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 Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light; your sun will no more go down nor your moon be withdrawn, for Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light.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

4747. 'And behold, a caravan of Ishmaelites came from Gilead' means those in whom simple good is present like that present in gentiles. This is clear from the representation of 'Ishmaelites' as those in whom simple good is present so far as life is concerned, and who consequently rely on natural truth so far as doctrine is concerned, dealt with in 3263, and from the meaning of 'Gilead' as exterior good into which, when a person is being regenerated, he is introduced first, dealt with in 4117, 4124. From this it is evident that 'a caravan of Ishmaelites from Gilead' means the kind of good that exists with gentiles, that is, those in whom that kind of simple good is present.

[2] The implications of this may be seen from what has been stated up to now and from what follows below, in advance of which only this needs to be mentioned: If people within the Church who have set themselves firmly against Divine truths - in particular against the truths that the Lord's Human is Divine and that the works of charity do contribute something towards salvation - have so set themselves against them not only from doctrine but also in life, they have driven themselves interiorly into the kind of state in which they cannot possibly be brought after that to accept those truths. For once such opposition has become firmly established in life as well as from doctrine it remains for ever. People who have no knowledge of man's interior state may suppose that no matter how much he has set himself firmly against those truths he can still accept them without difficulty after that, provided he is convinced they are truths. But this is impossible, as I have been allowed to know from a great deal of experience of such persons in the next life. For that which is firmly accepted from doctrine is absorbed into the understanding, and that which is firmly accepted in life is absorbed into the will. That which is deeply implanted in both areas of life in man - that is to say, in the life of his understanding and in the life of his will - cannot be rooted out. A person's essential soul which lives after death is shaped by these and it is such that it never withdraws from them. This also is the reason why the lot of those within the Church in whom such attitudes of mind have developed is worse than the lot of those outside the Church. Those outside the Church, called the gentiles, have not set themselves firmly against those truths because they have no knowledge of them. For this reason those among them who have led charitable lives with one another accept Divine truths with ease, if not in the world then in the next life. See what has been presented from experience regarding the state and lot of gentile nations and peoples in the next life, in 2589-2604.

[3] Consequently when a new Church is established by the Lord it is not established among those within the Church but among those outside it, that is, among gentiles. These are referred to many times in the Word. These preliminary remarks have been made so that what is implied by Joseph's being thrown into the pit by his brothers may be known and what by his being drawn out of it by the Midianites and sold to the Ishmaelites. For by 'Joseph's brothers' are represented those people within the Church who have set themselves firmly against Divine Truth, in particular against the two truths that the Lord's Human is Divine and that the works of charity do contribute something towards salvation, being opposed to them not only from doctrine but also in life. By 'the Ishmaelites' however those in whom simple good is present are represented, and by 'the Midianites' those who rely on the truth partnering that good. The latter are recorded as having drawn Joseph out of the pit, the former as having bought him. But what is meant by their bringing him down into Egypt where they sold him to Potiphar, Pharaoh's bedchamber-servant, will be stated further on.