31. That 'the great lights' mean love and faith, and are also mentioned as the sun, the moon, and the stars, is clear from various places in the Prophets, as in Ezekiel,

When I have blotted you out, I will cover the heavens and darken their stars, I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light. All the bright lights in the heavens I will make dark over you, and I will put darkness over your land. Ezekiel 32:7-8.

This refers to Pharaoh and the Egyptians, who are used in the Word to mean the sensory and the factual. The meaning here is that they will have blotted out love and faith by means of sensory evidence and factual knowledge. In Isaiah,

The day of Jehovah for making the earth a desolation; for the stars of the heavens and their constellations ¹ will not give their light; the sun will be darkened in its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. Isaiah 13:9-10.

In Joel,

The day of Jehovah is coming, a day of darkness and thick darkness. The earth quakes before Him, the heavens tremble, the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. Joel 2:10.

[2] In Isaiah, in reference to the Lord's Coming and the enlightenment of gentiles, and so to a new Church, in particular to individuals who are in darkness but who are beginning to receive the light and be regenerated,

Arise, shine, for your light has come. Behold, darkness is covering the earth, and thick darkness the peoples, but Jehovah will arise upon you, and nations will walk towards your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light; your sun will no more go down nor your moon be withdrawn, for Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light. Isaiah 60:1-3, 19-20.

In David,

Jehovah makes the heavens by intelligence, He spreads out the earth upon the waters, He makes the great lights, the sun to have dominion over the day, and the moon and stars to have dominion over the night. Psalms 136:5-9.

And in the same author,

Praise Jehovah, sun and moon, praise Him, all stars of light! Praise Him, heaven of heavens, and waters that are above the heavens! Psalms 148:3-4.

[3] In all of these places 'the lights' mean love and faith. Because the lights represented and meant love and faith in the Lord, the Jewish Church was commanded to keep a light burning all the time from evening till morning, for every command which that Church received was representative of the Lord. Concerning this light it is said,

Command the sons of Israel that they take oil for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually. In the Tent of Meeting outside the veil which is before the testimony Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before Jehovah. [Exodus 27:20-21]

That this means the love and faith which the Lord kindles and causes to shine in the internal man, and by means of the internal man in the external man, will in the Lord's Divine mercy be shown at that point in Exodus.

Footnotes:

415. 'Father of cattle' means good deriving from these, that is, from the holy things of love. This becomes clear from what has been shown already at verse 2 of this chapter, to the effect that 'a shepherd of the flock' means good that stems from charity. In the present verse, however, 'father' is used instead of shepherd, and 'cattle' instead of flock, with the words 'and of cattle', whose father he was, standing immediately after the word 'tent', from which it is clear that good stemming from the holiness of love is meant. And whether the dwelling-place, which was 'a cattle-fold', or 'father of those who dwelt in tent and cattle-folds' is understood here, goods stemming from the celestial things of love are meant, as is also clear from various parts of the Word, as in Jeremiah,

I will gather the remnant of My flock from all lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their folds to give birth and multiply. Jeremiah 13:3.

In Ezekiel,

I will pasture them in a good pasture, and their fold will be on the mountains of the height of Israel; there they will lie down in a good fold, and on fat pasture they will pasture on the mountains of Israel. Ezekiel 34:14.

Here 'folds' and 'pastures', referred to as 'fat', stand for goods that stem from love.

[2] In Isaiah,

He will give rain for your seed with which you will sow the ground; and bread, the produce of the ground, will be fat and full of it. On that day He will pasture your cattle in a broad grassland. Isaiah 30:23.

Here 'bread' means that which is celestial, and 'fat on which they will pasture their flocks' goods stemming from that which is celestial. In Jeremiah,

Jehovah has redeemed Jacob; and they will come and sing on the height of Zion, and they will converge on the goodness of Jehovah, for the wheat, and the new wine, and the oil, for the young ¹ of the flock and of the herd. And their life ² will be like a watered garden. Jeremiah 31:11-12.

Here the Holy of Jehovah is described by 'the wheat and oil', and goods deriving from it by 'the new wine and by the young' of the flock and of the herd', or cattle. In the same prophet,

Shepherds and their flocks of cattle will come against the daughter of Zion, they will pitch their tents against her round about; they will pasture, each in his own space. Jeremiah 6:3.

'The daughter of Zion' stands for the celestial Church, to which both 'tents' and 'flocks of cattle' have reference.

Footnotes: