31. That the “great luminaries” signify love and faith, and are also called “sun, moon, and stars” is evident from the Prophets, as in Ezekiel:
When I shall extinguish thee, I will cover the heavens and make the stars thereof black; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light; all the luminaries of the light of heaven will I make black over thee, and I will set darkness upon thy land (Ezekiel 32:7-8).
In this passage Pharaoh and the Egyptians are treated of, by whom are meant, in the Word, the principle of mere sense and of mere knowledge [sensuale et scientificum]; and here, that by things of sense and of mere knowledge [sensualia et scientifica], love and faith had been extinguished. So in Isaiah:
The day of Jehovah cometh to set the land in desolation, for the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light; the sun is darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine (Isaiah 13:9-10).
Again, in Joel:
The day of Jehovah cometh, a day of darkness and of thick darkness; the earth trembleth before Him, the heavens are in commotion; the sun and the moon are blackened, and the stars withdraw their brightness (Joel 2:1-2, 10).
[2] Again, in Isaiah, speaking of the advent of the Lord and the enlightening of the Gentiles, consequently of a new church, and in particular of all who are in darkness, and receive light, and are being regenerated:
Arise, shine, for thy light is come; behold darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness the peoples, and Jehovah shall arise upon thee, and the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising, Jehovah shall be to thee a light of eternity, thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself, for Jehovah shall be to thee a light of eternity (Isaiah 60:1-3, 20).
So in David:
Jehovah in intelligence maketh the heavens, He stretcheth out the earth above the waters; He maketh great luminaries; the sun to rule by day, the moon and stars to rule by night (Psalms 136:5-9).
And again:
Glorify ye Jehovah, sun and moon glorify Him, all ye stars of light glorify Him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that are above the heavens (Psalms 148:3-4).
[3] In all these passages, “luminaries” signify love and faith. It was because “luminaries” represented and signified love and faith toward the Lord that it was ordained in the Jewish Church that a perpetual luminary should be kept burning from evening till morning, for every ordinance in that church was representative of the Lord. Of this luminary it is written:
Command the sons of Israel that they take oil for the luminary, to cause the lamp to ascend continually: in the tabernacle of the congregation without the veil, which is before the testimony, shall Aaron and his sons order it from evening even until morning, before Jehovah (Exodus 27:20-21).
That these things signify love and faith, which the Lord kindles and causes to give light in the internal man, and through the internal man in the external, will of the Lord’s Divine mercy be shown in its proper place.
