9481. 'In accordance with all that I show you, the pattern of the dwelling-place' means a representative of heaven where the Lord is. This is clear from the meaning of 'the pattern of the dwelling-place' as a representative of heaven; for 'the pattern' means a representative, and 'the dwelling-place' means heaven. The reason why 'the pattern' means a representative is that Divine realities in heaven are also manifested in visible shapes, which are representatives. For the meaning of 'the dwelling-place' as heaven where the Lord is, see 8269, 8309. What the representatives that appear in heaven are like is clear in the prophets, for example in John's Book of Revelation, in which he describes lampstands, Chapter 1:12ff; a throne with twenty-four thrones around it, and four living creatures before the throne, Chapter 4:2ff; a book sealed with seven seals, Chapter 5; horses going out when the seals were opened, Chapter 6; angels who are clothed in various ways and have bowls, Chapters 9, 10, 15, 16; a white horse, Chapter 19; and at length a new Jerusalem, its walls, gates, foundations, height, breadth, and length, Chapters 21, 22. Similar sights are also described by other prophets.

[2] All those sights are representatives such as appear unceasingly in heaven before angels' eyes, manifesting in visible shapes the Divine celestial realities that belong to the good of love and the Divine spiritual realities that belong to the good of faith. Such realities taken all together were represented by the tabernacle and its contents, that is, the ark itself, the table on which loaves were laid, the altar of incense, the lampstand, and everything else. Therefore when these objects, being outward forms of Divine celestial and spiritual realities, were beheld by the people while they were engaged in holy acts of worship, such realities as were represented by those objects were brought to notice in heaven. These, as stated above, were the Divine celestial realities that belong to the good of love to the Lord and the Divine spiritual realities that belong to the good of faith in the Lord. All the representatives of that Church had that kind of effect in heaven. It should be realized that a person always has spirits and angels present with him and that a person cannot live without them. It should likewise be realized that through them the person is linked to the Lord, and that in this way the human race, and heaven too, is kept in being. From this one can see what purpose was served by the representatives and also the ritual observances of the Church established among the Israelite nation. One can also see what purpose is served by the Word, in which all things mentioned in the sense of the letter correspond to Divine realities that exist in heaven, thus in which all the objects mentioned are representative and all the words used carry a spiritual meaning. This is what brings about the linking of a person to heaven, and through heaven to the Lord. Without that link the person would have no life whatever, for without being linked to the actual Essential Being (Esse) of life, from which the Coming-into-Being (Existere) of life emanates, no one has life.

[3] But these considerations are unintelligible to those who think that life exists essentially in a person himself and that a person lives without spirits or angels, thus without influx from the Divine by way of heaven. But in actual fact anything that is not linked to the Divine perishes and ceases to exist. Indeed nothing can ever come into being without that which is prior to itself, thus without the Divine, who is the First and is self-existent Being (Esse) or Jehovah; nor consequently can it remain in being, for remaining in being is constant coming-into-being. Because 'the dwelling-place' means heaven where the Lord is, it also means the good of love and faith, since these compose heaven; and because all good comes from the Lord, and heaven is called heaven by virtue of its love to and faith in the Lord, 'the dwelling-place' also means in the highest sense the Lord, as is evident in Isaiah 63:15; Jeremiah 25:30; Ezekiel 37:26-27; Psalms 26:8; 43:3; 90:1; 91:9; Exodus 15:13; Deuteronomy 12:5, 11; and other places. From this it is clear that the tabernacle was called Jehovah's sanctuary and dwelling-place for the reason that it represented the realities mentioned above.

6876. 'And saying to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you' means that He who was the God of the Ancient Church will be with those belonging to the spiritual Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'the God of your fathers' as Him who was the God of the Ancient Church, 'fathers' being those who belonged to the Ancient Church, see 6050, 6075, 6846; from the representation of the children of Israel, to whom 'you' refers here, as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with immediately above in 6875; and from the meaning of 'being sent' as going forth, dealt with in 2397, 4710, 6831, here as the promise that He will be with them, for it is talking about Him who was the God of the Ancient Church, promising that He will be in the spiritual Church, which is represented by the children of Israel.

[2] The God of the Ancient Church was the Lord in respect of His Divine Human. The Ancient Church acquired this perception of God from the Most Ancient Church and also from the consideration that whenever Jehovah appeared to them He did so in a human form. When therefore they thought about Jehovah they did not think of Him as the Being present in all things everywhere, of whom they would have had no conception. Rather, they thought of Him as a Person who was Divine, on whom they would then be able to focus their thought. For in this way they were able both to think about Jehovah and to be joined to Him in love. Those who belonged to the Ancient Church, and especially those who belonged to the Most Ancient Church, were far wiser than people are in our own day, and yet they could not think of Jehovah in any other way than as a person whose Humanity was Divine. Nor did their thinking have any Unseemly desires entering it - ideas taken from the natural man, from what is imperfect and bad there. Rather the ideas about Him were altogether holy. The angels themselves, whose wisdom is so much greater than man's, cannot think of the Divine in any other way either, for they see the Lord in His Divine Human. They know that an angel, with whom all things are finite, cannot begin to form any idea of the Infinite except through what bears resemblance to the finite.

[3] The fact that people in ancient times venerated Jehovah under the form of a Person who was Divine is perfectly clear from the angels who appeared in human form to Abraham, and also after that to Lot, as well as to Joshua, and to Gideon and Manoah. Those angels were called Jehovah and were venerated as the God of all things. If at the present day Jehovah were to appear in the Church as a person people would be offended and would think that because what they saw was a person. He could not by any means be the Creator and Lord of the Universe. Furthermore they would not then have any other kind of idea about Him than what they have about an ordinary human being. Thinking in this way people at the present day believe that they are wiser than the ancients, unaware of the fact that by thinking in that way they are completely out of touch with wisdom. For when one's mental resources are spent on envisaging the completely incomprehensible Being present everywhere, they can discern nothing and are squandered. And ideas about nature, to which every single thing is attributed, arise instead. This is why nature-worship is so common at the present day, especially in the Christian world.