189. For I have not found thy works full before God. That this signifies that otherwise the Divine is not in moral life, is evident from the signification of works, as being the things belonging to life (concerning which see above, n. 185); in this case moral life is the subject treated of - and from the signification of works not being full before God, as being that the Divine is not in them. The things pertaining to moral life, here signified by works, are said to be full before God when they are from a spiritual origin, but not full when they are not from that origin. For a moral life, which is the external life of man, must be either from a spiritual origin, or from an origin not spiritual; it cannot be from both, that is, partly from one origin and partly from the other, or partly from heaven and partly from hell, because this would be to serve two masters, God and Mammon; for in this case a man would be lukewarm, neither cold nor hot. Therefore, works must be either full before God, or they are nothing in His sight; hence it is that by I have not found thy works full before God, is signified that the Divine is not in their moral life. The meaning is the same whether we say moral life from a spiritual origin, or from the Divine, because all spiritual life is from the Divine, for the Spiritual is called the proceeding Divine, and is the Divine in heaven; and because all the angels of heaven are recipients of it, therefore they are spiritual; the case is similar with men who receive Divine truth in faith and life. (What the Spiritual is, may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 48, 49.)

5300. 'For the seven years of famine' means as need arises when there is an absence [of truth]. This is clear from the meaning of 'famine' as an absence of truth, dealt with above in 5277, 5278. The fact that the time when truth is absent is a time of need is self-evident; for in the internal sense 'years' are states, as has frequently been shown above, and therefore 'for those [seven] years' means for those states when need arises.