46. 6. These essentials of divine love were the reason the universe was created, and they are the reason it is maintained. By examining and scrutinizing the three essentials of divine love, one can come to see that they were the reason for creation. The first essential, loving others outside of himself, was a reason for creation in that the universe is outside God (just as the world is outside the sun). The universe is something to which God could extend his love and in which he could put his love into action and so find rest. We read that after God had created heaven and earth he rested; and that he made the Sabbath day for that reason (Genesis 2:23).

You can see that the second essential, God's wanting to be one with others, was also a reason for creation from the fact that people were created in the image and likeness of God. The "image" and the "likeness" mean that we were made as forms that are receptive to love and wisdom from God - forms that God could be one with, and on whose account he could be one with all the other things in the universe, which are all nothing but means. A connection with the final cause is also a connection with the intermediate causes. Genesis, the Book of Creation, makes it clear that all things were created for the sake of humankind (Genesis 1:28-30).

That the third essential, God's blessing others from himself, is a reason for creation you can see from the fact that the angelic heaven was provided for everyone who has let God's love in, a place where the blessings of all come from God alone.

The three essentials of God's love are the reason the universe is maintained as well, because maintaining is an ongoing creation, just as continuing to exist is the same as perpetually coming into being. Divine love is the same from eternity to eternity. The nature God's love has now and will have in the future is the same nature it had when creating the world.

302. Verse 2. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a great voice, signifies exploration by the influx of the Lord into heaven. This is evident from the signification of a "strong angel," as being heaven (of which presently); also from the signification of "proclaiming with a great voice," as being exploration by the influx of the Lord, namely, exploration whether anyone is able to know the states of life of all in heaven and on the earth in general and in particular, for this is what is here treated of. This is signified by "proclaiming," and the influx of the Lord is signified by "a great voice;" for "voice," in reference to the Lord, signifies every truth of the Word, of doctrine, and of faith from Him; and in reference to heaven and the church, it signifies every thought and affection thence; and since everything true and good that angels in heaven and men in whom the church is, think and are affected by, is from the influx of the Lord, this is what is here signified by "a great voice." For it is well known, that no one from the love of good can be affected by good, and from the love of truth can think truth, of himself, but that this flows in from heaven, that is, through heaven from the Lord; and because this is so, "a great voice" signifies the influx of the Lord. (That "voice" in the Word signifies the truth of the Word, of doctrine, and of faith, also everything announced in the Word, see above, n. 261, and Arcana Coelestia 3563, 6971, 8813, 9926; and that it signifies the interior affection of truth and good, and thought therefrom, n. 10454) A "strong angel" signifies heaven because the whole angelic heaven before the Lord is as one man, or as one angel, likewise each society of heaven; therefore by "angel" in the Word an angel is not meant, but an entire angelic society, as by "Michael," "Gabriel," "Raphael." Here, therefore, "a strong angel proclaiming with a great voice" signifies the influx of the Lord into the whole heaven. That it is into the whole heaven is clear from what follows, for it is said, "And no one was able, in heaven nor upon the earth, neither under the earth, to open the book and to look thereon." (That "angels" in the Word mean entire societies of heaven, and in the highest sense the Lord in respect to Divine truth proceeding, see above, n. 90, 130, 200; and that The Whole Heaven before the Lord is as One Man, or as One Angel, and also every Society of Heaven, see in the work on Heaven and Hell 59-87.)