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 Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light; your sun will no more go down nor your moon be withdrawn, for Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light.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
Arcana Coelestia #3179
3179. 'And they said, Let us call the girl and ask her personally' means consent solely of the affection for truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'the girl' as an affection that has innocence within it, dealt with in 3067, 3110, in this case the affection for truth because Rebekah is meant, who is 'the girl' before she gives her consent, but 'Rebekah' once she has given it, as in what follows immediately after ('Rebekah' being the affection for truth, see 3077); and from the meaning of 'asking her personally' as perceiving whether it does consent. Thus it is consent solely of the affection for truth that is meant here. For the situation is this: Truth itself which is to be introduced into good acknowledges its own good because good acknowledges its own truth - and from this comes consent. It is however a consent inspired into truth by good, see above in 3161. With man it is in no way apparent that truth for its part consents when introduced and joined to good, that is, when a person is being regenerated, or that good for its part knows its own truth, and introduces and joins it to itself. Yet this is exactly what happens; for a person is totally unaware of the things that take place while he is being regenerated. If he were to know merely one of the thousands of things that occur he would be dumbfounded. There are countless, indeed an endless number of hidden ways by which a person is at that time being led by the Lord, only some of which shine from the internal sense of the Word.
[2] The Ancient Church formed for itself an idea of these things from marriages. That is to say, they formed that idea from a virgin's state before betrothal; from her state after she had been betrothed; from her state when she was to be given away in marriage, and after that when she had been given away, and finally when she bore children to her husband. 1 The fruits of truth produced from good, or of faith from charity, they called children; and so on. Such was the wisdom of the Ancient Church. Their books were written in this style too, and the custom of writing in this fashion spread from them to the gentiles themselves. For by means of those things that exist in the world they wished to give expression to things in heaven; indeed from natural things they wished to see spiritual. But today that wisdom is entirely lost.
Footnotes:
1. The Latin can mean this or else when she was subject to her husband. But since in his rough draft Swedenborg first wrote gigneret prolem (bring forth offspring) the translation bore children is preferred here.
