7313. 'And let them serve Me in the wilderness' means worship in obscurity. This is clear from the meaning of 'serving Jehovah' as worship; and from the meaning of 'the wilderness' as that which is uninhabited and uncultivated, dealt with in 2708, 3900, in the spiritual sense obscurity so far as the good and truth of faith are concerned. That kind of obscurity is meant here by 'the wilderness', in general because those who belong to the spiritual Church, who are represented by 'the children of Israel', are in obscurity so far as truths of faith are concerned, see 2715, 2716, 2718, 2831, 2849, 2935, 2937, 3833, 4402, and in particular because they are in obscurity when they are emerging from a state of molestations and temptations. For those who are subjected to molestations are surrounded by falsities and buffeted by them like a reed by the wind, so that they swing from doubt to positive acceptance and from positive acceptance to doubt. Consequently when they first rise out of that state they are in obscurity; but then that obscurity is gradually lightened. Because this is what the state which those undergoing molestations is like, the children of Israel were brought into the wilderness, in order that they might represent the condition of those who belonged to the spiritual Church before the Lord's Coming, and also the condition of those who belong to that Church at the present day and undergo vastation of falsities.

2935. 'Let him give me the cave of Machpelah [which is his]' means the obscurity of faith [that was theirs]. This is clear from the meaning of 'a cave' as obscurity, dealt with in 2463, and from the meaning of 'Machpelah' as faith which is enveloped in obscurity. The reason 'a cave' means obscurity is that it is a place filled with darkness. When reference is made to a mountain cave - as in Genesis 19:30, where it is said that Lot lived in a mountain cave - obscurity as regards good is meant, but when reference is made to the cave in the field of Machpelah obscurity as regards truth is meant. Here, because the expression 'the cave of Machpelah' is used - Machpelah being the field at the end of which the cave was situated - an obscurity as regards truth, or what amounts to the same, as regards faith is meant. From this it is also evident that Machpelah is faith which is enveloped in obscurity.

[2] Those who are being regenerated and becoming spiritual are very much in obscurity as regards truth. With them good from the Lord is indeed flowing in, but truth less so. Consequently a parallelism and correspondence exists with man between the Lord and good, but not between Him and truth, see 1832. The chief reason for this is that men do not know what good is, and if they did know they would still not believe it at heart. And as long as their good is enveloped in obscurity, so too is their truth, for it is from good that all truth springs. Or to be more explicit, the idea that the Lord is Good itself, and that everything which in itself is a manifestation of love to Him and of charity towards the neighbour is good, and that everything which declares and confirms this is truth, they do not know except in an extremely obscure way. Indeed they even entertain doubts, and allow reasonings to enter in against those considerations. And as long as their state is such, the light of truth from the Lord cannot flow in. Indeed they think of the Lord as they do of another human being and not of Him as God; and they model their idea of love to Him on some worldly kind of love. What genuine affection that stems from charity towards the neighbour is they scarcely know at all, or even what charity is and what the neighbour is. Yet these are essentials. From this one may recognize the great obscurity in which spiritual people are and which is all the greater before regeneration has taken place, which state is the subject here.