9477. 'For the ephod and for the breastplate' means which should be for a covering for celestial realities, external and internal. This is clear from the meaning of 'the ephod' as that which covers celestial good. For Aaron as a high priest represented the Lord in respect of the good of love, and his garments, especially his ephod, represented the truth of faith that springs from the good of love. The good of love is a celestial reality, and the truth of faith is its covering, since truths cover forms of good. This is why truths are meant in the Word by garments or clothes, 4545, 5248, 5319, 5954, 9093, 9212. For in heaven the celestial realities that belong to the good of love are represented as being naked, for which reason those belonging to the Lord's celestial kingdom appear naked, whereas those belonging to the spiritual kingdom, namely those who have been brought by the Lord by means of the truths of faith to the good of charity, appear wearing clothes. This kingdom lies below the celestial kingdom, and what lies below is the covering for what is higher; for the lower is more external, the higher more internal, 2148, 3084, 4599, 5146, 8325. From this it is evident what 'the ephod' means when Aaron represents the Lord in respect of the Divine Celestial; for priests represented the Lord in respect of Divine Good, and kings in respect of Divine Truth, see 6148. But it should be recognized that 'the ephod' was the sign of the covering for external celestial realities, and 'the breastplate' the covering for internal celestial realities. But more will be stated later on about these, where the ephod and the breastplate, which had the Urim and Thummim in it, are the subject.

8325. 'You will bring them in' means raising up. This is clear from the meaning of 'bringing in', when used to denote taking to heaven, as raising up. The words 'raising up' are used because heaven beheld by outward sight that spirits possess is on high; and when beheld by inward sight such as angels possess heaven occupies an inward position. Everything inward in the next life manifests itself in a representative fashion as something above, and everything outward as something below; consequently heaven appears up above and hell down below, 2148, 3084, 4599, 5146. For states of truth and good, and in the contrary sense states of falsity and evil, are what positions high up and those deep down, in short, distances and places, represent in the next life, see 2625, 2837, 3356, 3387, 4321, 4882, 5605, 7381.

[2] The following experience alone enables one to infer how difficult it is for a natural man to apprehend spiritual things, consequently things that belong to heaven. Can anyone like him see that space and time do not exist in heaven, but states instead? Or to be more precise, that states of good or states of being (esse) exist there, presenting themselves as extents of space, and states of truth or states of coming-into-being (existere), presenting themselves as periods of time? Will not a merely natural man suppose that where time and space do not exist there is complete emptiness and nothingness? From this it is evident that if a natural man makes up his mind to believe nothing apart from what he can apprehend he lays himself open to grossly mistaken ideas. And as it is with space and time, so it is also with many other matters. For example, a natural man inevitably falls into a nonsensical way of thinking about God when with notions involving the passage of time he contemplates what God was doing before the creation of the world, that is, what He was engaged in from eternity up to then. Nor can he be extricated from that tangled knot until notions of time and space are banished. When angels contemplate that eternity they never do so with notions of time but with ideas of state.

[3] In the next life two statues appear, partly of flesh and partly of stone. They are stationed on the edge of the created universe, in front over to the left. They are said to swallow up those who contemplate what God was doing from eternity before He created the world. The swallowing up represents the consideration that since a person cannot contemplate anything without notions involving space and time he cannot extricate himself from the difficulty unaided. He does so only with the aid of God, either by ceasing to contemplate the matter or by banishing notions involving time.