414. So that a third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night. This symbolically means that they no longer have in them any spiritual truth or natural truth from the Word serviceable for doctrine and life.

The day's not shining means that they had no light from the sun, and "likewise the night" means that they had no light from the moon and stars. Light in general symbolizes Divine truth, which is truth from the Word. The light of the sun symbolizes spiritual Divine truth, and the light of the moon and stars symbolizes natural Divine truth, both acquired from the Word. Divine truth in the spiritual sense of the Word is like the light of the sun during the day, and Divine truth in the natural sense of the Word is like the light of the moon and stars at night. The spiritual sense of the Word, moreover, flows into its natural sense, as the sun does with its light to the moon, and this reflects the light of the sun indirectly.

In this way also does the spiritual sense of the Word enlighten people, even people who know nothing of that sense, when they read the Word in its natural sense. However, it enlightens a spiritual person as light from the sun does his eye, but a natural person as light from the moon and stars does his eye. Everyone is enlightened in accordance with his spiritual affection for truth and goodness, and at the same time in accordance with the genuine truths by which he has opened his rational faculty.

[2] Day and night also have this meaning in the following places:

God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night...." Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule by day, and the lesser light to rule by night. He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule by day and by night, and to divide the light from the darkness. (Genesis 1:14-19)

(Jehovah) made great lights..., the sun to rule by day..., the moon and stars to rule by night... (Psalms 136:7-9)

The day is Yours, (O Jehovah,) the night also is Yours; You have prepared the light and the sun. (Psalms 74:16)

...Jehovah... gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night... (Jeremiah 31:35)

If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, then My covenant also may be broken with David My servant... If I have not appointed My covenant with day and night, the ordinances of heaven and earth, I also will reject the offspring of Jacob and David... (Jeremiah 33:20-21, 25-26)

I cite these passages to make known that the darkening of both kinds of light is meant.

10554. 'And Jehovah spoke to Moses face to face' means Divine things in the Word that are joined together. This is clear from the meaning of 'speaking face to face' as being joined together, for 'the face' means the interiors, and when these turn towards one another and each sees a similarity, they join themselves together. This is what 'speaking face to face' means when it applies to Jehovah talking to Moses, by whom the Word is meant. 'Speaking' means perceiving, and 'face to face' mutually, so that each one's perception exists in the other, which constitutes a joining together of them.

[2] All this should be understood in connection with the Word - with its nature as just described - because Moses here means the Word. For such is the nature of the Word in its inward sense and in its outward sense; in the inward sense all its details are joined together, and so are all those in the outward sense, and in addition those in the inward sense are joined to those in the outward by means of correspondences. These joinings cannot be described; and even if they could be described no ideas exist in the mind to enable it to grasp what they are. They are realities of a celestial and spiritual nature which are joined together among themselves in that way there, and by means of correspondences are joined to the images of a natural and worldly nature that constitute the sense of the letter. Some conception of what those joinings are like may be gathered from the ways in which angelic communities in the heavens are joined together. These taken together constitute a single whole, just as the members, internal organs, and other organs of a human being do, which, though they are various and consist individually of various and countless parts within, nevertheless form a single whole. The truths and forms of good in the Word are also like this. Mankind is totally unaware of the fact that the nature of the Word is such; but angels know it because they can perceive the interconnection of the interiors of the Word.

[3] From all this it becomes clear that 'Jehovah spoke to Moses face to face' means Divine things in the Word that are joined together. One thing is meant by 'speaking face to face' and another by 'seeing Jehovah face to face', as is evident from what comes later on in the present chapter, where Jehovah says to Moses,

You cannot see My face, for no one will see Me and live ¹ . But I will put you in a cleft of the rock and cover My palm over you until I have passed through. And I will take away My palm, and you will see My back parts; and My face will not be seen. Exodus 33:20, 22-23.

'Moses' means the Word, see in the places referred to in 10549.

'Face' means the interiors, in the places referred to in 9546.

'Speaking' means perceiving, in the places referred to in 10290.

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