919. 21:23 The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it, and the Lamb is its lamp. This symbolically means that people of the New Church will not be caught up in self-love and their own intelligence and so possess a natural sight only, but from the Word's Divine truth will possess a spiritual light from the Lord alone.

The sun here symbolizes natural love divorced from spiritual love, which is self-love. And the moon symbolizes a natural intelligence and faith divorced from a spiritual intelligence and faith, which is one's native intelligence and a self-made faith. This is the love and the intelligence and faith symbolized by the sun and moon here, which people of the Lord's New Church will have no need of to light their sight.

The glory of God which illumines the city symbolizes the Word's Divine truth (no. 629), and because that illumination or enlightenment comes from the Lord, we are told as well that the Lamb is its lamp.

The symbolism here is similar to that found in the following verses in Isaiah:

You shall call your walls salvation, and your gates praise. The sun shall no longer be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you; but Jehovah will be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory. Your sun shall no longer go down, nor shall your moon wane; for Jehovah will be your everlasting light... Your people shall all be righteous. (Isaiah 60:18-21)

The sun and moon that will no longer give light mean self-love and one's native intelligence. And the sun and moon that will no longer go down mean love from the Lord for the Lord, and an intelligence and faith from Him. That Jehovah will be an everlasting light has the same symbolic meaning as what is said here, that the glory of God will illumine the city and the Lamb be its lamp.

That the sun symbolizes love for the Lord, and in an opposite sense self-love, may be seen in nos. 53 and 414 above. And that the moon symbolizes intelligence from the Lord and faith from Him, in nos. 332, 413, 414. Thus the moon in an opposite sense symbolizes one's native intelligence and a self-made faith.

Since the sun in an opposite sense symbolizes self-love, and the moon one's native intelligence and a self-made faith, therefore it was an abomination to worship the sun, moon and stars, as may be seen in Jeremiah 8:1-2.

54. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead. (1:17) This symbolically means that he experienced a failure of his own life owing to such a presence of the Lord.

A person's own life cannot endure the presence of the Lord such as the Lord is in Himself, indeed such as He is in the inmost constituents of His Word. For His Divine love is altogether like the sun, which no one can endure as it is in itself, because it would consume him.

This is the meaning of the declaration that no one can see God and live (Exodus 33:20, Judges 13:22).

This being the case, the Lord therefore appears to angels in heaven as the sun, at a distance from them, like the world's sun from people. That is because the Lord in that sun is present as He is in Himself.

But still the Lord moderates and tempers His Divinity so as to make it possible for a person to endure His presence. This He does by veilings. It was what He did when He revealed Himself to many people in the Word. Indeed, it is by veilings that He is present in everyone who worships Him. As He says in John,

He who... keeps (My commandments)..., in him (I) will make (My) abode. (John 14:21, 23)

And He says that He must be in them and they in Him (John 15:4-5).

It is apparent from this why, when John saw the Lord in such glory, he fell at His feet as though dead. And why, too, when three of the disciples saw the Lord in His glory, they were "heavy with sleep," and a cloud covered them (Luke 9:32, 34).