31. That 'the great lights' mean love and faith, and are also mentioned as the sun, the moon, and the stars, is clear from various places in the Prophets, as in Ezekiel,

When I have blotted you out, I will cover the heavens and darken their stars, I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light. All the bright lights in the heavens I will make dark over you, and I will put darkness over your land. Ezekiel 32:7-8.

This refers to Pharaoh and the Egyptians, who are used in the Word to mean the sensory and the factual. The meaning here is that they will have blotted out love and faith by means of sensory evidence and factual knowledge. In Isaiah,

The day of Jehovah for making the earth a desolation; for the stars of the heavens and their constellations ¹ will not give their light; the sun will be darkened in its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. Isaiah 13:9-10.

In Joel,

The day of Jehovah is coming, a day of darkness and thick darkness. The earth quakes before Him, the heavens tremble, the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. Joel 2:10.

[2] In Isaiah, in reference to the Lord's Coming and the enlightenment of gentiles, and so to a new Church, in particular to individuals who are in darkness but who are beginning to receive the light and be regenerated,

Arise, shine, for your light has come. Behold, darkness is covering the earth, and thick darkness the peoples, but Jehovah will arise upon you, and nations will walk towards your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light; your sun will no more go down nor your moon be withdrawn, for Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light. Isaiah 60:1-3, 19-20.

In David,

Jehovah makes the heavens by intelligence, He spreads out the earth upon the waters, He makes the great lights, the sun to have dominion over the day, and the moon and stars to have dominion over the night. Psalms 136:5-9.

And in the same author,

Praise Jehovah, sun and moon, praise Him, all stars of light! Praise Him, heaven of heavens, and waters that are above the heavens! Psalms 148:3-4.

[3] In all of these places 'the lights' mean love and faith. Because the lights represented and meant love and faith in the Lord, the Jewish Church was commanded to keep a light burning all the time from evening till morning, for every command which that Church received was representative of the Lord. Concerning this light it is said,

Command the sons of Israel that they take oil for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually. In the Tent of Meeting outside the veil which is before the testimony Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before Jehovah. [Exodus 27:20-21]

That this means the love and faith which the Lord kindles and causes to shine in the internal man, and by means of the internal man in the external man, will in the Lord's Divine mercy be shown at that point in Exodus.

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10258. 'And cassia' means truth even more interior, springing from good. This is clear from the meaning of 'cassia' as the interior truth of the internal man. The fact that 'cassia' has this meaning is evident from what has been stated and shown above; for heavenly realities follow in that sequence, from outermost to inmost. Inmost truth therefore is what 'cassia' means, being the fourth in the sequence. The reason why 'cassia' means truth springing from good is that inmost truth emanates directly from good and acts jointly with good on lower levels, as is the case when the understanding acts altogether in unison with the will, so completely that one cannot tell whether an action springs from the will or from the understanding. Also, the more internal heavenly things are, the more perfect they are; for all perfection increases towards the more internal parts, and all perfection springs from good, that is, comes from the Lord through good.

[2] Cassia is mentioned as one of those wares that mean heavenly things, in Ezekiel,

Dan and Javan exchanged yarn in your dealings; wrought iron, cassia, and calamus were in your trading. Ezekiel 27:19.

This refers to Tyre, by which cognitions or knowledge of truth and good in the Church are meant, see 1201, and by 'Dan and Javan' those possessing the cognitions of heavenly things. 'Wrought iron' is last and lowest heavenly truth, and 'cassia' inmost truth.

[3] Cassia is not mentioned anywhere else in the Word, though 'kessia' ¹ is in David, which also is a species of cassia,

God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness. With myrrh, aloes, and kessia [He has anointed] all Your garments. Psalms 45:7-8.

The whole of this Psalm refers to the Lord, in particular to the glorification of His Humanity. No one lacking knowledge of the internal sense of the Word can by any means know what is meant, when the Lord is the subject, by 'anointing all His garments with myrrh, aloes, and kessia'.

[4] It is evident that what should be thought of is not garments nor the myrrh, aloes, and kessia with which they were anointed, but the Divine Truths springing from Divine Good with which the Lord clothed His Human; for anointing was nothing other than a representative sign of the Divine Good within the Lord's Divine Human. Consequently 'myrrh, aloes, and kessia' means Divine Truths in their own proper order, emanating from the Divine Good that was within Him; and therefore His Divine Human is meant by 'garments'. Whether you say the Lord's Divine Human or Divine Truth, it amounts to the same thing, for while He was in the world the Lord was Divine Truth itself, and when He left the world He made Himself Divine Good, from which Divine Truth flows, see in the places referred to in 9199(end), 9315(end). Besides, the term 'garment' is used in the Word for that which clothes something else, whatever this may be. The Lord's garments in Isaiah 63:2-3, and elsewhere, have this kind of meaning. For the meaning of 'garments' as truths clothing good, see 2576, 4545, 4763, 5248, 5319, 5954, 9093, 9212, 9216, 9952. From all this it is now evident that 'kessia' in the Psalm, which is a species of cassia, means Divine Truth, emanating directly from Divine Good, which truth is inmost truth.

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