7845. Verses 7-11 And they shall take some of the blood and put it onto the two doorposts and onto the lintel, on the houses in which they will eat it. And they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted with fire, and [with] unleavened bread on bitter herbs, they shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw, nor boiled at all in water, but roasted indeed with fire, its head over its legs and over its middle. And you shall not leave any of it until the morning; and what does remain of it until the morning you shall burn with fire. And thus you shall eat it: Your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your rod in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste; it is a Passover to Jehovah.

'And they shall take some of the blood' means holy truth belonging to the good of innocence. 'And put it onto the two doorposts and onto the lintel' means the truths and forms of good of the natural. 'On the houses' means the desires composing a will that seeks what is good. 'In which they will eat it' means enjoyment. 'And they shall eat the flesh' means enjoyment of what is good. 'On that night' means when the damnation of the evil takes place. 'Roasted with fire' means good that is the product of love. 'And unleavened bread' means what has been purified from all falsity. 'On bitter herbs' means through the unpleasant experiences of temptation. 'They shall eat it' means enjoyment. 'Do not eat any of it raw' means that it must not be devoid of love. 'Nor boiled at all in water' means that it must not come out of truth. 'But roasted indeed with fire' means that it must be a product of love. 'Its head over its legs and over its middle' means from what is inmost to what is external. 'And you shall not leave any of it until the morning' means the duration of this state before the state of enlightenment in heaven. 'And what does remain of it until the morning you shall burn with fire' means the state leading up to the end arrived at through temptations. 'And thus you shall eat it' means enjoyment in a state of separation from the evil who have been molesters, and preservation at that time. 'Your loins girded' means in respect of their interiors. 'Your shoes on your feet' means in respect of their exteriors. 'And your rod in your hand' means in respect of means. 'And you shall eat it in haste' means their feeling in their state of separation. 'It is a Passover to Jehovah' means the Lord's presence, and deliverance by Him.

5962. 'And he sent his brothers away, and they went' means a concealment from view. This is clear from the meaning of 'sending away as removing them from himself, consequently his ceasing for that reason to be present with them any longer; and from the meaning of 'going' or going away as living, also living further away from, and abandoning too, dealt with in 3335, 3416, 3690, 4882, 5493, 5696, thus becoming concealed from view. The fact that a removal from the internal celestial and so a concealment of it is referred to now is clear from what follows in the internal sense.

[2] Anyone who does not know the nature of the state of life experienced by spirits and angels in heaven cannot know why a concealment of truth and good is referred to now, when immediately before this they had had the light of truth and good shining on them. The heavenly state is such that spirits and angels pass through morning, midday, and evening, also twilight and morning again, and so on. For them it is morning when the Lord is present, blessing them with evident happiness; and at this time they enjoy a perception of good. Midday has come when they dwell in the light of truths; and it is evening when they are removed from them, in which case the Lord seems to them to be more remote and to be concealed from them. All in heaven undergo and pass through these alternating states; without them they cannot be led to ever greater perfection. For those alternating states establish contrasts for them, and from those contrasts they gain more perfect perception, for from those contrasts they know what does not constitute happiness since they know from them what is not good and what is not true.

[3] It is astonishing, and rightly so, that one state never is or ever will be exactly like another, also that one spirit or angel does not pass through changes of state that are the same as those of another, for the reason that with respect to good and truth one spirit or angel is not exactly like another, even as no one person's face is identical to another's. Even so the Lord makes a unified whole out of those varying individuals. It is a general rule that every whole which has any specific character is made up of varying parts which are brought, as if through agreement and harmony with one another, into such a state of unanimity that they all present themselves as a unified whole. In heaven the unified whole which results or rather the process of being unified is effected by means of love and charity; see also 3241, 3267, 3744, 3745, 3986, 4005, 4149, 5598. In the Word the concealment meant by 'Joseph sent away his brothers, and they went' is called evening, which among the angels has come when they do not perceive that the Lord is present. For heaven possesses a constant perception of the Lord's presence; but when angels pass through a state in which they lack that perception they do not, as before, feel an affection for good or see truth. This causes them distress, but shortly after that, twilight comes, and so morning.