9377. And bow yourselves afar off. That this signifies humiliation and adoration from the heart, and then the influx of the Lord, is evident from the signification of "bowing oneself" as being humiliation (see n. 2153, 5682, 6266, 7068). That it also denotes adoration, is because humiliation is the essential of all adoration and of all worship, for without humiliation the Lord cannot be worshiped and adored, for the reason that the Divine of the Lord cannot flow into a proud heart, that is, into a heart full of the love of self, for such a heart is hard; and is called in the Word a "heart of stone." But the Divine of the Lord can flow into a humble heart, because this is soft, and is called in the Word a "heart of flesh." Such a heart is receptive of the influx of good from the Lord, that is, of the Lord. From this it is that by "bowing oneself afar off" is not only signified humiliation and adoration from the heart, but also the influx of the Lord then. It is said the influx of the Lord, because the good of love and of faith, which flows in from the Lord, is the Lord. That "afar off" denotes from the heart, is because those who are in humiliation remove themselves from the Lord, for the reason that they regard themselves as unworthy to approach the most holy Divine, because while they are in humiliation they are in the self-acknowledgment that of themselves they are nothing but evil, nay, profane. When they acknowledge this from the heart, they are in true humiliation. From this it is evident that by "bow yourselves afar off" is signified humiliation and adoration from the heart, and the influx of the Lord then.
[2] But the people of Israel were not in such humiliation and adoration, and only represented it by external gestures; for they were in external things apart from internal. Nevertheless when they humbled themselves they prostrated themselves to the earth, and also rolled in the dust, and cried out with a loud voice, and this for whole days. One who does not know what true humiliation is, could believe that this was humiliation of heart; but it was not the humiliation of a heart that looks to God from God, but of one that looks to God from self; and a heart that looks from self, looks from evil, for whatever proceeds from man as from himself is evil. The people of Israel were in the love of self and of the world more than all other peoples in the whole world, and believed themselves holy, provided they merely offered sacrifice, or washed themselves with water, not acknowledging that such things represented internal holiness, which belongs to charity and faith from the Lord. For all that is holy is not of man, but is of the Lord with man (n. 9229). They who humble themselves from belief in a holiness which is from themselves, and who adore from a love of God which is from themselves, humble themselves and adore from the love of self, thus from a heart that is hard and "of stone;" and not from a heart that is soft, and "of flesh;" and they are in external things and not at the same time in internal; for the love of self dwells in the external man, and cannot enter into the internal man, because the internal man is opened solely through love to and faith in the Lord, thus by the Lord, who therein forms man's heaven in which He dwells.