2786. 'And went to the place of which God had told him' means the state at that time according to perception. This is clear from the meaning of 'place' as state, dealt with in 1273-1277, 1376-1381, 2625, and from the meaning of 'God's telling him' as perceiving from the Divine, dealt with in 2769, 2778. As regards the state itself, this is described in the present verse - the state which the Lord assumed when undergoing temptations, here that state when He underwent the severest and inmost temptations. The preliminary preparation for that state consisted in His entering a state of peace and innocence, and also in the preparation by Him of His natural man, and of His rational man too, so that these might serve the Divine Rational, to which He joined the merit of righteousness, and by doing these things raising Himself up.
[2] These matters cannot possibly be explained intelligibly or presented to the thought of anyone who does not know that many states exist together simultaneously, yet distinct and separate from one another, and who also does not know what a state of peace and innocence is, what the natural man is, and what the rational man is, as well as what the merit of righteousness is. He must first have a distinct idea of all of these, and must also know that from the Divine the Lord was able to bring Himself into whatever states He pleased, and that He prepared Himself to enter temptation by bringing about many states. Although these matters are with man enveloped in obscurity like that of night, they are bathed in light like that of day with the angels; for the angels, dwelling in the light of heaven flowing from the Lord, see countless things - each distinctly - within those matters and others like them, and from the affection flowing in at the same time experience indescribable joy. From this it may become clear how far removed man's ability to understand and perceive is from angels' ability to do so.
