10580. And Jehovah said, Behold a place with Me, and thou shalt stand upon the rock. That this signifies a state of faith in God, is evident from the signification of “place,” as being state (see n. 2625, 2837, 3356, 3387, 4321, 4882, 5605, 7381, 9440, 9967, 10146); and from the signification of “rock,” as being faith (n. 8581, 10438). That it signifies a state of faith in God is because it is said, “a place with Me.” No one can know that this is signified by these words, except from the internal sense, thus unless he knows what is meant in this sense by “place,” and what by “rock.” For otherwise what could be meant by there being “a place with Jehovah upon a rock?” It could only mean that Jehovah dwelt there, and gave Moses a place with Him; when yet Jehovah dwells in heaven with the angels, and in the church with men. That a “rock” denotes faith is from the appearances in the other life. There they who are in faith dwell upon rocky heights, but they who are in love dwell upon mountains. The rocky heights there appear of stone, but the mountains not of stone, because they are elevations of earth. From this it is that a “rock” signifies faith.

4321. Although these things appear paradoxical and incredible to man, they nevertheless are not to be denied, because experience itself dictates them. If all things were denied the causes of which are not known, innumerable things that come forth in nature would be denied, the causes of which are known scarcely as to a ten-thousandth part; for the secret things therein are so many and so great that those which man knows are scarcely anything in comparison with those which he does not know. What then must be the secret things that come forth in the sphere which is above nature, that is, in the spiritual world! As for example these: That there is one only life, and all live from it, and everyone differently from another: that the evil also live from the same life, and likewise the hells, and that the inflowing life acts according to its reception: that heaven has been so ordered by the Lord as to bear relation to a man, whence it is called the Grand Man; and that in consequence all the things in man correspond thereto: that man without influx therefrom into everything in him, cannot subsist even for a moment: that all in the Grand Man keep in a constant situation according to the quality and the state of the truth and good in which they are; that situation there is not situation, but state, and therefore those appear constantly at the left who are at the left, those at the right who are at the right, in front those who are in front, behind those who are behind, in the plane of the head, the breast, the back, the loins, and the feet, above the head and below the soles of the feet, directly and obliquely, and at a less or greater distance, those who are there, however and to whatever quarter the spirit may turn himself: that the Lord as a Sun appears constantly to the right, and there at a middle height, a little above the plane of the right eye; and that all things there have relation to the Lord as the Sun and center, and thus to their only One from which they come forth and subsist, and as all appear before the Lord constantly in their own situation, according to their states of good and truth, they therefore appear in the same way to everyone, for the reason that the Lord’s life, and consequently the Lord, is in all who are in heaven. Not to mention innumerable other things.