414. So that a third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night. This symbolically means that they no longer have in them any spiritual truth or natural truth from the Word serviceable for doctrine and life.

The day's not shining means that they had no light from the sun, and "likewise the night" means that they had no light from the moon and stars. Light in general symbolizes Divine truth, which is truth from the Word. The light of the sun symbolizes spiritual Divine truth, and the light of the moon and stars symbolizes natural Divine truth, both acquired from the Word. Divine truth in the spiritual sense of the Word is like the light of the sun during the day, and Divine truth in the natural sense of the Word is like the light of the moon and stars at night. The spiritual sense of the Word, moreover, flows into its natural sense, as the sun does with its light to the moon, and this reflects the light of the sun indirectly.

In this way also does the spiritual sense of the Word enlighten people, even people who know nothing of that sense, when they read the Word in its natural sense. However, it enlightens a spiritual person as light from the sun does his eye, but a natural person as light from the moon and stars does his eye. Everyone is enlightened in accordance with his spiritual affection for truth and goodness, and at the same time in accordance with the genuine truths by which he has opened his rational faculty.

[2] Day and night also have this meaning in the following places:

God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night...." Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule by day, and the lesser light to rule by night. He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule by day and by night, and to divide the light from the darkness. (Genesis 1:14-19)

(Jehovah) made great lights..., the sun to rule by day..., the moon and stars to rule by night... (Psalms 136:7-9)

The day is Yours, (O Jehovah,) the night also is Yours; You have prepared the light and the sun. (Psalms 74:16)

...Jehovah... gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night... (Jeremiah 31:35)

If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, then My covenant also may be broken with David My servant... If I have not appointed My covenant with day and night, the ordinances of heaven and earth, I also will reject the offspring of Jacob and David... (Jeremiah 33:20-21, 25-26)

I cite these passages to make known that the darkening of both kinds of light is meant.

10215. 'And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying' means enlightenment from the Lord through the Word. This is clear from the meaning of 'speaking', when done by Jehovah to Moses, as enlightenment from the Lord through the Word; for 'Jehovah' in the Word is the Lord, and 'Moses' represents the Word. 'Speaking' means influx, perception, and instruction, 2951, 5481, 5743, 5797, 7226, 7241, 7270, 8127, 8128, 8221, 8262, 8660, and therefore also enlightenment since enlightenment is the influx, perception, and instruction people receive from the Lord when they read the Word.

'Jehovah' in the Word is the Lord, see the places referred to in 9373.

'Moses' is the Word in a representative sense, 9372.

The reason why these things are meant by 'Jehovah spoke to Moses' is that the perception of these words in heaven is not the same as that on earth. In heaven the words are perceived according to the internal sense, on earth according to the external sense; for in heaven everything is understood on a spiritual level, on earth on a natural level. That understanding on a spiritual level is arrived at instantaneously, without awareness of what people in the world understand in the external or literal sense. Angels in heaven live in this kind of association with people in the world, because then the whole of a person's thought flows in from the spiritual world, and the first origins of the person's thought are therefore spiritual, becoming natural in the external man through influx.