5647. 'And the men were afraid' means a drawing back. This is clear from the meaning here of 'being afraid' as a drawing back, a drawing back from being joined to the internal. Fear arises from various causes, such as those dangerous situations when people can lose their lives, the gains they have made, and also both their positions and reputations, as well as the fear that they may be led into some kind of slavery, resulting in the loss of freedom together with the delight life holds within itself. This matter is dealt with below, for the men's fear was that they would become linked to the internal, which would cause them to lose their own identity, and with their own identity their freedom, and with their freedom the delight life holds within itself since that delight depends on the existence of freedom. This is the reason why 'the men were afraid' means a drawing back, a drawing back lest they should become linked [to the internal].
[2] Let a brief preliminary statement be made here about the nature of that joining together, that is to say, of the external or natural man to the internal or spiritual man. The external or natural man reigns from the earliest period in life, unaware of the existence of the internal or spiritual man. That being so, when a person undergoes reformation and from being a natural or external man starts to become a spiritual or internal one, the natural rebels initially. For that person receives teaching to the effect that the natural man must be made subservient; that is, all his strong evil desires and the accompanying ideas that lend support to these must be rooted out. Consequently when left to himself the natural man thinks that in that case he may be completely destroyed, since he knows nothing other than that the natural is all there is, being totally ignorant of the fact that things beyond measure or description reside within the spiritual. When the natural man thinks like this he draws back, having no wish to be made subservient to the spiritual. This then is what is meant here by 'fear'.
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