8858. A person's whole character is determined by the nature of whatever dominates his life; this is what marks him off from others. His heaven is formed in accordance with it if he is good, or his hell if he is bad. For it constitutes his true will and so the true being of his life, which is unchangeable after death. From all this one may see what the life is like in a person who has been regenerated, and what it is like in one who has not been regenerated.

9395. 'And half of the blood he sprinkled over the altar' means Divine Truth from the Lord's Divine Human. This is clear from the meaning of 'the blood' as Divine Truth, dealt with just above in 9393; and from the meaning of 'the altar' as a representative of the Lord's Divine Human, dealt with in 921, 2777, 2811, 4489, consequently the chief representative of worship of the Lord, 4541, 8935, 8940. The reason why this 'half of the blood', which was sprinkled over the altar, means Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Human and the other 'half of the blood', which was sprinkled over the people, verse 8 below, means this Divine Truth when accepted by a member of the Church, is this: A covenant was being established, and by 'a covenant' is meant being joined together, 665, 666, 1023, 1038, 1864, 1996, 2003, 2021, 6804, 8767, 8778, and the Lord comes to be joined to a member of the Church when Divine Truth which emanates from the Lord is accepted by a person. From this it is evident why blood was used, and when sprinkled over the altar and over the people was called the blood of the covenant, verse 8.

665. That establishing a covenant' means that he would be regenerated becomes quite clear from the fact that the only kind of covenant that can exist between the Lord and man is conjunction by virtue of love and faith. And so a covenant means conjunction; indeed it is the heavenly marriage that is the supreme covenant of all. The heavenly marriage or conjunction does not show itself however except with people who are being regenerated. Regeneration itself therefore in the broadest sense is meant by a covenant. The Lord enters into a covenant with man when He regenerates him, and consequently among men of old a covenant had no other representation. From the sense of the letter no other impression is gained than that the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and so often with their descendants, concerned just those personages. But those people were by nature such as to be incapable of being regenerated, for they focused worship exclusively on things that were external, and imagined external things to be sacred without things that are internal allied to them. Consequently the covenants made with them were no more than representations of regeneration, as were all their religious ceremonies, and as were Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob themselves who represented the things of love and faith. In a similar way priests or high priests, whatever their character, including infamous ones, could represent the heavenly and most holy priesthood. In representations no attention is paid to the person who represents but to that which is represented by him. Thus all the kings of Israel and Judah, including the worst of them, represented the Lord's kingship, and so indeed did the Pharaoh who promoted Joseph over the land of Egypt. These and many other considerations which in the Lord's Divine mercy will be dealt with later on show that the covenants made so often with the sons of Jacob were nothing more than religious ceremonies which were representative.