4696. 'And behold, the sun and the moon' means natural good and natural truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'the sun' as celestial good, dealt with in 1529, 1530, 2120, 2441, 2495, 3636, 3643, 4060; and from the meaning of 'the moon' as spiritual good, which is truth, dealt with in 1529, 1530, 2495. In the highest sense 'the sun' means the Lord because He is seen as the sun by those in heaven who are governed by celestial love, and in the highest sense 'the moon' too means the Lord because He is seen as the moon by those in heaven who are governed by spiritual love. Also He is the source of every ray of light in heaven. Consequently the light received from the sun there is the celestial form of love, which is good, and the light received from the moon there is the spiritual form of love, which is truth. Here therefore 'the sun' means natural good and 'the moon' natural truth, since these two sources of light are used to refer to Jacob and Leah (as is evident from verse 10, where Jacob says, 'Shall we indeed come - I and your mother, and your brothers - to bow down to you to the earth?') and 'Jacob' represents natural good and 'Leah' natural truth, as shown already in various places. The Divine which comes from the Lord is in the highest sense the Divine within Him, but in the relative sense is the Divine going forth from Him. The Divine good received from Him is that which is called celestial, and the Divine truth received from Him is that which is referred to as spiritual. When the rational receives these it is in this case the good and truth of the rational that are meant; but when the natural receives them it is the good and truth of the natural that are meant. Here the good and truth of the natural are meant because the words used refer to Jacob and Leah.

The sun in the Bible represents the Lord, with its heat representing His love and its light representing His wisdom. “Daytime,” then, represents a state in which we are turned toward the Lord, receiving His love and being enlightened by His truth. And “nighttime,” obviously, represents states in which we are turned away from the Lord, left cold and blind to the truth. The most common word used for it in the New Christian theology is “obscurity.” The darkness is not absolute, of course. The light of the moon represents the understanding we can have based on facts and our own intelligence. But while the moon reflects some of the sun's light, it offers almost no heat, so this kind of understanding is a cold one, without the warmth of love. And at its darkest and coldest, night represents a state of judgment. This happens when a person -- or a church -- becomes so mired in evil and falsity that there is no light or heat. The Lord can then step in, separate the good from the evil, consign the evil to hell and begin rebuilding based on the remnant that is still good. Drastic as that sounds, it is something that we all go through repeatedly in various aspects of our loves, so that we can be rid of what is evil and let the Lord rebuild us as angels.