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.

10614. 'And Jehovah descended in the cloud and stood with him there' means the outward form that the Word takes, in which the Divine is present. This is clear from the meaning of 'the cloud' as the literal and so the outward sense of the Word, dealt with in the Preface to Genesis 18, and 4060, 4391, 5922, 6343(end), 6752, 8106, 8781, 9430, 10574; and from the meaning of 'standing with Moses there', when it refers to what Jehovah did, as the Divine present within it. The reason why Jehovah appeared to Moses in the cloud is that in the present chapter Moses represents the outward form taken by the Word that is receptive of what is inward, see above in 10607; for the Lord appears to everyone in a way suited to the kind of person he is, 6832, 8814, 8819, 9434, 10551.

[2] Something brief must be stated here to explain what an outward form receptive of that which is inward is, and what an outward form unreceptive of that which is inward is. Within the Word there is an outward sense, there is an inward sense, and there is an inmost sense. The nature of the Word in its outward sense is as it is seen to be in the literal statements. This sense is natural because it is suited to what people in the world can grasp, for people here think on a natural level. The Word in its inward sense however is spiritual because it is suited to the understanding of angels in the Lord's spiritual kingdom; for the angels there think on a spiritual level. But the Word in its inmost sense is celestial because it is suited to the perception of angels in the Lord's celestial kingdom; for the angels there think on a level above the spiritual. Since the Word is like this it follows that one exists within another in the same order - the inmost within the inward, and the inward within the outward. As a result of this all things are connected together, and influx takes place in conformity with that connection; and they also derive their ongoing existence one from another. From all this it is evident that the inner things exist in order within what is outward in much the same way as what is prior exists within what is posterior, sequentially, or as the end exists within the cause and the cause within the effect, or - in the case of the human being - as the will exists within thought and thought within speech.

[3] When therefore the character of a person is such that in his own mind he sees the holiness within the external things of the Word, the Church, and worship, then in his case the outward form taken by these contains that which is inward; for that holiness comes from an inward source since it originates in heaven. This outward form is the one that Moses represents. But when the character of a person is such that he sees none of the holiness within the external things of the Word, the Church, and worship, then in his case the outward form is separated from what is inward, as it was with the Israelite nation, see 10396 (end).