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.

9486. 'Of shittim wood' means righteousness. This is clear from the meaning of 'shittim wood' as the good of merit which is the Lord's alone, dealt with above in 9472, and therefore also righteousness, which is the good of merit. For by His own power the Lord restored the whole of heaven to order and subdued the hells, and at the same time made Divine the Human within Himself; therefore to Him belong merit and righteousness. For this reason the one and only good that reigns in heaven and that makes heaven is the Lord's good of merit and His righteousness, thus His Divine Human since This was made merit and righteousness. The fact that the Lord accomplished these things by His own power is clear in Isaiah,

Who is this who comes from Edom? I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save. I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples not a man (vir) was with Me. I looked around, but there was no helper, and I wondered, but there was no one to uphold; therefore My own arm brought salvation to Me. Isaiah 63:1-5.

In the same prophet,

He saw that there was no man (vir), and wondered that there was no intercessor; therefore His own arm brought salvation to Him, and His righteousness lifted Him up. He put on righteousness as a breastplate. Isaiah 59:16-17.

[2] In Jeremiah,

This is His name which they will call Him, Jehovah our Righteousness. Jeremiah 23:6; 33:15-16.

And in John,

I lay down My life, ¹ so that I may receive it again. No one takes it from Me, I lay it down of Myself; I have power to lay it down and I have power to receive it again. John 10:17-18.

From these places it is evident that the Lord in His Divine Human possesses merit and righteousness acquired by Himself. Since 'the ark' means heaven where the Lord is, shittim wood, by which that good is meant, was used in the making of it; for 'wood' in general means good, 643, 3720, 8354. This explains why people who assume that merit lies in works are seen in the next life to be cutting wood, under which there is something of the Lord, 1110, 4943, 8740. And so it is that 'splitting pieces of wood for a burnt offering' means the good of merit, or good belonging to works, 2784, 2812.

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