39. Verse 20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth creeping things, living creatures; and let birds fly above the earth, upon the face ¹ of the expanse of the heavens.

After the great lights have been kindled and lodged in the internal man, from which the external man receives its light, a person starts to live for the first time. Till then he can hardly be said to have lived, for he had imagined that the good he had done he had done from himself, and the truth he had uttered he had spoken from himself. And since man functioning from himself is dead - there being nothing in him that is not evil and false - therefore whatever he brings forth from himself is not living. So true is this that of himself he is incapable of doing any good deed that is in itself good. The fact that man cannot begin to think about good or to will it, and so cannot do good, unless the Lord is the source, is clear to everyone from the doctrine of faith, for the Lord says in Matthew,

He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. Matthew 13:37.

Nor can good come from anywhere else than the one fount itself of all good, as yet again He says,

Nobody is good but one, God. Luke 18:19.

[2] Nevertheless when the Lord is revitalizing a person, or regenerating him, He does allow him, to begin with, to imagine that good and truth originate in himself, for at that point a person cannot grasp anything else, or be led to believe and finally perceive, that all good and truth come from the Lord alone. As long as he held the former opinion his truths and goods were comparable to 'a tender plant', then 'a plant bearing seed', and after that 'a fruit tree', which are inanimate. But once he has been brought to life by love and faith and believes that the Lord is at work in every good deed he does and in every truth he utters, he is compared first to creeping things from the water and to birds which fly above the earth, and then to beasts, all of which are animate and are called 'living creatures'.

Footnotes:

1102. 'He will dwell in the tents of Shem' means so that the internal features of worship may be present in the external features. This becomes clear from all that has been stated already about Shem, to the effect that 'Shem' is the internal Church or internal worship, and that external worship is something altogether soulless or unclean if it does not have internal worship to give it life and sanctify it. That 'tents' means nothing else than the holiness of love and worship arising out of this becomes clear from the meaning of 'tents' dealt with already in 414. Among the ancients 'wandering about and dwelling in tents' was common expression, and by 'tents' in the internal sense was meant holy worship, for the reason that the most ancient people not only wandered about with tents but also dwelt in tents and used to celebrate holy worship in them. Consequently 'wandering about and dwelling' also meant in the internal sense living.

[2] In addition to the places quoted already in 414, let the following as well serve to confirm that 'tents' means holy worship: In David,

God forsook the dwelling-place at Shiloh, the tent where He dwelt with man. Psalms 78:60.

Here 'tent' has a similar meaning to the Temple, in which God is said 'to dwell' when He is present with someone within love. For this reason the individual in whose life holy worship had a place was called by the ancients 'a tent', and later 'a temple'. In Isaiah,

Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out. Isaiah 54:1.

This stands for enlightenment in the things that belong to true worship. In Jeremiah,

The whole land has been laid waste; suddenly My tents have been laid waste, My curtains in a moment. Jeremiah 4:20.

Here it is quite evident that tents are not meant but holy worship. In Zechariah,

Jerusalem will dwell yet again in her own place, in Jerusalem Jehovah will save the tents of Judah. Zechariah 12:6-7.

Here 'the tents of Judah' stands for worship of the Lord arising out of the holiness of love.

[3] From these quotations it now becomes clear what 'dwelling in the tents of Shem' means, namely, so that internal worship may be present in external. But because 'Japheth', the member of the external Church, has little knowledge of what internal things are, a brief description of him will be given. When a person feels or perceives within himself that he has thoughts regarding the Lord which are good and thoughts regarding the neighbor which are good, and he wishes to perform acts of kindness for him, but not for the sake of any gain or for the sake of his own position, and when he feels that he has pity for anyone who suffers misfortune, and more so for him who errs in regard to the doctrine of faith, he may then know that 'he is dwelling in the tents of Shem', that is, that there are with him things of an internal nature by means of which the Lord is working.