9430. 'And the cloud covered it' means the lowest level of the Word, which is obscure, comparatively so. This is clear from the meaning of 'the cloud' as the lowest level of the Word or its literal sense, dealt with in the Preface to Genesis 18, and in 4060, 4391, 5922, 6343 (end), 6752, 8106, 8443, 8781. The reason why that sense is called 'the cloud' is that it lies in obscurity, compared with the inward sense; for the inward sense dwells in the light of heaven. The outward lies in obscurity and resembles a cloud because it is intended for a person while in the world, whereas the inward sense is intended for a person when he enters heaven. But it should be recognized that while a person is in the world he is at the same time guided by the inward sense of the Word if in faith and life he is guided by teachings of the Church which are authentic. For through those teachings the inward sense of the Word is inscribed at that time on both his understanding and his will, on his understanding through the faith he has and on his will through the life he leads. When such a person enters heaven he understands the Word solely according to its inward sense and ceases to know anything of its outward sense. This now seems to him to be like a cloud that swallows up rays of light it receives.

[2] The person now understands the Word, as has been said, according to its inward and not according to its outward sense. This is so because the Lord uses God's truth present with people in the world, which is the Word, to teach all who are in heaven, the reason for this being that those people live on the lowest level of order, and everything on interior levels ends in the lowest. The lowest is so to speak the support for the interior levels, which stand and rest on it. The Word in the letter is Divine Truth on the lowest level of order, in the same way as the natural and sensory level is the lowest level of order in members of the Church with whom Divine Truth is present. On this lowest level in them, as on that of the Word, interior levels terminate and rest. All this is like a house and its foundations. The actual house is heaven, and it is also Divine Truth there such as the Word is in its inward sense, while the foundations are the world and also Divine Truth there such as the Word is in its outward sense. Just as the house rests on its foundations, so too heaven rests on the Church, and consequently Divine Truth in heaven on Divine Truth on earth. For through the Word a continuous link exists from the Lord by way of heaven right down to people in the world. This is the reason why the Lord always provides for the existence of a Church on earth, where Divine Truth may exist on its lowest level. This is an arcanum unknown to anyone up to now, an arcanum implied in the matters introduced at 9357, 9360. Let everyone take care therefore not to damage the Word in any way; for those who damage it damage what is indeed Divine.

9360. In addition to the reasons already introduced there is the consideration that the inhabitants, spirits, and angels belonging to our planet correlate in the Grand Man with external or bodily perceiving, 9107, and external or bodily perceiving is the lowest level, in which more internal levels of life terminate and on which they rest as their general foundation, 5077, 9212, 9216. The same applies to God's truth in its literal form, which is called the Word; it has been provided for a like reason on this planet and not on another. Furthermore, since the Lord is the Word, since He is its first and last, His will was that He should be born and become the Word on this planet, in order that everything might take place in keeping with true order, according to the following words in John,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, glory as of the Only Begotten from the Father. Nobody has ever seen God; the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known. John 1:1-3, 14, 18.

'The Word' is Divine Truth. But this is an arcanum about which only few can have any understanding.