6866. 'And Moses said to God' means perception received from the Divine, and a state of humility. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' as perception, dealt with often; from the representation of 'Moses' as the Lord in respect of the law of God, dealt with in 6723, 6752, 6771, 6827, the Divine being meant by 'God'. These words also imply a state of humility, as is evident from what follows, for he says, 'Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should lead the children of Israel out?' Since 'Moses' represents the Lord and mention is made here of humility, something must be said about the Lord's state of humility when He was in the world. To the extent that the Human which had not yet been made Divine came to the forefront in the Lord He was in a state of humility; but to the extent that His Human which had been made Divine came to the forefront He could not be in a state of humility, for to that extent He was God and was Jehovah. The reason why He was in a state of humility when the Human which had not yet been made Divine came to the forefront was that the human which He derived from His mother was evil by heredity, and this could not draw near the Divine except in a state of humility. For when real humility is present in a person he surrenders all power to think or do anything by himself and abandons himself completely to the Divine, and in this condition draws near to the Divine. The Divine was, it is true, within the Lord, since He had been conceived from Jehovah; but the more the inheritance from His mother came to the forefront in His Human the more remote the Divine seemed to be. For in spiritual and celestial things dissimilarity of state is what lies behind remoteness and absence, while similarity of state is what lies behind nearness and presence; and what lies behind similarity and dissimilarity is love. From this one may now recognize the source of the state of humility that existed with the Lord when He was in the world. but later on, when He had cast off all the human derived from His mother, so completely that He was no longer her son, and had clothed Himself with the Divine, the state of humility came to an end; for then He was one with Jehovah.

201. Of the Lord's temptations.

The Lord beyond all others ¹ endured the most grievous and dreadful temptations, which are but little described in the sense of the letter of the Word, but much in the internal sense (n. 1663, 1668, 1787, 2776, 2786, 2795, 2814, 9528). The Lord fought from the Divine love towards the whole human race (n. 1690, 1691, 1812-1813, 1820). The love of the Lord was the salvation of the human race (n. 1820). The Lord fought from His own power (n. 1692, 1813, 9937). The Lord alone was made justice and merit, by the temptations, and victories which He gained therein from His own power (n. 1813, 2025-2027, 9715, 9809, 10019). By temptations the Lord united the Divine itself, which was in Him from conception, to His Human, and made this Divine, as He makes man spiritual by temptations (n. 1725, 1729, 1733, 1737, 3318, 3381, 3382, 4286). The temptations of the Lord were attended with despair at the end (n. 1787). The Lord, by the temptations admitted into Himself, subjugated the hells, and reduced to order all things in them, and in heaven, and at the same time glorified His Human (n. 1737, 4287, 9315, 9528, 9937). The Lord alone fought against all the hells (n. 8273). He admitted temptations into Himself from thence (n. 2816, 4295).

The Lord could not be tempted as to the Divine, because the hells cannot assault the Divine, wherefore He assumed a human from the mother, such as could be tempted (n. 1414, 1444, 1573, 5041, 5157, 7193, 9315). By temptations and victories He expelled all the hereditary from the mother, and put off the human from her, until at length He was no longer her son (n. 2159, 2574, 2649, 3036, 10830). Jehovah, who was in Him from conception, appeared in His temptations as if absent (n. 1815). This was His state of humiliation (n. 1785, 1999, 2159, 6866). His last temptation and victory, by which He fully subjugated the hells, and made His Human Divine, was in Gethsemane and on the cross (n. 2776, 2803, 2813-2814, 10655, 10659, 10828).

"To eat no bread and drink no water for forty days," signifies an entire state of temptations (n. 10686). "Forty years," "months," or "days," signify a plenary state of temptations from beginning to end; and such a state is meant by the duration of the flood, "forty days"; by Moses abiding "forty days" upon Mount Sinai; by the sojourning of the sons of Israel "forty years" in the desert; and by the Lord's temptation in the desert "forty days" (n. 730, 862, 2272-2273, 8098).

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