The Bible

 

Genesis 1:19

Study

       

19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #4787

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

4787. Verse 36 And the Midianites sold him into Egypt to Potiphar, Pharaoh's bedchamber-servant, the chief of the attendants.

'The Midianites sold him into Egypt' means that those in whom some truth partnering simple good was present consulted facts. 'To Potiphar, Pharaoh's bedchamber-servant' means facts of a more internal kind. 'The chief of the attendants' means those facts which are first and foremost in explanations.

  
/ 10837  
  

Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

Commentary

 

Night

  

The sun in the Bible represents the Lord, with its heat representing His love and its light representing His wisdom. “Daytime,” then, represents a state in which we are turned toward the Lord, receiving His love and being enlightened by His truth. And “nighttime,” obviously, represents states in which we are turned away from the Lord, left cold and blind to the truth. The most common word used for it in the New Christian theology is “obscurity.” The darkness is not absolute, of course. The light of the moon represents the understanding we can have based on facts and our own intelligence. But while the moon reflects some of the sun's light, it offers almost no heat, so this kind of understanding is a cold one, without the warmth of love. And at its darkest and coldest, night represents a state of judgment. This happens when a person -- or a church -- becomes so mired in evil and falsity that there is no light or heat. The Lord can then step in, separate the good from the evil, consign the evil to hell and begin rebuilding based on the remnant that is still good. Drastic as that sounds, it is something that we all go through repeatedly in various aspects of our loves, so that we can be rid of what is evil and let the Lord rebuild us as angels.