The Bible

 

Genesis 1:26

Study

       

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Commentary

 

Midnight

  

'Midnight,' as in Exodus 11:4, signifies total devastation from a state of mere falsities.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 7776)

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #10635

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

10635. 'And all the people in whose midst you are will see the work of Jehovah' means that all who accept the Word will acknowledge the Divine within it. This is clear from the representation of 'Moses' as the Word, dealt with in the places referred to in 9372, so that 'the people in whose midst he is' means the Church where the Word exists, thus all who accept the Word, for others do not acknowledge the Divine within it; and from the meaning of 'seeing the work of Jehovah' as acknowledging the Divine within it. It is self-evident that such things are meant, for all within the Church who lead a good life acknowledge the Divine within the Word. The reason why they do so is that a holy influence from heaven enters them when they read the Word, although they do not know that correspondences are the means through which it comes to them. Furthermore this influence which depends on correspondences is not detected except as a general feeling of holiness occupying the mind. The situation is different in the case of those who do not lead a good life; in their case the internal through which influences from heaven come is closed.

  
/ 10837  
  

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