63. Meanwhile the Lord is constantly fighting on his behalf against evils and falsities and by these conflicts is confirming him in truth and good. The hour of conflict is the hour when the Lord is at work, which is why in the Prophets a regenerate person is called 'the work of God's fingers'. Nor does He rest until love is playing the leading part, at which point conflict ceases. When that work has reached the point where faith has been joined to love, it is then called 'very good', for the Lord then moves him to be a likeness of Himself. At the end of the sixth day evil spirits go away and good ones take their place; then the person is led into heaven, or the heavenly paradise, which is the subject of the next chapter.

577. Twelve means faith, or those things in their entirety that belong to love and faith deriving from it. Many details from the Word may confirm this - the twelve sons of Jacob and their names, the twelve tribes of Israel, and the Lord's twelve disciples. These matters however will in the Lord's Divine mercy be dealt with later on, in particular in Genesis 29, 30.