8. The second state is when a distinction is made between the things that are the Lord's and those that are man's own. Those which are the Lord's are called in the Word 'remnants', and here they are chiefly the cognitions of faith which a person has learned since he was a small child. These are stored away and do not come out into the open until he reaches this state. Nowadays this state rarely occurs without temptation, misfortune, and sorrow, which lead to the inactivity and so to speak the death of bodily and worldly concerns - the things which are man's own. In this way what belongs to the external man is segregated from what belongs to the internal. Within the internal are the remnants, stored away by the Lord until this time and for this purpose.

7240. 'And so it was on the day Jehovah spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt' means the state of the Church at that time, when the command was given through the law from God to those who belonged to the Lord's spiritual kingdom, when they were still in close proximity to those in hell. This is clear from the meaning of 'the day' as the state, dealt with in 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850, 6110, here the state of the Church since that is the subject; from the meaning of 'Jehovah speaking' as the command, here the command given to those who belonged to the Lord's spiritual kingdom; from the representation of 'Moses' as the law from God, dealt with in 6771, 6827; and from the meaning of 'the land of Egypt' as the place where those who belonged to the Lord's spiritual kingdom were molested by falsities. This place was on the lower earth, which is next to the hells, see 7090. 'The land of Egypt' where the children of Israel were, and which was called Goshen, means that lower earth; but the place where the Egyptians were means the surrounding hells, the source of the molestations by falsities.