16. Verse 1. In the beginning God created heaven and earth. The most ancient times of all are called 'the beginning', and are throughout the Prophets referred to as 'days of antiquity' and also 'days of eternity'. 'The beginning' also embodies within it that first Period when a person is being regenerated, for at that time he is being born anew and receiving life. Regeneration itself is therefore called a new creation of man. Almost everywhere in the prophetical sections 'to create', 'to form', and 'to make' mean to regenerate, though each of these verbs has a different shade of meaning, as in Isaiah,

Every one who is called by My name - I have created him for My glory, I have formed him, I have also made him. Isaiah 43:7

This is why the Lord is called Redeemer, One who forms from the womb, Maker, and also Creator, as in the same prophet,

I am Jehovah, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King. Isaiah 43:15.

In David,

A people to be created will praise Jah. Psalms 102:18.

In the same author,

You send forth Your Spirit; they are created; and You renewest the face ¹ of the ground. Psalms 104:30.

'Heaven' means the internal man, and 'earth' the external man prior to regeneration. This will be seen further on.

Footnotes:

10308. 'It shall be holy to you for Jehovah' means that it must be attached to love that is Divine. This is clear from the meaning of 'holy' as everything that emanates from the Lord, as above in 10306; and from the meaning of the incense, to which the words 'it shall be holy to you for Jehovah' refer, as worship, also dealt with above, in 10298. This meaning - that the worship must be attached to love that is Divine - follows from what has gone immediately before, where it is declared that they should not make such incense for themselves, meaning that worship consisting of the Church's holy truths should not be attached to the loves that are a person's own, 10307. By love that is Divine, love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour should be understood. The reason why this latter love as well is Divine is that it too emanates from the Lord; for no one can love the neighbour from self. Anyone who does so from self loves and confers benefits on his neighbour for selfish reasons; that is, the one he loves is himself. The whole Word, consisting of Divine Truth itself, from which all the truths that the Church possesses are derived, looks to those two loves as ends in view, see immediately above in 10307. Therefore also the worship of God must have those same loves in view, for all worship that is truly worship consists of truths, as becomes clear from what has been shown above regarding the spices of the incense, by which the kinds of truth composing worship are meant. The truths of worship first become attached to Divine Love, when the worship that the person offers begins in the Lord, as accords with what has been stated above in paragraph 10299.