to and is exposed to the world and is therefore the last to be regenerated, indeed scarcely anyone at the present day is able to be regenerated down to that level. As regards what the level of sensory perception is like with these people, see what has been shown already concerning it in 4009, 5077, 5081, 5084, 5094, 5125, 5128, 5580, 5767, 5774, 6183, 6201, 6310-6318, 6564, 6598, 6612, 6614, 6622, 6624, 6844, 6845, 6948, 6949, 7442, 7645, 7693, 9212, 9216.

Therefore if a person is to see and have an understanding of the truths of faith and the forms of the good of love he must be raised by the Lord above that level to more internal levels. But the sensory perception meant by 'the grating, the network' around the altar is the sensory perception belonging to the Lord's Divine Human, since the altar is representative of the Lord and of the worship of Him that springs from the good of love, 9714.

5332. 'And gave him Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera the priest of On, for a wife' means the essential nature of the marriage of truth to good, and of good to truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'giving for a wife' as a marriage. The reason the marriage of good to truth, and of truth to good, is meant is that nothing else is understood in a spiritual sense by 'marriages', and therefore nothing else is understood by 'marriages' in the Word. 'The daughter of the priest of On' means the truth of good, since 'a daughter' is the affection for truth and 'a priest' is good; but 'Joseph' is the good of truth that has the Divine within it, which is the same as the celestial of the spiritual. From this it is evident that the marriage of truth to good, and of good to truth, is meant. What is actually meant is the essential nature of this marriage; but this cannot receive any further explanation because the essential nature of what was the Lord's when He was in the world is beyond all understanding, beyond even that of angels. Just a vague idea of it can be formed from the kinds of things that exist in heaven - from the Grand Man and from the celestial of the spiritual existing there as a result of the influx of the Lord's Divine. But that idea is like the darkest shade compared with the light itself; for it is a very general idea indeed, thus scarcely anything compared with the reality it describes.