30. Verses 14-17 And God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens, to make a distinction between the day and the night; and they will be for signs, and for set times, and for days and years. And they will be for lights in the expanse of the heavens, to give light upon the earth; and it was so. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to have dominion over the day, and the lesser light to have dominion over the night; and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.

No one can have an adequate understanding of what 'the great lights' are unless he knows what the underlying essence of faith is and how it develops in people who are being created anew. The very essence and life of faith is the Lord alone. In fact it is impossible for anyone who does not believe in the Lord to have life, as He Himself has said in John,

He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not believe in the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God will rest upon him. John 3:36.

[2] With people who are being created anew faith develops as follows: First of all they have no life, for life does not exist in anything evil and false but in what is good and true. Then they start to receive life from the Lord by means of faith - first by faith existing in the memory, which is factual faith, then by faith existing in the understanding, which is conceptual faith, and after this by faith existing in the heart, which is loving or saving faith. Factual faith and conceptual faith are represented in verses 3-13 by the inanimate, but faith made alive by means of love is represented in verses 20-25 by the animate. Consequently this is the first point at which love and faith deriving from it, which are called 'lights', are dealt with. Love is 'the greater light which has dominion over the day', and faith deriving from love is 'the lesser light which has dominion over the night'. And because they ought to make one the verb in the phrase 'let there be lights 'is singular and not plural.

[3] Love and faith have their place in the internal man as warmth and light do in the external, bodily man, and for this reason love and faith are represented by warmth and light. Therefore it is said that 'the lights' were set in the expanse of the heavens, that is, in the internal man - the greater light in his will and the lesser in his understanding. Yet they make their appearances in the will and understanding only as sunlight does in the objects it strikes. To the Lord alone belongs the mercy which moves the will with love and the understanding with truth or faith.

900. And over the gates twelve angels, with names written on them, which are those of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. This symbolizes the Divine truths and goods of heaven in those concepts, which are also the Divine truths and goods of the church, and at the same time safeguards to keep someone from entering into them unless he does so from the Lord.

The twelve angels symbolize here all the truths and goods of heaven, since in the highest sense angels symbolize the Lord, in a more general sense heaven, which is composed of angels, and in a more particular sense the truths and goods of heaven from the Lord. See nos. 5, 170, 258, 344, 415, 465, 647, 648, 657, 718. Here they symbolize the truths and goods of heaven, because the statement follows, "with names written on them, which are those of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel," and these symbolize all the truths and goods of the church (no. 349).

Being over the gates means, symbolically, in those concepts, inasmuch as "over" in the Word symbolically means "within." The reason is that the highest component in sequential order becomes the inmost in concurrent order. Consequently the third heaven is called both the highest heaven and the inmost heaven. That is why "over the gates" symbolically means in the concepts of truth. The names written on the angels symbolize their whole character, thus also the character within them, for every quality in outward expressions originates from inner attributes.

It is apparent that the same words symbolize safeguards to keep someone from entering the church without having those concepts from the Lord, because the angels were seen standing over the gates, and the names of the tribes of Israel were also written on them.

We say that the truths and goods of heaven and the church are present in the concepts coming from the Word that serve to introduce into the church, because when concepts of truth and good from the Word have in them a spiritual quality from heaven from the Lord, they are called not concepts, but truths. But if those concepts do not have in them a spiritual quality from heaven from the Lord, they are nothing more than articles of knowledge.