9264. 'For I will not justify the wicked' means that such malevolence is contrary to Divine righteousness. This is clear from the meaning of 'justifying' as declaring innocent and acquitting, but in this instance not acquitting since it says 'I will not justify' (that 'justifying' can also mean declaring innocent and acquitting is evident from the legal meaning of the word, as well as from the following in Matthew,

By your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. Matthew 12:37.

And in Luke,

You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. Luke 16:15); and from the meaning of 'the wicked' as malevolence, dealt with above in 9249. Malevolence, which is spoken of here as being contrary to Divine righteousness, consists in destroying good, interior and exterior, meant by 'killing the innocent and the righteous', who are the subject just above in 9262, 9263. Such good is destroyed when Divine Truth and Good received from the Lord are disowned. When a person disowns them they are annihilated, and so is the Lord Himself, the Source from whom all good that is good comes and all truth that is true. When they have been annihilated the person no longer has any spiritual life or consequently any salvation. They - truth and good - are annihilated when people disown what is Divine and the Lord's, and also when they disown the Word since this is Divine Truth received from the Lord and concerning the Lord. Disowning this, when one has previously acknowledged it and accepted it in faith, and so annihilating it, is the sin against the Holy Spirit which is not forgiven, Matthew 12:31. For the Holy Spirit is Divine Truth and Good, being the Holiness which emanates from the Lord, 9229. The same thing is also meant by 'shedding innocent blood', dealt with just above. The truth that such malevolence is not forgiven because it is contrary to Divine righteousness is meant by 'I will not justify the wicked'.

2441. That 'the sun had gone forth over the earth' means the final period which is called the Last Judgement is clear from the meaning of 'sunrise' when the subject is the times and states of the Church. That the times of the day, like the seasons of the year also, in the internal sense mean the consecutive states of the Church has been shown already in 2323, and that 'the dawn' or 'the morning' means the coming of the Lord or approach of His kingdom, in 2405. Thus 'sunrise' or its going forth over the earth is His actual arrival or presence, the reason being that both the sun and the east where it rises mean the Lord - 'the sun', see 31, 32, 1053, 1521, 1529-1531, 2120, and 'the east', 101.

[2] The reason the Lord's arrival or presence coincides with the final period called the judgement is that His presence separates the good from the evil, and leads on to the good being raised into heaven and the evil casting themselves down into hell. For in the next life the Lord is the Sun of the whole of heaven, see 1053, 1521, 1529-1531. Actually it is the Divine celestial manifestation of His Love which appears before their very eyes as the sun and produces the light itself of heaven. To the extent therefore that those in the next life abide in celestial love they are raised up into that celestial light which comes from the Lord. But to the extent they are remote from celestial love they cast themselves away from that light into the darkness of hell.

[3] This then is the reason why 'sunrise' which means the Lord's arrival or presence entails both the salvation of the good and the condemnation of the evil; and why at this point it is first stated that 'Lot came to Zoar', that is, that people represented here by Lot were saved, and immediately after this that 'Jehovah rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire', that is, the evil were condemned.

[4] To those there who are immersed in the evils of self-love and love of the world, that is, who hate all things to do with love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour, the light of heaven actually appears as thick darkness. This is why it is said in the Word that to those people the sun was darkened, which means that they rejected everything to do with love and charity and accepted everything contrary to these, 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.

Anyone may see that 'covering the heavens', 'darkening the stars', 'covering the sun', and 'making the bright lights dark' mean different things from these.

[5] Similarly in Isaiah,

The sun will be darkened in its going forth and the moon will not give its light. Isaiah 13:9-10.

And in Joel,

The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. Joel 2:2, 10.

This therefore shows what is meant by these words spoken by the Lord when He was describing the final period of the Church which is called the judgement, in Matthew,

Immediately after the affliction of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven. Matthew 24:29.

'The sun' is not used to mean the sun, nor 'the moon' the moon, nor 'stars' the stars, but 'the sun' is used to mean love and charity, 'the moon' faith derived from these, and 'the stars' cognitions of good and truth, which are said to have been darkened, to lose their light, and to fall from heaven when the acknowledgement of the Lord, and love to Him and charity towards the neighbour, cease to exist any longer. And when these have become non-existent self-love together with falsities deriving from it take possession of man; for the one thing results as a consequence of the other.

[6] This also explains the following in John,

The fourth angel poured out his bowl into the sun and it was allowed to scorch men with fire; therefore men were burned by the fierce heat, and they blasphemed the name of God. Revelation 16:8-9.

This too refers to the last times of the Church when all love and charity is being annihilated, or to express it in ordinary language, when no faith exists any longer. The annihilation of love and charity is meant by the statement that the bowl was poured out into the sun; consequently it is in that case self-love and its desires that are meant by the statement that men were scorched with fire and that they were burned by a fierce heat; and this led to their blaspheming the name of God.

[7] By 'the sun' the Ancient Church understood nothing other than the Lord and the Divine celestial manifestation of His love. It was their custom when praying therefore to turn towards the rising of the sun - yet without giving any thought at all to the sun itself. Later on however when their descendants had lost even this together with every other representative and meaningful sign they began to worship the sun and moon themselves. This kind of worship spread to very many nations, so much so that they dedicated temples to the sun and to the moon, and erected pillars. And because the sun and moon now assumed an opposite meaning they mean self-love and love of the world, which are the complete reverse of celestial and spiritual love.

[8] In the Word therefore worshipping the sun and moon is used to mean worship of self and of the world, as in Moses,

Lest you lift your eyes to heaven and you see the sun and moon and stars, all the host of heaven, and you are drawn away and bow down to them and serve them. Deuteronomy 4:19.

And in the same author,

If anyone has gone and served other gods, and bowed down to them, and to the sun or moon, or to all the host of heaven, which I have not commanded, you shall stone them with stones, and they shall die. Deuteronomy 17:3, 5.

People turned the worship of old into such idolatry when they no longer believed that anything internal was meant in the religious observances of the Church, only that which is external.

[9] Similarly in Jeremiah,

At that time the bones of the kings of Judah, of the princes, of the priests, of the prophets, and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, they will spread before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven which they have loved and which they have served. Jeremiah 8:1-2.

'The sun' stands for self-love and its desires. 'Spreading out the bones' means the hellish things which such people possess. In the same prophet,

He will break down the pillars of the house of the sun that is in the land of Egypt, and the houses of the gods of Egypt he will burn with fire. Jeremiah 43:13.

'The pillars of the house of the sun' stands for worship of self.