Arcana Coelestia #31
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 Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light; your sun will no more go down nor your moon be withdrawn, for Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light.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.
Fußnoten:
1. literally, orions
Genesis 7
1
Yahweh said to Noah, "Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation.
2
You shall take seven pairs of every clean animal with you, the male and his female. Of the animals that are not clean, take two, the male and his female.
3
Also of the birds of the sky, seven and seven, male and female, to keep seed alive on the surface of all the earth.
4
In seven days, I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. Every living thing that I have made, I will destroy from the surface of the ground."
5
Noah did everything that Yahweh commanded him.
6
Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth.
7
Noah went into the ship with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, because of the waters of the flood.
8
Clean animals, animals that are not Clean, birds, and everything that creeps on the ground
9
went by pairs to Noah into the ship, male and female, as God commanded Noah.
10
It happened after the seven days, that the waters of the flood came on the earth.
11
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep were burst open, and the sky's windows were opened.
12
The rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.
13
In the same day Noah, and Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, entered into the ship;
14
they, and every animal after its kind, all the livestock after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort.
15
They went to Noah into the ship, by pairs of all flesh with the breath of life in them.
16
Those who went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God commanded him; and Yahweh shut him in.
17
The flood was forty days on the earth. The waters increased, and lifted up the ship, and it was lifted up above the earth.
18
The waters prevailed, and increased greatly on the earth; and the ship floated on the surface of the waters.
19
The waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth. All the high mountains that were under the whole sky were covered.
20
The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered.
21
All flesh died that moved on the earth, including birds, livestock, animals, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man.
22
All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, of all that was on the dry land, died.
23
Every living thing was destroyed that was on the surface of the ground, including man, livestock, creeping things, and birds of the sky. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ship.
24
The waters prevailed on the earth one hundred fifty days.
