8194. 'And he went behind them' means protection to prevent the inflow of the falsity of evil into the will. This is clear from the meaning of 'going behind the children of Israel' as protection to prevent them from being attacked by the Egyptians, in the internal sense to prevent the inflow of falsities arising from evil, which are meant by 'the Egyptians', 8132, 8135, 8148. The prevention of their flowing into the will is meant because in the Grand Man, or spiritual world, things of the will are located at the back or behind and those of the understanding before the face or in front.

[2] With regard to what flows into a person's will and into his understanding, it should be recognized that the Lord takes the utmost care to prevent those in hell from flowing into a person's will. For if they were to enter his will after he has been regenerated or become an embodiment of the Church he would be done for, since his own will is nothing but evil. This explains why a person belonging to the spiritual Church undergoes regeneration of the understanding part of his mind, and why the new will is formed in the understanding part, in complete isolation from the person's hereditary will; regarding this subject, see 863, 875, 927, 1023, 1043, 1044, 2256, 4328, 4493, 5113. From all this one may now see why it is that 'he went behind them' means protection to prevent the inflow of the falsity of evil into the will.