8928. 'And Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was' means a joining even of the truth of spiritual good to God's truth. This is clear from the representation of 'Moses' as God's truth below heaven joined to God's truth in heaven, consequently an intermediary kind of truth - dealt with in 8760, 8787, 8805 - thus the truth of spiritual good (for such truth is God's truth below heaven, which exists with the spiritual Church represented by the children of Israel; and Moses as the head of that Church represents this truth, 7014); from the meaning of 'drawing near' as a joining together, for drawing near the Divine is being joined to Him; and from the meaning of 'the thick darkness' as God's truth as it exists with those who belong to the spiritual Church, and also as it existed with that people whom Moses was set over as leader. The reason why God's truth is 'thick darkness' to both these is that neither of them is in any light as regards God's truths.

[2] Let those who belong to the spiritual Church be dealt with first. Those who belong to it believe that they are in the light. Yet they are in obscurity, indeed in thick darkness, so far as God's truth is concerned, as is clear from the consideration that they have no inner perception enabling them to see whether what the Church says is indeed the truth; they know it to be such only because the Church says it. What the Church says they firmly accept, whether it is false or true. And anyone devoid of any inner perception to see God's truth is in thick darkness, or what amounts to the same thing, Divine Truth is for him thick darkness. Members of the spiritual Church do not know for example, and have no wish to know, of the existence of an internal sense in the Word; and if they do perhaps come to believe in its existence there, it will not be because they perceive it for themselves but because of some other influence inducing them to believe it.

[3] Members of the spiritual Church, to take another example, say that faith is the one and only means of salvation, even without charity and the good deeds of charity. They believe this because the Church says it. They do not arrive at that light of perception in which they may see for themselves that faith does not exist except where charity does, or that the one belongs to the other as one person does to another in marriage, and therefore that charity is the essential element of the Church, because of its coherence with good. This also shows what obscurity or thick darkness the spiritual Church is in. And being in such darkness they divide the Church into many different Churches, as many as the variant doctrines presenting the truths of faith, a situation which would never arise if they were in the light. For one who is in the light never doubts, skill less denies that love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour are the essential elements of the Church, or that all the truths which the Word contains, consequently all the truths of faith, are founded on them. He likewise never doubts any of the other truths which hang on this law and are called the truths of faith. But these matters have been shown more plainly in 2708, 2715, 2831, 2849, 2935, 2937, 3241, 3246, 6289, 6427, 6865, 6945, 7233. Those who belong to the spiritual Church do not arrive at even the outermost threshold of the wisdom or of the light in which those are who belong to the celestial Church, 2718, 3833, 6500.

[4] The second reason why it says that Moses entered thick darkness when he drew near God is that as their leader 'Moses' represented the Israelite and Jewish people, who were in darkness regarding internal truths, so thick that they were totally ignorant of them; for they considered all of worship and everything Divine to consist in external things. This is why the Divine was for them thick darkness; for as everyone well knows, the Divine never dwells in thick darkness but in light, since the Divine is light itself. When therefore the Divine is called 'thick darkness', it describes what He is so far as those who do not dwell in any light are concerned; for Divine Truths which compose the light of heaven do not appear to them to be anything else than such darkness, because they do not believe them, indeed they deny them. How the Divine appears to anyone is determined by the essential nature of the person's life and faith. Consequently He appears as light to those who are in the light, and as thick darkness to those who are in thick darkness. The fact that the Israelite and Jewish people were such, see 3479, 3769, 4281, 4293, 4307, 4314, 4316, 4433, 4680, 4825, 4832, 4844, 4847, 4865, 4903, 6304, and that the Lord on Mount Sinai appeared to them in smoke, cloud, and thick darkness, in keeping with the essential nature of that people, 1861 (end), 6832, 8814, 8819.

4307. In the internal historical sense 'Jacob asked and said, Tell me, I pray, your name' means evil spirits. This becomes clear from many connections in this sense, in which these words and those that follow have reference to the descendants of Jacob; for the meaning in the internal sense depends on the specific subject under discussion. For not good spirits but evil ones are meant by him who wrestled with Jacob, as becomes clear from the consideration that 'wrestling' means temptation, 3927, 3928, 4274; and no temptation is ever carried out by good spirits, only by evil ones. For temptation consists in the activation of the evil and falsity residing with a person, 741, 751, 761, 1820, 4249, 4299. Good spirits and angels never activate evils and falsities but defend a person against them and turn them to good; for good spirits are led by the Lord, and from the Lord nothing except holy good and holy truth ever proceeds. The Lord does not tempt anyone, as is well known from teaching accepted in the Church; see also 1875, 2768. From this and also from the fact that the descendants of Jacob gave in to every temptation not only in the desert but also after that, it is evident that they were not good spirits but evil ones who are meant by him who wrestled with Jacob. What is more, the nation meant by 'Jacob' here was not governed by any spiritual or celestial love, only by bodily and worldly love, 4281, 4288-4290, 4293. The spirits present with any people depend on the loves governing those people, good spirits and angels being present with those who are governed by spiritual or celestial love, evil spirits with those who are governed solely by bodily or worldly love. So true is this that anyone can know which kind of spirits are present with him merely by noting the nature of his own loves, or what amounts to the same, the nature of his ends in view, since everyone has that which he loves as his end in view.

[2] The reason the one who wrestled with him called himself 'God' is Jacob's own belief that he was. In this he was like his descendants who believed unceasingly that Jehovah was present in their holy external observances, when in fact Jehovah was present solely in what these represented, as will be clear from what follows below. They also believed that Jehovah led them into temptations, was the author of all evil, and was full of anger and fury whenever they were punished. It is because they believed He was like this that such descriptions of Him appear in the Word, when in actual fact Jehovah never leads anyone into temptations, is never the author of anything evil, and is never full of anger, still less of fury, see 223, 245, 592, 696, 1093, 1683, 1874, 1875, 2395, 3605, 3607, 3614. This also explains why the one who wrestled with Jacob was unwilling to reveal his name. The reason why in the internal spiritual sense the one who wrestled with Jacob is used to mean the angelic heaven, 4295, is that the Lord, who in the highest sense is there represented by 'Jacob', allowed even angels to enter in and tempt Him, and that the angels were in that case left alone to their proprium, as has been shown in the paragraph just referred to.