688. Fell upon their faces and adored God.- That this signifies, their adoration of the Lord from a most humble heart is evident from the signification of falling upon their faces, as denoting the deepest humiliation of heart, for it is a posture of the body corresponding to humiliation of the heart, thus a posture representative of the humiliation of the whole man. It is adoration of God that flows forth at such times from such a heart, and is various according to the subject which engages the mind.

[2] To fall upon the face before God is the representative gesture of deepest humiliation because the face is the form of man's affections, consequently of the interiors pertaining to his mind (mens) and disposition (animus); for the affections shine forth in the face as in their type, and this is why the face is called the index and image of the mind. When therefore man acknowledges that all things in him are turned away from God, and therefore damned, and that thus he neither is able nor dares look to God, who is holiness itself, and that if he should from himself in such a condition look to Him, he would spiritually die, then a man from such thought and acknowledgment falls upon his face to the earth; and because man's proprium is thus removed, therefore he is then infilled by the Lord, and raised up so as to be able to look to Him.

[3] It is said that they adored God, for the reason that God, in the Word, means the proceeding Divine which is called Divine Truth. And as this Divine is truth in the angels - for they are its recipients, and it constitutes their wisdom - therefore angels, are called gods in the Word, and signify Divine Truths. Also in the Hebrew, God is called Elohim, in the plural, therefore God, in the Word, means the Divine which is with the angels of heaven and men of the church, and which is the proceeding Divine. And because the higher heavens were now in enlightenment and power, on account of the separation of the evil from the good in the lower [parts], and on account of the Last Judgment which was shortly to take place, therefore it is said that they adored God, from which it is evident that the Lord was then with them, for they possessed enlightenment and power from the more intense and powerful influx of the Divine Truth that proceeds from the Lord.