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:

8787. 'Go to the people' means a joining together. This is clear from the representation now of 'Moses' as the truth from God which was below heaven, dealt with above in 8760; and from the representation of the children of Israel, to whom 'the people' to whom he was to go refers here, as those belonging to the spiritual Church, dealt with often. The reason why 'go to the people', when said by Jehovah, means a joining together is that the truth from God, represented by 'Moses', is the intermediary between the Divine and those belonging to the Church; for in order that the joining together represented here by the covenant between Jehovah and the people may take place an intermediary must be present. Therefore also 'Moses' represents the truth from God below heaven joined to God's truth in heaven, 8760, so joined in order to serve as an intermediary.