59. The reason only edible and green plants are mentioned here as food for the natural man is this: While a person is being regenerated and becoming spiritual he is involved constantly in conflict, which is why the Lord's Church is called militant. For before regeneration started, evil desires were in control, since the whole person consisted entirely of evil desires and resulting falsities. During the process of regeneration his desires and falsities cannot be done away with instantly, since that would amount to destroying the whole person; indeed he has not acquired any other life for himself. So for a long time evil spirits are left with him to activate his desires, and so release them in countless ways. Indeed the spirits are left there to do this in order that those desires may be turned by the Lord towards something good, and in this way the person may be reformed. In the hour of conflict evil spirits are present who absolutely hate everything that is good and true, that is, every element of love and faith in the Lord - elements that alone are good and true because they contain eternal life. These evil spirits leave a person with no other food than that which is compared to edible and green plants. But the Lord gives him a food as well that is compared to the plant yielding seed and to the tree in which there is fruit. These are periods of peace and calm attended by their forms of delight and happiness. This cycle occurs repeatedly.

[2] If the Lord did not protect man moment by moment, and in every shortest instant, he would immediately perish, for there is such murderous hatred reigning in the world of spirits against all forms of love and faith in the Lord as to defy description. I can positively declare that this is so, because for several years now, although still in the [physical] body, I have also been in the next life in the company of spirits. I have been surrounded by evil spirits, even the worst of them, sometimes by thousands, who have been allowed to pour out their venom and molest me in every possible way, but who nevertheless could do no harm to the tiniest hair on my head, so well did the Lord protect me. From all these years of experience I have become thoroughly informed about the character of the world of spirits and also about the conflict which people who are being regenerated must inevitably undergo if they are to attain the happiness of eternal life. But because nobody from just a general description can be so well informed as to have a faith free from doubt, these matters in the Lord's Divine mercy will therefore be noted in greater detail later on.

10546. 'And pitched it for himself outside the camp, far from the camp' means remote from the external things in which the interest of that actual nation lay. This is clear from the meaning of 'pitching the tent' as providing, arranging, and setting in order the things that belong to the Church and worship, for 'the tent' means the holiness of the Church, worship, and the Word, dealt with immediately above in 10545, so that 'pitching it' means providing, arranging, and setting those things in order; and from the meaning of 'the camp' as the heavenly order which heaven and the Church arise from and conform to. And since all the truths and forms of good of heaven and the Church are elements of that order, that which contains them is also meant. The reason why these elements are meant by 'the camp' is that by 'the children of Israel' who made up the camp all truths and forms of good in their entirety are meant. But when the children of Israel worshipped the calf instead of Jehovah their camp had a contrary meaning, namely hellish order and also that which contains the falsity and evil that compose hell. Whether you speak of the external things of worship and the Church without anything internal or you speak of hell, it amounts to the same thing; for people whose worship is external and not at all internal are ruled by self-love and love of the world, and self-love and love of the world come from hell. From this it is evident why 'Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp' - for 'the tent', as has been stated above, meant the holiness of worship, the Church, and the Word - and why those words mean remote from the external things in which the interest of the Israelite nation lay.

'The camp' means heavenly order, and 'encamping' means arranging good and truth into heavenly order, see 4236, 8103(end), 8130, 8131, 8155, 8193, 8196.

[2] Consequently 'the camp' means heaven and the Church, in that they contain that good and truth, 10038, and in the contrary sense hell, 10458.

Also, the external side of worship and of the Church separated from the internal constitutes hell, 10483, 10489, because people whose interest lies in external things separated from what is internal never receive any Divine influx at all, 10429, 10472, and are therefore incapable of possessing any faith in the Lord or love to Him, 10396, 10400, 10411.

They look solely in the direction of their own loves, thus in the direction of hell, 10422, and consequently worship self as their god, 10407, 10412.

The interest of the Israelite nation lay in external things separated from what was internal, see in the places referred to in 9380, and also what is said in 9373, 9381, 10396, 10401, 10407, 10492, 10498, 10500, 10533.