The Lord had shown the people of the Most Ancient Church (Adam) the spiritual gifts of their celestial state, their state of love to the Lord. He had shown them the loving affections (beasts of the field), the inspired thoughts (fowl of the air) and the life that filled their spiritual existence (living creatures). And the people recognized the nature of those things, and where they came from (they gave them names).

But it was not enough. The people wanted to lead themselves and feel life as their own. They did not want to be in the highest celestial state anymore.

(सन्दर्भ: Arcana Coelestia 142, 143, 144, 145)

851. That 'the ark rested' means regeneration becomes clear from the fact that 'the ark' means the member of this Church, and all that was in the ark means all that resided with that member, as shown extensively already. When therefore the ark is said 'to rest' it means that this member was being regenerated. The train of thought in the sense of the letter does indeed seem to imply that 'the ark's resting' means that the fluctuations following temptation, dealt with in the previous verse, have come to an end. But fluctuations, which are doubt and haziness concerning truths and goods, do not in that manner come to an end but persist for a long time, as will also be clear later on. From this it is clear that the continuity of thought in the internal sense is different. The substance of that thought, being arcana, can be revealed here, namely this: After he has undergone temptations the spiritual man becomes the Lord's 'rest' in the same way as the celestial man does. In the same way also he becomes 'the seventh', not however the seventh day, as the celestial man does, but 'the seventh month'. For details concerning the celestial man's being the Lord's rest or sabbath, and the seventh day, see 84-88. But as a celestial man and a spiritual man are different from each other the celestial man's rest is expressed in the original language by a word meaning the sabbath, whereas the spiritual man's rest is expressed by a different word, from which the name Noah derives which specifically means rest.