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 Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light; your sun will no more go down nor your moon be withdrawn, for Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light.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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9669. Verses 31-33 And you shall make a veil from violet and purple and twice-dyed scarlet and fine twined linen; with the work of a designer it shall be made, ¹ with cherubs. And you shall hang it upon four pillars of shittim [wood] overlaid with gold, and their hooks [shall be made] from gold; [they shall stand] on four bases of silver. And you shall hang up the veil under the clasps, and you shall bring the ark of the Testimony in there, within the veil; and let the veil be for you a divider between the holy place and the holy of holies.

'And you shall make a veil' means the intermediary uniting this heaven and the inmost heaven, thus spiritual good to celestial good. 'From violet and purple and twice-dyed scarlet and fine twined linen' means the forms of the good of love and faith that are joined together there. 'With the work of a designer it shall be made' means the power of understanding. 'With cherubs' means watchfulness, guarding against the intermingling of the two. 'And you shall hang it upon four pillars of shittim [wood]' means the good of merit, which is the Lord's alone, linking them together and providing support. 'Overlaid with gold' means a representative sign there [of good]. 'And their hooks [shall be made] from gold' means the modes by which they are linked together through good. '[They shall stand] on four bases of silver' means the power by which they are linked together through truth. 'And you shall hang up the veil under the clasps' means the ability to link them together and the consequent accomplishment of this. 'And you shall bring the ark of the Testimony in there, within the veil' means the coming-into-being of the inmost heaven within that uniting intermediary. 'And let the veil be for you a divider between the holy place and the holy of holies' means between spiritual good - which is the good of charity towards the neighbour and the good of faith in the Lord - and celestial good, which is the good of love to the Lord and the good of mutual love.

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