24. Verse 6 And God said, Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let there be a distinguishing of the waters from the waters.

After the Spirit of God, which is the Lord's mercy, has brought out into the daylight cognitions of truth and good, and has shed the light of dawn to reveal that the Lord does exist, and that He is good itself and truth itself, and that no good or truth exists except from the Lord, a distinction is at that point made between the internal man and the external man, and so between cognitions which reside with the internal man and the facts which belong to the external man. The internal man is called 'an expanse, and the cognitions residing with the internal man are called 'the waters above the expanse', while the facts belonging to the external man are called 'the waters below the expanse'.

[2] Until his regeneration starts a person is not aware of even the existence of the internal man, let alone the identity of the internal man. Submerged in bodily and worldly concerns he imagines there is no difference between the two. Furthermore he has submerged in those same concerns the things that belong to the internal man and has made one thorough obscurity out of things that are distinct and separate. For this reason it is first said, 'Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters', and then, 'Let there be a distinguishing of the waters from the waters', and not a distinguishing of the waters. But this is followed immediately by the statement, Verses 7-8, And God made the expanse and He made a distinction between the waters that were under the expanse and the waters that were above the expanse; and it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven.

[3] The second thing therefore that a person notices when being regenerated is that he is starting to become aware of the existence of the internal man, or that what reside in the internal man are goods and truths which are the Lord's alone. And since the external man during regeneration is such as still imagines that he is the source of the good deeds he performs, or of the truth he utters, and since such a person, by means of them, is led by the Lord to do good and to speak truth as if they were his own, therefore the identification of those under the expanse comes first, and the identification of those above the expanse follows. It is also a heavenly arcanum that the Lord uses those things that are man's own - both his illusions of the senses and his desires - to lead and direct him towards the things that are goods and truths. Every single movement of regeneration is accordingly a progression from evening to morning - from external man to internal, that is, from earth to heaven. This is why the expanse, or internal man, is now called 'heaven'.

2838. 'As it is said today' means that which is perpetual. This is clear from the meaning of 'today' in the Word, dealt with below. One frequently reads in the Word the phrase 'even to this day (or today)', as in what has gone before,

He is the father of Moab even to this day, and the father of Ammon even to this day. Genesis 19:37-38; and in what appears later on,

The name of the city is Beersheba even to this day. Genesis 26:33; also,

The children of Israel do not eat the sinew of that which was displaced, which is on the hollow of the thigh, even to this day. Genesis 32:32; as well as,

This is the pillar of Rachel's grave even to [this] day. Genesis 35:20.

Joseph made it a statute even to this day. Genesis 47:26.

In the historical sense 'to this day' and 'today' refer to the time when Moses was alive, but in the internal sense these expressions mean perpetuity and eternity of state. 'Day' means state, see 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, and so therefore does 'today', which is the present time. That which in the world is temporal is in heaven eternal. To give the meaning of that which is eternal, the expression today or else to this day has been added, though to those who are aware only of the historical sense it does not appear to embody anything further. Similar usages of these expressions occur elsewhere in the Word, such as Joshua 4:9; 6:25; 7:26; Judges 1:21, 26; and in other places.

[2] That 'today' means that which is perpetual and eternal may be seen in David,

I will tell of the statute: Jehovah has said to me, You are My Son; today I have begotten You. Psalms 2:7.

Here 'today' plainly stands for that which is eternal. In the same author,

For ever, O Jehovah, Your Word is fixed in the heavens, Your truth to generation after generation. You have established the earth and it stands. As for Your judgements they stand [even] today. Psalms 119:89-91.

Here also 'today' plainly stands for that which is eternal. In Jeremiah,

Before I formed you in the belly, I knew you, and before you came out of the womb I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations. I have set you this day (today) over nations and over kingdoms; and I have made you today into a fortified city, and into a pillar of iron, and into walls of bronze. Jeremiah 1:5, 10, 18.

This refers in the sense of the letter to Jeremiah, but in the internal sense the Lord is meant. 'I have set you this day (or today) over nations and over kingdoms, and I have made you today into a fortified city' means from eternity. In regard to the Lord one can only speak of that which is eternal.

[3] In Moses,

You are standing today, all of you, before Jehovah your God, so that you may enter into the covenant of Jehovah your God, and into His oath, which Jehovah your God is making with you today, that He may establish you today as a people for Himself, and that He will be God to you. Not indeed with you alone [do I make it], but with those who stand with us here today before Jehovah our God, and with those who are not with us today. Deuteronomy 29:10, 12-15.

Here in the sense of the letter 'today' means that present time when

Moses addressed the people. Yet it is clear that it nevertheless implies subsequent times and what is perpetual; for making a covenant with anyone, and with those who were there and with those who were not, implies that which is perpetual. Perpetuity itself is what is meant in the internal sense.

[4] That 'daily' and 'today' mean that which is perpetual is clear also from the sacrifice that was offered each day. This sacrifice, because of what is meant by day, daily, and today, was called the continual, or perpetual, sacrifice, Numbers 28:3, 23; Daniel 8:13; 11:31; 12:11. This may be even more plainly evident from the manna which rained from heaven, spoken of in Moses as follows,

Behold, I am causing bread to rain from heaven, and the people shall go out and gather a portion day by day. And they shall not leave any of it until the morning. That which they did leave until the morning bred worms and went rotten, except that gathered on the day before the Sabbath. Exodus 16:4, 19-20, 23.

This happened because 'the manna' meant the Lord's Divine Human, John 6:31-32, 49-50, 58, and because the Lord's Divine Human meant heavenly food, which is nothing other than love and charity, together with the goods and truths of faith. In heaven the Lord imparts this food to angels moment by moment, thus perpetually and eternally, see 2193. This is also what is meant in the Lord's Prayer by the petition, Give us today our daily bread, Matthew 6:11; Luke 11:3, that is, in every moment for evermore.