6828. 'And he led the flock to the back of the wilderness' means after the temptations they - those guided by the truth that went with simple good - had undergone. This is clear from the meaning of 'the flock' as the Church where those who were guided by the truth that went with simple good were, dealt with immediately above in 6827; and from the meaning of 'the wilderness' as a state of temptation. 'A wilderness' can mean that which is sparsely inhabited and cultivated or else that which is totally uninhabited and uncultivated, and so in the spiritual sense means a person who has experienced vastation as regards good and desolation as regards truth. It therefore means a person undergoing temptation, for a person undergoing temptation experiences vastation and desolation. The falsity and evil present in him come out into the open, blotting out and virtually removing the influx of truth and good from the Lord. And the truth that does flow in does not seem to that person to possess the kind of life that can dispel falsities and evils. Furthermore evil spirits are present at this time, injecting a feeling of distress and making him despair of salvation. The fact that 'a wilderness' means a state such as this is clear from very many places in the Word, see 2708; and since 'the wilderness' meant a state of temptation, and the number 'forty' meant its duration, of whatever length, 730, 862, 2272, 1273, the children of Israel were for that reason in the wilderness forty years, and the Lord was for the same reason in the wilderness forty days when He was tempted, Matt 4:2; Mark 1:13.