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 Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light; your sun will no more go down nor your moon be withdrawn, for Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light.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.

Bilješke:

10472. 'You know the people, that they [are set] on evil' means that that nation's interest lies in what is external separated from what is holy and internal. This is clear from the meaning of 'evil' and 'sin' as severance, separation, and turning away from the Divine, dealt with in 4997, 5746, 5841, 9346. The words 'separated from what is holy and internal' are used because when that which is external is separated from what is internal it is also separated from what is holy; for what is holy in a person resides in his internal. That is called holy which flows in from heaven and resides with a person, that is, comes from the Lord by way of heaven. Heaven flows into a person's internal, and by way of this into his external; for a person's internal has been created so as to conform to an image of heaven, thus to receive spiritual things that belong there, and the external to conform to an image of the world, thus to receive natural things that belong there, 9279, 10156. From this it is evident what a person whose external has been separated from his internal is like, that is to say, his interest lies solely in worldly, earthly, and bodily things. Those whose interest lies solely in these have no understanding of what the internal is, nor thus of what a concern for heavenly and Divine things is. They suppose that when they are engaged in doing the things that compose the external worship of the Church they are also involved in things that are Divine. But this is not so; for at such times either the bodily delights to which they have been accustomed since they were young children rule their minds, or the worldly aim that they may seen by others spurs them on, or the gain to be made or the prestige to be won out of performing the duties of their office motivates them. Thus they too are interested in worldly, earthly, and bodily things, and not in heavenly and Divine ones. It is different with those who are interested in external things from a concern for what is internal.