75. 4.

In that day I will visit, and make an end of the kingdom of Israel (Hosea 1:4-5).

The days of visitation will come, the days of retribution will come, He will visit their sins (Hosea 9:7, 9).

They shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us (Hosea 10:8).

They shall be laid waste as in the day of battle (Hosea 10:14).

The controversy of Jehovah with Judah, to visit upon Jacob, according to his ways, according to his doings will He recompense him (Hosea 12:3).

The day of Jehovah is great and very terrible, who then shall sustain it (Joel 2:11; 3:4).

A day of battle and a day of tempest (Amos 1:14).

Then the powerful one shall not deliver his soul, and the strong of heart among the heroes shall flee away naked in that day (Amos 2:14, 16).

He will visit upon them all their iniquities, in that day (Amos 3:2, 14).

If they dig into hell, if they ascend to the heavens or in the depth of the sea, etc., thence will I draw them out (Amos 9:2-6).

Woe unto you that desire the day of Jehovah; to what end is the day of Jehovah for you? it is a day of darkness and not of light. Shall not the day of Jehovah be darkness and not light? and thick darkness and no brightness in it? (Amos 5:18, 20.)

The end is come upon my people Israel. Wherefore the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day: there shall be many a dead body (Amos 8:2-3).

It is called the day of destruction, the day of straitness (Obadiah 12-14, 18, 18).

The day of Jehovah is near upon all the nations; as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy retribution shall return upon thy head. But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness (Obadiah 14, 15, 17, 17).

32. Love and faith are first called 'the great lights', then love is called 'the greater light' and faith 'the lesser light'. In reference to love it is said that it will have dominion over the day, and in reference to faith that it will have dominion over the night. Because these are arcana and have become hidden, especially at this end of an epoch, in the Lord's Divine mercy let the whole subject be opened up. The reason they have become hidden, especially at this present end of an epoch, is that now is the close of the age, when love is almost non-existent, and consequently faith too, just as the Lord Himself foretold in the Gospels with these words,

The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Matthew 24:29.

Here 'the sun' is used to mean love, which is 'darkened', 'the moon' faith which does not give its light, 'the stars' cognitions of faith which fall from heaven, and which are the various 'powers of the heavens'. The Most Ancient Church acknowledged no other faith than love itself; celestial angels as well do not know what faith is except faith which stems from love. Love pervades the whole of heaven, for in the heavens no other life is found except the life that belongs to love. This is the source of all happiness in heaven, a happiness so great that no aspect of it can be described or in any way captured in human concepts. People in whom this love is present love the Lord wholeheartedly. Yet they realize, say, and perceive that all love, thus all life, which belongs exclusively to love, and so all happiness, come from the Lord and nowhere else, and that they derive not one trace of love, life, and happiness from themselves. The Lord's being the source of all love was again represented by the greater light, that is, the sun, at the Transfiguration, for His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as the light, Matthew 17:2. What is inmost is meant by His face, and what emanates from the inmost by His garments. Thus His Divinity is meant by the sun or love, and His Humanity by the light or wisdom coming from love.