187. Verse 2. Be wakeful, signifies that they should acquire for themselves life. This is evident from the signification of "being wakeful," as meaning to be in spiritual life; but here, since those whose life is moral and not yet spiritual are treated of, "Be wakeful" is that they should acquire for themselves spiritual life. This life is meant by "wakefulness" and "being awake," because spiritual life is to moral life, apart from spiritual life, as wakefulness is to sleep, or as noonday light is to the evening, yea, to darkness. But that this is so is not known or perceived by those who are in natural life alone, neither by those who are in moral life apart from spiritual life, for this life also is natural life. They do not know or perceive this, because they are in natural lumen only, and this lumen in comparison with spiritual light is as the darkness of evening to the light of noonday. Moreover, to such the darkness of evening seems like light; for their interior sight, which is that of the thought, is adapted to that darkness, just as the sight of owls, bats, and other birds that fly by night, is adapted to the shade. Consequently they believe themselves to be in light because they are able to reason, when yet they are in darkness. That this is so is manifest from the state of such after death, when they become spirits. They then believe, when with their companions, that they are in light, because they not only see all things that are about them, but also are able to think and speak about any matter whatever; and yet their light, when the light of heaven flows in with them, is changed into darkness, and they become so blind in respect to the understanding as not to be able to think at all. Moreover, when angels who are in the heavens look down on those who are in such lumen, they see nothing there but mere darkness. That spiritual life compared with moral life apart from spiritual life is as wakefulness compared with sleep, can be further seen from this, that those who are in spiritual light are in angelic wisdom and intelligence, which is such as to be incomprehensible and ineffable to those who are in natural lumen alone, and this not only with men while living in the world, but also with the same when after death they become spirits; and when intelligence and wisdom constitute wakefulness. From this it can now be seen that "Be wakeful" here signifies that they should procure for themselves spiritual life.

[2] To "be awake" has a similar signification in the following passages. In Matthew:

Be awake, therefore, for ye know not in what hour your Lord cometh (Matthew 24:42).

In Mark:

Be ye awake, for ye know not when the lord of the house cometh, at evening, or at midnight, or at cock-crowing; ¹ lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. What I say unto you I say unto all, Be awake (Mark 13:35-37).

He that is ignorant of the internal sense of the Word may believe that these words refer to the Last Judgment, and that everyone should be prepared for that; but man's state in respect to love and faith when he dies is what they refer to, for then is his judgment. "Evening," "night," and "cock-crowing" signify such states; "evening" signifying a state of waning faith and charity, which is man's state when he comes into the exercise of his own judgment, and is extinguishing in himself the things that he imbibed in childhood; "night" signifying a state of no faith and charity; "cock-crowing" or "daybreak" the state when faith and charity are beginning, which is, when man loves truths and wishes to be reformed by them.

In whatever state a man dies he remains, and according to that he is judged. From this it is evident what is meant by "Be ye awake, lest the Lord coming suddenly find you sleeping. What I say unto you I say unto all, Be awake," namely, that "to be awake" means to receive life from the Lord, which life is spiritual life, and that "sleeping" means living a natural life apart from a spiritual life. (That "evening" signifies a state of waning faith and charity, see Arcana Coelestia 3056, 3197, 3833, 8431, 10134, 10135; "night" a state of no faith or charity, n. 221, 709, 2353, 6000, 7870, 7947; and "daybreak" before morning, or "cock-crowing," the state when faith and charity are beginning, n. 10134.)

[3] In Luke:

Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when He cometh shall find awake; verily I say unto you, He shall gird himself, and make them recline to eat, and drawing near will minister unto them. Be ye ready; for in an hour that ye think not the Son of man will come (Luke 12:37, 40).

Here also, those that "are awake" mean those who are spiritually awake, that is, those who receive spiritual life from the Lord, for these come into the light of intelligence and wisdom respecting Divine truths; but those who do not receive spiritual life remain in obscurity and thick darkness respecting those truths; these, therefore, are asleep, while the former are awake. His "girding himself, making them recline to eat, and drawing near to minister unto them," signifies to communicate to them the goods of heaven, which are all from the Lord.

[4] In Matthew:

The kingdom of the heavens is like unto ten virgins, five of them were prudent, and five were foolish. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept; but the bridegroom coming, they all arose and trimmed their lamps. And when the foolish came, who had no oil in their lamps, and said, Lord, Lord, open to us, the Lord answered, I say unto you, I know you not. Be awake, therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh (Matthew 25:1-13).

By "the ten virgins" all who are of the church are meant; by "five" some of them are meant; this is what these numbers signify; by "lamps" the things of faith are signified; by "oil" the things of love. By "the five prudent virgins," therefore, those who are in love and in faith therefrom are meant; but by "the five foolish virgins" those who are in no love, but in faith alone. As such are in no spiritual life (for only those who are in love and charity have spiritual life, because they only are in faith), so because such as these are shut out of heaven, it is said unto them, "I say unto you, I know you not." From this it is most evident what is signified by "Be awake, therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh," namely, that they should receive spiritual life, which those have who are in love and in faith therefrom. (But these things may be seen more fully explained in Arcana Coelestia 4635-4638.)

[5] In Luke:

Be wakeful, therefore, praying at every season, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man (Luke 21:36).

Here, also, "to be wakeful" means to receive spiritual life; "to pray at every season" signifies to prepare oneself.

[6] In Revelation:

Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that is awake, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked (Revelation 16:15).

Here "to be awake" signifies to receive spiritual life from the Lord, as is evident from its being said, "Blessed is he that is awake and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked;" "garments" signifying the knowledges of truth and good by means of which man has spiritual life; and "to walk naked" signifying life without such knowledges as means, thus life not spiritual but merely natural. (That "garments" signify the knowledges of truth and good, see below, n. 195, and that by "naked" is signified the deprivation of these, see Arcana Coelestia 1073, 5433, 5954, 9960)

[7] In Lamentations:

Arise, cry aloud in the night, at the beginning of the watches; lift up thy hands to the Lord respecting the soul of thy babes, who have fainted through hunger at the head of every street (Lamentations 2:19);

here, as above, "night" signifies a state of no faith; "the beginning of the watches" signifies the state when faith begins, thus a state of illustration, which is when man becomes spiritual. By "babes" are meant those who love truths, and long for them; "to faint through hunger at the head of every street" is to be deprived of spiritual life through a lack of the knowledges of truth and good. (That "hunger" means a lack of knowledges and a longing for them, see Arcana Coelestia 1460[1-4], 3364, 5277, 5279, 5281, 5300, 5360, 5376, 5893; and that "streets" are the truths of doctrine, 2336)

[8] Because "to be awake" signifies to receive spiritual life, therefore "sleeping" signifies natural life apart from spiritual life, since natural life compared with spiritual life is as sleep compared with wakefulness, as has been said above. This is what "sleeping" signifies in Matthew:

The kingdom of the heavens is like unto a man that sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat (Matthew 13:24-25).

In Jeremiah:

When they have grown warm, I will set their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may sleep the sleep of an age, and not awake (Jeremiah 51:39, 57).

In David:

Look! answer me, Jehovah my God! lighten Thine eyes ² lest I sleep death (Psalms 13:3).

In the same:

The strong in heart have become a spoil, they have slumbered their sleep; at Thy rebuke both the chariot and the horse have fallen into a deep sleep (Psalms 76:5-6).

"Chariot and horse" signify the doctrine of the church and the understanding of doctrine; these are said "to fall into a deep sleep" when they are without truths, and when consequently the man of the church is without spiritual life by means of truths. (That "chariots and horses" in the Word signify doctrine and the intellectual, see in the small work onThe White Horse 1-5.)

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5893. 'There have been two years of famine in the midst of the land' means states ¹ when there is a lack of good in the natural mind. This is clear from the meaning of 'years' as states, dealt with in 487, 488, 493, 893; from the meaning of 'famine' as a lack of good (for 'bread' in the spiritual sense is the good of love, and 'food' is the good of truth, so that 'famine' or 'hunger' is a lack of good, while 'thirst' is a lack of truth); and from the meaning of 'in the midst of the land' - the land of Egypt - as the natural mind, dealt with in 5276, 5278, 5280, 5288, 5301. The expression 'in the midst' is used because the midst or middle is the inmost part, 1074, 2940, 2973. Where good resides. 'Two years' are states when good and truth exist joined together, since 'two' means a joining together, 5194; but in the present use of the expression a joining together that has not yet been effected is meant since they are 'two years of famine'.

[2] The implications of this are as follows: Truths must be present in the natural mind if good is to do its work, and those truths must be brought into it through an affection belonging to genuine love. Everything without exception in a person's memory has been brought into it through some love, and having become joined to that love remains in the memory. This also applies to the truths of faith; if they have been brought in through a love of truth, those truths become joined to and remain there with that love. Once they have become joined to it the following is then the situation: If the affection is evoked again, the truths that have been joined to it reappear at the same time; and if the truths are evoked again, the affection to which they have been joined reappears at the same time. This being so, when a person is being regenerated - which happens in adult life because he is unable before this to think for himself about the truths of faith - he is governed by angels sent by the Lord. They govern him by maintaining in him the truths which he has become convinced are truths, and by maintaining in him through those truths the affection to which they have been joined. And because that affection - an affection for truth - has its origin in good, he is then led step by step towards good.

[3] A considerable amount of experience has proved the truth of this to me. For I have noticed that when evil spirits have thrust evils and falsities at me, the angels from the Lord present at the time have maintained in me the truths implanted in me previously and have thereby withheld me from those evils and falsities. From this it has also been evident that the truths of faith which, through an affection for truth, have become rooted in me serve as a level into which angels can operate, so that people who do not have this level laid down in them cannot be led by angels but allow themselves to be led by hell. For without it the operation of the angels cannot become established anywhere and so passes away from them. That level for angels to operate into cannot however be acquired unless the truths of faith have been put into service and thus have been implanted in the person's will and through this in his life. It is also worth mentioning that when the operation of the angels into the truths of faith present with a person takes place, it is rarely plain to see, that is to say, so plain that thought about the truth operated into is aroused. Rather, a general notion of things in keeping with that truth, and the affection that goes with it, is produced. For that operation by the angels is effected by means of an imperceptible inflowing which, when a visual presentation of it is made, looks like an inflowing beam of light. That light is made up of countless truths present within good which focus on one particular truth known by a person and which, while they sustain the truth in him, also sustain the love that belongs to that truth. This is the way the angels raise a person's mind above falsities and protect it from evils. Yet the person is totally unaware of any of this.

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