7100. 'Let us go, we beg you, a way of three days in the wilderness' means that they must be in a state completely removed from falsity, even though they live in obscurity of faith, see 6904, where similar words occur.

6904. 'And now let us go, we beg you, a way of three days into the wilderness' means a life of truth in a state totally removed from falsities, even though it is led in a state of obscurity. This is clear from the meaning of 'going' as leading a life, dealt with in 3335, 4882, 5493, 5605; from the meaning of 'a way' as truth, dealt with in 627, 2333; from the meaning of 'three days' as a complete state, dealt with in 2788, 4495, so that when the expression is used in connection with being removed from falsities, it describes a state totally removed from them ('putting a journey of three days between' is a total setting apart, see 4010); and from the meaning of 'the wilderness' as that which is uninhabited and uncultivated, dealt with in 2708, 3900. Which in the spiritual sense is obscurity of faith. For the subject here is the establishment of the spiritual Church, which is meant by 'the children of Israel'; and those who belong to that Church are in comparative obscurity so far as the good and truth of faith are concerned, see 2708, 2715, 2716, 2718, 2831, 2849, 2975, 2937, 3141, 3246, 3837, 4402, 6289, 6500, 6865. A life of truth is the life that is led by those who belong to the spiritual Church; for when the truth that they know from the Word or from the teaching of the Church becomes a matter of life it is called good, yet it is truth expressed in action.