Arcana Coelestia #31
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 Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light; your sun will no more go down nor your moon be withdrawn, for Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light.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:
1. literally, orions
Numbers 31
1
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
2
"Avenge the children of Israel for the Midianites. Afterward you shall be gathered to your people."
3
Moses spoke to the people, saying, "Arm men from among you for the war, that they may go against Midian, to execute Yahweh's vengeance on Midian.
4
Of every tribe one thousand, throughout all the tribes of Israel, you shall send to the war."
5
So there were delivered, out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand of every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.
6
Moses sent them, one thousand of every tribe, to the war, them and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to the war, with the vessels of the sanctuary and the trumpets for the alarm in his hand.
7
They warred against Midian, as Yahweh commanded Moses; and they killed every male.
8
They killed the kings of Midian with the rest of their slain: Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they killed with the sword.
9
The children of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their little ones; and all their livestock, and all their flocks, and all their goods, they took for a prey.
10
All their cities in the places in which they lived, and all their encampments, they burnt with fire.
11
They took all the spoil, and all the prey, both of man and of animal.
12
They brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of the children of Israel, to the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by the Jordan at Jericho.
13
Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them outside of the camp.
14
Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, who came from the service of the war.
15
Moses said to them, "Have you saved all the women alive?
16
Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against Yahweh in the matter of Peor, and so the plague was among the congregation of Yahweh.
17
Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him.
18
But all the girls, who have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.
19
"Encamp outside of the camp seven days: whoever has killed any person, and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves on the third day and on the seventh day, you and your captives.
20
As to every garment, and all that is made of skin, and all work of goats' [hair], and all things made of wood, you shall purify yourselves."
21
Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who went to the battle, "This is the statute of the law which Yahweh has commanded Moses:
22
however the gold, and the silver, the brass, the iron, the tin, and the lead,
23
everything that may withstand the fire, you shall make to go through the fire, and it shall be clean; nevertheless it shall be purified with the water for impurity: and all that doesn't withstand the fire you shall make to go through the water.
24
You shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, and you shall be clean; and afterward you shall come into the camp."
25
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
26
"Take the sum of the prey that was taken, both of man and of animal, you, and Eleazar the priest, and the heads of the fathers' [houses] of the congregation;
27
and divide the prey into two parts: between the men skilled in war, who went out to battle, and all the congregation.
28
Levy a tribute to Yahweh of the men of war who went out to battle: one soul of five hundred, [both] of the persons, and of the cattle, and of the donkeys, and of the flocks:
29
take it of their half, and give it to Eleazar the priest, for Yahweh's wave offering.
30
Of the children of Israel's half, you shall take one drawn out of every fifty, of the persons, of the cattle, of the donkeys, and of the flocks, [even] of all the livestock, and give them to the Levites, who perform the duty of the tabernacle of Yahweh."
31
Moses and Eleazar the priest did as Yahweh commanded Moses.
32
Now the prey, over and above the booty which the men of war took, was six hundred seventy-five thousand sheep,
33
and seventy-two thousand head of cattle,
34
and sixty-one thousand donkeys,
35
and thirty-two thousand persons in all, of the women who had not known man by lying with him.
36
The half, which was the portion of those who went out to war, was in number three hundred thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep:
37
and Yahweh's tribute of the sheep was six hundred seventy-five.
38
The cattle were thirty-six thousand; of which Yahweh's tribute was seventy-two.
39
The donkeys were thirty thousand five hundred; of which Yahweh's tribute was sixty-one.
40
The persons were sixteen thousand; of whom Yahweh's tribute was thirty-two persons.
41
Moses gave the tribute, which was Yahweh's wave offering, to Eleazar the priest, as Yahweh commanded Moses.
42
Of the children of Israel's half, which Moses divided off from the men who warred
43
(now the congregation's half was three hundred thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep,
44
and thirty-six thousand head of cattle,
45
and thirty thousand five hundred donkeys,
46
and sixteen thousand persons),
47
even of the children of Israel's half, Moses took one drawn out of every fifty, both of man and of animal, and gave them to the Levites, who performed the duty of the tabernacle of Yahweh; as Yahweh commanded Moses.
48
The officers who were over the thousands of the army, the captains of thousands, and the captains of hundreds, came near to Moses;
49
and they said to Moses, "Your servants have taken the sum of the men of war who are under our command, and there lacks not one man of us.
50
We have brought Yahweh's offering, what every man has gotten, of jewels of gold, armlets, and bracelets, signet rings, earrings, and necklaces, to make atonement for our souls before Yahweh."
51
Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold of them, even all worked jewels.
52
All the gold of the wave offering that they offered up to Yahweh, of the captains of thousands, and of the captains of hundreds, was sixteen thousand seven hundred fifty shekels.
53
([For] the men of war had taken booty, every man for himself.)
54
Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold of the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and brought it into the Tent of Meeting, for a memorial for the children of Israel before Yahweh.
