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 Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light; your sun will no more go down nor your moon be withdrawn, for Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light.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.
Notas a pie de página:
1. literally, orions
Leviticus 18
2
"Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, 'I am Yahweh your God.
3
You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived: and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you; neither shall you walk in their statutes.
4
You shall do my ordinances, and you shall keep my statutes, and walk in them: I am Yahweh your God.
5
You shall therefore keep my statutes and my ordinances; which if a man does, he shall live in them: I am Yahweh.
6
"'None of you shall approach anyone who are his close relatives, to uncover their nakedness: I am Yahweh.
7
"'You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, nor the nakedness of your mother: she is your mother. You shall not uncover her nakedness.
8
"'You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife: it is your father's nakedness.
9
"'You shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, the daughter of your father, or the daughter of your mother, whether born at home, or born abroad.
10
"'You shall not uncover the nakedness of your son's daughter, or of your daughter's daughter, even their nakedness: for theirs is your own nakedness.
11
"'You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife's daughter, conceived by your father, since she is your sister.
12
"'You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's sister: she is your father's near kinswoman.
13
"'You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister: for she is your mother's near kinswoman.
14
"'You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's brother, you shall not approach his wife: she is your aunt.
15
"'You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law: she is your son's wife. You shall not uncover her nakedness.
16
"'You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother's wife: it is your brother's nakedness.
17
"'You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter. You shall not take her son's daughter, or her daughter's daughter, to uncover her nakedness; they are near kinswomen: it is wickedness.
18
"'You shall not take a wife to her sister, to be a rival, to uncover her nakedness, while her sister is yet alive.
19
"'You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is impure by her uncleanness.
20
"'You shall not lie carnally with your neighbor's wife, and defile yourself with her.
21
"'You shall not give any of your children to sacrifice to Molech; neither shall you profane the name of your God: I am Yahweh.
22
"'You shall not lie with a man, as with a woman. That is detestable.
23
"'You shall not lie with any animal to defile yourself with it; neither shall any woman give herself to an animal, to lie down with it: it is a perversion.
24
"'Don't defile yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations which I am casting out before you were defiled.
25
The land was defiled: therefore I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out her inhabitants.
26
You therefore shall keep my statutes and my ordinances, and shall not do any of these abominations; neither the native-born, nor the stranger who lives as a foreigner among you;
27
(for all these abominations have the men of the land done, that were before you, and the land became defiled);
28
that the land not vomit you out also, when you defile it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.
29
"'For whoever shall do any of these abominations, even the souls that do them shall be cut off from among their people.
30
Therefore you shall keep my requirements, that you do not practice any of these abominable customs, which were practiced before you, and that you do not defile yourselves with them: I am Yahweh your God.'"
