9399. 'And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it over the people' means making a person well-adapted to receive it. This is clear from the meaning of 'the blood of the sacrifice' as Divine Truth emanating from the Lord, dealt with above in 9393; and from the meaning of 'sprinkling over the people' as making a person well-adapted to receive it, for 'sprinkling' means flowing into something, that is, adapting it. Divine Truth which emanates from the Lord is flowing unceasingly into a person and composing his understanding; indeed, if you are willing to believe it, without that unceasing inflow of God's truth emanating from the Lord he can see and learn nothing. For the Divine Truth emanating from the Lord is the light which enlightens the human mind and composes inner sight, which is the understanding. And since that light flows in unceasingly, it makes every person well-adapted to receive it. Those who do receive it however are people who lead a good life, whereas those who do not receive it are people who lead a bad life. Even so, the latter have the ability, just as the former do, to see and learn Divine Truth, and also to receive it to the extent that they depart from evil ways. This is what the half of the blood sprinkled over the people by Moses served to mean.

[2] Regarding Divine Truth emanating from the Lord, that it is the Light which enlightens the human mind and composes its inner sight, which is the understanding, see 2776, 3167, 3195, 3636, 3643, 3993, 4405, 5400, 8644, 8707.

This Divine Truth is also meant in John,

He was the true light which enlightens every person coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, but the world did not know Him. John 1:9-11.

This refers to the Word, which is Divine Truth emanating from the Lord.

[3] Every person in the world who is sound in mind has the ability to learn God's truth, and consequently has the ability to receive it to the extent that he departs from evil ways, as considerable experience has enabled me to know. For all without exception in the next life, the evil as well as the good, are able to learn what is true and what is false, also what is good and what is bad. But the evil, though they can see what truth or good is, have no wish to see it; for their will, and the evil there, finds it repugnant. When left alone to themselves therefore the evil fall back to the falsities accompanying their evil, in detestation of the truth or good they have come to see. The same applied to such people when they were in the world, where they refused to accept truths which they were able to see. From this it has been evident to me that Divine Truth emanating from the Lord flows constantly into human minds and makes them well-adapted to receive it, and that it is indeed received by people to the extent that they depart from the evil ways that go with self-love and love of the world.

1832. 'But the birds he did not cut apart' means that no such parallelism and correspondence existed in the case of spiritual things. This is clear from the meaning of 'birds' as that which is spiritual, dealt with just above in verse 9, and from the fact that he did not part the birds down the middle, which consequently means that no such parallelism and correspondence existed in their case. By spiritual things, as has often been stated already, are meant all those things that constitute faith, consequently all those things which are matters of doctrine, as these are called matters of faith even though in fact they are not so until they have been joined to charity. Between these and the Lord no parallelism and correspondence exists, for they are not such as flow in through an internal dictate and through conscience - as matters of love and charity do - but such as flow in through the reception of teaching and so through hearing, thus not from what is more internal, but from that which is more external; and in this way they form in man their vessels or recipients.

[2] The majority of these have the appearance of being truths but in fact they are not so - like those things which belong to the literal sense of the Word, being also representatives of truth, and meaningful signs of truth, and so not in themselves truths. Some are even falsities, which nevertheless are able to serve as vessels and recipients. With the Lord however only those exist which are wholly and essentially truths, and therefore no parallelism or correspondence exists involving those apparent truths. Yet they may be rendered suitable to serve celestial things - which are matters of love and charity - as vessels. These apparent truths are what constitute the cloud in the understanding part of the mind, dealt with already, into which the Lord infuses charity and so forms conscience.

[3] Take, for example, people who keep to the sense of the letter of the Word and imagine that it is the Lord who brings on temptation, that it is He who at such times tortures a person's conscience, and who imagine that because He permits evil He is the author of evil, that He thrusts the wicked down into hell, and similar ideas. These are not truths, but apparent truths. And because they are not in themselves truths there is no parallelism and correspondence. Nevertheless the Lord leaves these things in man as they are and in a remarkable fashion adapts them by means of charity so that they may serve as vessels for celestial things. The same applies as well to the worship, the teachings, the practices, even the idols, of honest gentiles. In the same way the Lord leaves these things as they are, yet adapts them by means of charity so that they too may serve as vessels. The same was true of so many of the forms of ritual in the Ancient Church, and subsequently in the Jewish Church. In themselves they were nothing more than religious observances that contained no truth in them and which were tolerated and permitted, even prescribed, because they had been held sacred by parents, and so had been implanted in and impressed upon their minds as truths since they were children.

[4] These and other such things are what are meant by the statement that the birds were not divided. For the things that are once implanted in a person's beliefs and are held sacred, provided they are not contrary to Divine order, are left by the Lord as they are; and although no parallelism or correspondence exists He nevertheless adapts them. The same things were also meant in the sacrifices of the Jewish Church by the birds not being divided, for to divide is to set one part opposite the other so that they exactly correspond. But because those things to which reference has been made are not exactly correspondent, they are in the next life blotted out in the case of those who allow themselves to be taught, and truths themselves are implanted in their affections for good. For the sake of this representation and meaning, birds in the Jewish Church were not divided, as is clear in Moses,

If his gift to Jehovah is a burnt offering of a bird, he is to bring a gift of turtle doves or of young pigeons; he will tear it with its wings, he is not to divide it. Leviticus 1:14, 17.

Likewise in sacrifices for sin, Leviticus 5:7-8.