24. Verse 6 And God said, Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let there be a distinguishing of the waters from the waters.

After the Spirit of God, which is the Lord's mercy, has brought out into the daylight cognitions of truth and good, and has shed the light of dawn to reveal that the Lord does exist, and that He is good itself and truth itself, and that no good or truth exists except from the Lord, a distinction is at that point made between the internal man and the external man, and so between cognitions which reside with the internal man and the facts which belong to the external man. The internal man is called 'an expanse, and the cognitions residing with the internal man are called 'the waters above the expanse', while the facts belonging to the external man are called 'the waters below the expanse'.

[2] Until his regeneration starts a person is not aware of even the existence of the internal man, let alone the identity of the internal man. Submerged in bodily and worldly concerns he imagines there is no difference between the two. Furthermore he has submerged in those same concerns the things that belong to the internal man and has made one thorough obscurity out of things that are distinct and separate. For this reason it is first said, 'Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters', and then, 'Let there be a distinguishing of the waters from the waters', and not a distinguishing of the waters. But this is followed immediately by the statement, Verses 7-8, And God made the expanse and He made a distinction between the waters that were under the expanse and the waters that were above the expanse; and it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven.

[3] The second thing therefore that a person notices when being regenerated is that he is starting to become aware of the existence of the internal man, or that what reside in the internal man are goods and truths which are the Lord's alone. And since the external man during regeneration is such as still imagines that he is the source of the good deeds he performs, or of the truth he utters, and since such a person, by means of them, is led by the Lord to do good and to speak truth as if they were his own, therefore the identification of those under the expanse comes first, and the identification of those above the expanse follows. It is also a heavenly arcanum that the Lord uses those things that are man's own - both his illusions of the senses and his desires - to lead and direct him towards the things that are goods and truths. Every single movement of regeneration is accordingly a progression from evening to morning - from external man to internal, that is, from earth to heaven. This is why the expanse, or internal man, is now called 'heaven'.

10370. 'And the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, observing the sabbath [throughout] their generations' means that the truly essential thing of the Church is the acknowledgement of the union of the Divine itself within the Lord's Human, and that this acknowledgement must be present in every single part of worship. This is clear from the meaning of 'keeping the sabbath' as thought which is holy and goes on unceasingly regarding the union of Divinity itself to the Lord's Human, dealt with above in 10356, and so also acknowledging it, for thinking without acknowledging and believing is not spiritual thinking; from the representation of 'the children of Israel' as the Church, dealt with in the places referred to in 9340; from the meaning of 'observing the sabbath' as worshipping that union in a holy way and so worshipping the Lord's Divine Human, since that union resides within His Human; and from the meaning of 'the generations of the children of Israel' as in every single thing of the Church, dealt with in 10282. From all this it is evident that 'the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, observing the sabbath [throughout] your generations' means maintaining the acknowledgement of Divinity itself within the Lord's Human in every single part of worship. The reason why this is the essential thing of the Church and consequently of its worship is that the salvation of the human race depends solely on that union. For the sake also of this union the Lord came into the world; and therefore also that is what the whole Word in its inmost sense deals with and what the religious observances of the Church established among the children of Israel represented and meant spiritually.

[2] The Lord Himself teaches in a number of places that the salvation of the human race depends on that union, consequently that the acknowledgement of it is the essential thing of the Church and of its worship, for example in John,

He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not believe in the Son will not see life. John 3:36.

See also John 3:15-16; 6:40; 11:25-26; 20:31. 'The Son' is the Lord's Divine Human. The reason why those who do not in faith acknowledge the Lord do not have eternal life is that this acknowledgement is made by the whole of heaven; for the Lord is Lord of heaven and earth, as He Himself teaches in Matthew,

All power in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Matthew 28:18.

Therefore heaven is closed to those who do not acknowledge Him; and those who do not acknowledge Him in the world - that is, those within the Church - do not acknowledge Him in the next life. Such is a person's condition after death.