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.

816. 19:9 Then he said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!'" This symbolizes a single angel sent from heaven to John and speaking with him about the Lord's New Church, saying that it was granted people on earth to know that those have eternal life who accept the teachings that are the teachings of that church.

That it was a single angel sent from heaven to John who spoke with him can be seen from the following verse, which says that John fell at his feet to worship him, and that the angel replied that he was his fellow servant; therefore that not he but God should be worshiped.

The first speech that John heard came from heaven itself and was uttered by many angels speaking in unison from the Lord, as is clearly apparent from the preceding verses 5, 6, and 7, where we are told that the voice came from the throne, and that it sounded like the voice of a great multitude, and like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, "Let us be glad and rejoice." That was said in the plural, but this now in the singular, thus by a single angel sent to John.

[2] But let me say how the case is when angels speak with a person. They never speak with him from heaven, but any voice heard coming from there comes from the Lord through heaven. However, when angels are granted to speak with a person, they send someone from their society who is close to the person and speak with the person through him. The one sent is the instrument of many. And that is what the one was who now spoke with John. This took place in order that it might be proclaimed on earth that the whole of heaven acknowledges the Lord alone as God of heaven, that He alone is to be worshiped, and that the Lord was about to establish a new church on earth, as it had been in the heavens. For the Lord first establishes a church in the heavens, and then through the heavens on the earth. This is the hidden message contained in these words.

[3] Now for the exposition. "Write" symbolically means to commit something to posterity for its remembrance (nos. 39, 63, 639), in this case to enable it to know these things. This is the meaning of the command to write. "Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!" means, symbolically, that those people have eternal life who accept the teachings that are the teachings of the New Church. Those people are called blessed who have eternal life (no. 639). The marriage of the Lamb symbolizes a new church having a conjunction with the Lord, as in no. 812 above. The people who are called mean all who accept (no. 744). All, indeed, are called, but those who do not accept, reject the call.

[4] The conjunction is called the Lamb's marriage supper because it takes place when the church is in its final state, which is called its evening, and suppers take place in the evening. The first state of a new church is in contrast called morning. It is in its evening state that a person is called to the church, and when the people called are present, its morning state commences.

That the final state of the church is called evening and night, and its first state dawn and morning, may be seen in no. 151 above.

Now because the final period of the Jewish Church, thus its evening, occurred when the Lord went to Jerusalem to suffer, therefore the Lord supped with the disciples then and instituted the Eucharist, which is why it is called Holy Supper. It, too, is a means of the Lord's conjunction with a person of the church, or wedding, if after repentance the person turns to Him directly. Otherwise it occasions His presence and not conjunction.

It can be seen from this what a dinner and dining symbolize elsewhere in the Word.