AC 6489 - The Lord's Protection of Us

AC 6489 [1-2]

. . . the Lord is presented before a person
in no other way than by an internal looking,
which is effected through the faith that is from charity.
If the Lord appears to anyone in an outward form,
still it is the interiors which are affected,
for the Divine penetrates to the inmosts.
In regard to the interiors not being injured
by the presence of the Divine Itself,
and that on this account they were protected,
the case is this.
The Divine Itself is pure love,
and pure love is like a fire which is more ardent
than the fire of the sun of this world;
and therefore if the Divine love in its purity
were to flow into any angel, spirit, or person,
they would utterly perish.
So it is that Jehovah or the Lord
is in the Word so often called a "consuming fire."
Lest therefore the angels in heaven should be injured
by the influx of heat from the Lord as a sun,
they are each of them veiled over
by a certain thin and suitable cloud,
whereby the heat flowing in from that sun is tempered.

That without this preservation
everyone would perish at the presence of the Divine
was known to the ancients;
and therefore they were afraid to see God,
as is evident in the book of Judges:

Gideon saw that he was an angel of Jehovah;
and therefore Gideon said,
Ah Lord Jehovih,
forasmuch as I have seen an angel of Jehovah face to face.
And Jehovah said to him,
Peace be to thee;
fear not, for thou shalt not die.
(Judges 6:22-23)

Manoah said unto his wife,

Dying we shall die, because we have seen God.
(Judges 13:22).

And in the book of Exodus:

Jehovah said unto Moses,
Thou canst not see My faces,
for no man shall see Me and live.
(Exodus 33:20)

When therefore it was given Moses to see God,
he was put into a hole of the rock (verse 22);
by which was represented the obscurity of faith,
and also the cloudiness which covered him over,
and by which he was protected.