840. That 'and God remembered' means the end of temptation and the start of renewal is clear from what comes before and after this. 'God remembered' in particular means His being merciful. His remembering is mercy, and this is attributed to Him especially when temptation is past because at that time new light is shining. As long as temptation lasts, a person assumes that the Lord is not present, for he is being harassed by evil genii, so harassed in fact that sometimes he has so great a feeling of hopelessness as scarcely to believe in the existence of any God at all. Yet at such times the Lord is more present than that person can possibly believe. But once temptation subsides he receives comfort, and for the first time believes that the Lord is present. Consequently, because He appears to do so, 'God's remembering' mentioned here means the end of temptation and the start of renewal. God, and not Jehovah, is said to have remembered because the person's state is still that which comes before regeneration. But once he has been regenerated the name Jehovah is used, as in verses 20-21, at the end of this chapter. The reason 'God' is used here is that faith has not yet been joined to charity. A person is for the first time said to be regenerate when he acts from charity. It is in charity that Jehovah is present, and not so much in faith before this has been joined to charity. In the next life charity constitutes a person's very being (esse) and life. Jehovah is Being (Esse) and Life itself, and this is why before a person has this being and life, not Jehovah but God is said to reside with him.

4729. 'And let us say, An evil wild animal has devoured him' means a lie invented out of a life of evil desires. This is clear from the meaning of 'a wild animal' as affection or else evil desire, dealt with in 45, 46, for in the genuine sense 'a wild animal' means that which is living, 774, 841, 908, and therefore 'an evil wild animal' here means a life of evil desires. The fact that a lie is meant is self-evident; and this lie is connected with what has come immediately before about them casting that Divine truth away among falsities - a lie invented out of a life of evil desires. For falsity arises from three different sources, the first being the teaching of the Church, the second the illusions of the senses, and the third the life of evil desires. Falsity arising from the teaching of the Church occupies solely the understanding part of a person's mind, for he has been convinced since early childhood that such falsity is the truth, confirmations coming in by and by to strengthen that conviction. But falsity arising from the illusions of the senses has less impact on the understanding part, for people who are under the influence of falsity arising from the illusions of the senses receive little insight from their understanding because their thinking is founded on base ideas and on sensory impressions. Falsity arising from a life of evil desires however springs from the will itself, or what amounts to the same, from the heart, for a person desires that which he wills from the heart. This is the worst kind of falsity because it clings and is not rooted out except by means of a new life received from the Lord.

[2] As is well known, man has two inner mental powers - the understanding and the will. That which the understanding takes in and absorbs does not therefore pass over into the will, but that which the will takes in and absorbs does pass over into the understanding; for what is in a person's will occupies his thought also. Consequently when his desires lead him to will what is evil he is also thinking about it and confirming it. And when thoughts of evil have become confirmations of it they are called falsities arising from a life of evil desires. These falsities are seen by that person as truths, and once he has confirmed those falsities, truths are then seen by him as falsities, for he has now blocked off the light that flows from the Lord through heaven. But if he has not confirmed those falsities, truths which have been previously absorbed by his understanding stand in the way and prevent those falsities from being confirmed.