“The eyes are the windows of the soul.” That's a sentiment with roots somewhere in murky antiquity, but one that has become hopelessly cliché because it is both poetic and obviously true. We feel that if we can look in someone's eyes, we can truly know what they are inside. And it's not just the eyes; really it is the face as a whole that conveys this. As Swedenborg puts it, the face is “man's spiritual world presented in his natural world” (Heaven and Hell, No. 91). Our faces reveal our interior thoughts and feelings in myriad ways, which is why psychologists, poker players and criminal investigators spend so much time studying them. It makes sense, then, that people's faces in the Bible represent their interiors, the thoughts, loves and desires they hold most deeply. We turn our faces to the ground to show humility when we bow in worship; we turn them to the mountains when seeking inspiration; we turn them toward our enemies when we are ready to battle temptation. When things are hard, we need to “face facts,” or accept them internally. When the topic is the Lord's face, it represents the Lord's interiors, which are perfect love and perfect mercy. And when people turn away from the Lord and refuse his love, it is described as the Lord “hiding his face.”

(References: Heaven and Hell 91)

10554. 'And Jehovah spoke to Moses face to face' means Divine things in the Word that are joined together. This is clear from the meaning of 'speaking face to face' as being joined together, for 'the face' means the interiors, and when these turn towards one another and each sees a similarity, they join themselves together. This is what 'speaking face to face' means when it applies to Jehovah talking to Moses, by whom the Word is meant. 'Speaking' means perceiving, and 'face to face' mutually, so that each one's perception exists in the other, which constitutes a joining together of them.

[2] All this should be understood in connection with the Word - with its nature as just described - because Moses here means the Word. For such is the nature of the Word in its inward sense and in its outward sense; in the inward sense all its details are joined together, and so are all those in the outward sense, and in addition those in the inward sense are joined to those in the outward by means of correspondences. These joinings cannot be described; and even if they could be described no ideas exist in the mind to enable it to grasp what they are. They are realities of a celestial and spiritual nature which are joined together among themselves in that way there, and by means of correspondences are joined to the images of a natural and worldly nature that constitute the sense of the letter. Some conception of what those joinings are like may be gathered from the ways in which angelic communities in the heavens are joined together. These taken together constitute a single whole, just as the members, internal organs, and other organs of a human being do, which, though they are various and consist individually of various and countless parts within, nevertheless form a single whole. The truths and forms of good in the Word are also like this. Mankind is totally unaware of the fact that the nature of the Word is such; but angels know it because they can perceive the interconnection of the interiors of the Word.

[3] From all this it becomes clear that 'Jehovah spoke to Moses face to face' means Divine things in the Word that are joined together. One thing is meant by 'speaking face to face' and another by 'seeing Jehovah face to face', as is evident from what comes later on in the present chapter, where Jehovah says to Moses,

You cannot see My face, for no one will see Me and live ¹ . But I will put you in a cleft of the rock and cover My palm over you until I have passed through. And I will take away My palm, and you will see My back parts; and My face will not be seen. Exodus 33:20, 22-23.

'Moses' means the Word, see in the places referred to in 10549.

'Face' means the interiors, in the places referred to in 9546.

'Speaking' means perceiving, in the places referred to in 10290.

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