8351. 'And the people grumbled against Moses' means grief caused by the bitterness of the temptation. This is clear from the meaning of 'grumbling' as complaint, the kind made in temptations, thus grief caused by the bitterness of the temptation. The temptations which those belonging to the Lord's spiritual Church underwent after they had been delivered from molestations, in addition to the temptations which members of that Church are destined to undergo, are described by the grumblings of the children of Israel in the wilderness. And since spiritual temptations are as a general rule protracted till a person is in despair, 1787, 2694, 5279, 5280, 7147, 7166, 8165, 'grumbling' means complaint because of grief felt in temptations, as in Exodus 16:2-3; 17:3; Numbers 14:27, 29, 36; 16:11. The words 'against Moses' are used because it was a grumbling against what was Divine; for 'Moses' represents Divine Truth, 6723, 6752, 6771, 6827, 7010, 7014, 7089, 7382.

[2] As regards the temptations which those belonging to the spiritual Church underwent, and the temptations which members of that Church are destined to undergo, it should be recognized that no faith, nor thus any charity, can ever be instilled into those who belong to the spiritual Church except by means of temptations. In temptations a person is involved in conflict against falsity and evil. These - falsity and evil - flow into the external man from the hells, while goodness and truth flow in from the Lord by way of the internal man; and so there arises from a conflict of the internal man with the external that which is called temptation. And in the measure that the external man is brought into a state of obedience to the internal, faith and charity are instilled; for the external or natural level of a person is a receptacle of truth and good from the internal. If the receptacle is not properly adjusted it does not receive anything flowing in from the more internal level but either repels, destroys, or stifles it, as a consequence of which there is no regeneration. So it is that temptation is necessary, in order that a person may undergo regeneration, which is effected through the instillation of faith and charity, and thereby through the formation of a new will and new understanding. This also explains why the term 'militant' is applied to the Lord's Church. See what has been stated and shown already about these matters in 3928, 4249, 4341, 4572, 5356, 6574, 6611, 6657, 7090 (end), 7122, 8159, 8168, 8179, 8273.

5852. The evil spirits present with a person do indeed belong in the hells, yet when they are present with him they are not in hell but have been summoned from there. The place where they are while present with him lies midway between heaven and hell and is called the world of spirits, which has often been mentioned before now. In that world called the world of spirits there are good spirits as well, and these too are present with a person. Into that world people also come immediately after death, and having stayed there for a while they are then either banished to the lower earth, or sent down to hell, or raised up to heaven, the life that people have led being the determining factor in every case. That world serves as the upper boundary of the hells, which are closed or opened there at the Lord's good pleasure; and that world also serves as the lower boundary of heaven. It is therefore an intervening region that marks off heaven from hell. From all this one can see what the world of spirits is. While the evil spirits present with a person are in that world they are not subject to any hellish torment but enjoy the delights typical of self-love and love of the world, as well as the delights gained from all the pleasures for which the person himself has a liking; for they are present in the whole of the person's thought and the whole of his affection. But when they are sent back to their own hell they return to the state that was theirs previously.