9408. 'And it was like the substance of the sky for clearness' means the translucence of the angelic heaven. This is clear from the meaning of 'the sky (or heaven)' as the angelic heaven, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'clearness' or purity of substance, when said of the sky, as translucence. What the translucence of the angelic heaven is when the Word is the subject must be stated briefly. The angelic heaven is said to be translucent when God's truth shines through; for the whole of heaven is nothing other than a receptacle of God's truth. Each angel is an individual recipient of it, so that all the angels or heaven as a whole is a general recipient. This explains why heaven is called 'God's dwelling-place' and also 'God's throne'. For 'dwelling-place' means God's truth emanating from the Lord and received in the inmost heaven, which in comparison is good, 8269, 8309; and 'throne' means God's truth emanating from the Lord and received in the middle heaven, 5313, 6397, 8625, 9039. Since that which shines through, out of the sense of the letter of the Word, is God's truth as it exists in the heavens, it is the angelic heaven that shines through. For the Word is Divine Truth adjusted to all the heavens, and as a consequence of this it joins the heavens to the world, that is, angels to men, 2143, 7153, 7381, 8920, 9094 (end), 9212 (end), 9216 (end), 9357, 9396. From all this it is evident what the words 'the translucence of the angelic heaven' are used to mean.

[2] The reasons why in the internal sense 'the sky (or heaven)' means the angelic heaven lie with correspondence and also with the appearance. So it is that where the words 'heavens' and 'heavens of heavens' occur in the Word the angelic heavens are meant in the internal sense. For the ancients had no other idea of the visible sky than this, that the inhabitants of heaven lived there and that the stars were their dwelling-places. At the present day too, simple people - especially young children - have the same idea. So it is also that people look upwards to the sky or heaven when they worship God. This action too arises from correspondence; for a sky with stars appears in the next life, but this is not the sky seen by people in the world. Instead it is a sky that takes on an appearance which accords with the spirits and angels' state of intelligence and wisdom. The stars in it are cognitions or knowledge of goodness and truth, and the clouds which are sometimes seen in the sky vary in meaning according to their colours, translucence, and movements, the blue of the sky being truth transparent with good. All this goes to prove that by 'heavens' the angelic heavens are meant. But by the angelic heavens God's truths are meant, because angels are recipients of God's truth emanating from the Lord.

[3] Similar things are meant by 'heavens' in David,

Praise Jehovah, heavens of heavens, and waters that are above the heavens! Psalms 148:4.

In the same author,

Make melody to the Lord who rides above the heaven of the heaven of old. Psalms 68:33.

In the same author,

By the Word of Jehovah were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the spirit ¹ of His mouth. Psalms 33:6.

In the same prophet,

The heavens recount His glory, and the firmament declares the works of His hands. Psalms 19:1.

In the Book of Judges,

O Jehovah, when You went forth from Seir, the earth trembled, the heavens also dropped, the clouds indeed dropped water. Judges 5:4.

In Daniel,

The horn of the he-goat grew right on towards the host of the heavens, and cast down to the earth some of the host, and of the stars, and trampled on them. Daniel 8:10.

In Amos,

The Lord Jehovih, who builds His steps in the heavens ... Amos 9:6.

In Malachi,

If there is food in My house I will open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing for you. Malachi 3:10.

In Isaiah,

Look out from the heavens, and see from the dwelling-place of Your holiness and of Your glory. Isaiah 63:15.

In Moses,

Blessed by Jehovah is the land of Joseph, in regard to the precious things of heaven, to the dew. Deuteronomy 33:13.

In Matthew,

Jesus said, You shall not swear by heaven, for it is God's throne. He who swears by heaven swears by God's throne and by Him who sits on it. Matthew 5:32; 23:22.

[4] In these and very many other places 'heavens' means the angelic heavens. And since the Lord's heaven on earth is the Church, the Church too is meant by 'heaven', as in the following places: In John,

I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away. Revelation 21:1.

In Isaiah,

Behold, I am creating new heavens and a new earth; therefore the former things will not be remembered or come to mind. ² Isaiah 65:17.

In the same prophet,

The heavens will vanish away like smoke, and the earth will grow old like a garment. Isaiah 51:6.

In the same prophet,

I clothe heaven with darkness, and I make sackcloth its covering. Isaiah 50:3.

In Ezekiel,

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. And all the bright lights in heaven I will make dark, and I will put darkness over the land. Ezekiel 32:7-8.

In Matthew,

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, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Matthew 24:29.

What the meaning is of 'sun', 'moon', 'stars', and 'in the heavens', see 4056-4060.

In Isaiah,

O Jehovah God of Israel, You are God alone over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Isaiah 37:16.

In the same prophet,

[I am] Jehovah who makes all things, who spreads out the heavens Alone, who stretches out the earth by Myself. Isaiah 44:24.

In the same prophet,

Jehovah who created the heavens, who formed the earth, and made it, and prepared it, did not create it an emptiness. Isaiah 45:18.

[5] In the internal sense 'heaven and earth' in these and other places means the Church, the internal Church being meant by 'heaven' and the external Church by 'earth', see 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118 (end), 3355 (end), 4535. From all this it is evident that by creation in the earliest chapters of Genesis, where it says, In the beginning God created heaven and earth, Genesis 1:1, And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them, Genesis 2:1, a new Church is meant. For creation there describes regeneration, which is also called the new creation, as has been shown and may be seen in the explanations of those chapters.

2196. 'And this was behind him' means close to the good which existed with the rational at that time, and separated from it insofar as anything of the human was in it. This is clear from what is said regarding the door where Sarah stood - that it was 'behind him'. 'Being behind him' means not joined together but behind his back. That which is separated from someone is represented by that which has been cast so to speak behind the back, as may become clear from the representatives in the next life described from experience in 1393, 1875. This separation is expressed here by its being said that the door where Sarah stood was behind him.

[2] The situation so far as merely human rational truth - which resided with the Lord at that time and was separated from Him when He joined Himself to the Divine - is that human rational truth has no grasp of Divine things because these are above its range of understanding. Such truth does indeed communicate with the facts which are present in the natural man; but insofar as it looks from those facts at the things that exist above itself it does not acknowledge these things. For such truth is immersed in appearances of which it cannot rid itself; and appearances are born from the evidence of the senses - which leads one to believe as though Divine things themselves are also of a similar nature, when in fact they are free of all appearances. When such Divine things are stated this rational truth cannot possibly believe them because it cannot have any grasp of them. Let some examples be given.

[3] If it is stated that a person has no life except that which he receives from the Lord, the rational, seeing from appearances, imagines in that case that he is not able to live as if from himself, when in fact he is for the first time truly living when he perceives that he does so from the Lord.

[4] Seeing from appearances the rational imagines that the good which a person does springs from himself, when in fact nothing good at all springs from self, but from the Lord.

[5] Seeing from appearances the rational imagines that a person merits salvation when he does what is good, when in fact of himself a person can merit nothing - all merit being the Lord's.

[6] Seeing from appearances a person imagines that when he is being withheld from evil and maintained in good by the Lord, nothing but good, righteousness, and indeed holiness are present with him, when in fact present in man there is nothing except evil, unrighteousness, and profanity.

[7] Seeing from appearances a person imagines that when he does what is good from charity his will is the source of his actions, when in fact it is not his will that is the source but his understanding in which charity has been implanted.

[8] Seeing from appearances a person imagines that no glory can exist without the glory of the world, when in fact the glory of heaven does not have one trace of the world's glory within it.

[9] Seeing from appearances a person imagines that nobody can love the neighbour more than he loves himself, but that all love begins from self, when in fact heavenly love has no self-love at all within it.

[10] Seeing from appearances a person imagines that no light can exist apart from that which flows from the light of this world, when in fact not a ray of the world's light shines in heaven, though the light there is a thousand times brighter than the midday light of the world.

[11] Seeing from appearances a person imagines that the Lord cannot possibly shine before the whole of heaven as a sun, when in fact the entire light of heaven comes from Him.

[12] Seeing from appearances no one can grasp the idea that developments take place in the next life, when in fact those there seem to themselves to be making developments - as anyone does on earth - in for example, their homes, courtyards, and gardens. Still less can man grasp it if he is told that these are changes of state which manifest themselves outwardly in such developments.

[13] Seeing from appearances a person cannot grasp that it is because they are not visible before his eyes that spirits and angels are not able to be seen; nor can he grasp that they are able to talk to man, when in fact they are seen more clearly before internal sight, or the sight of the spirit, than man sees man on earth. And their utterances are also in like manner clearly audible.

Besides these there are thousands upon thousands of things such as these which man's rational, seeing from its own light, which is born from the evidence of the senses and consequently is darkened, cannot possibly believe. Indeed even in natural things the rational is blinded. It is unable to grasp, for example, how those living on the opposite side of the world can stand erect and walk, or to grasp very many other natural phenomena. How blind must the rational be then in spiritual and celestial things which are far above those that are natural.

[14] Such being the nature of the human rational, it is here spoken of as being separated when the Lord, while possessing Divine Perception, was united to the Divine. This is meant by the statement that Sarah, who here is such rational truth, 'stood at the tent door, and this was behind him'.