25. 'Spreading out the earth and stretching out the heavens' is a common expression in the Prophets when the subject is man's regeneration, as in Isaiah,

Thus said Jehovah, your Redeemer, He who formed you from the womb, I am Jehovah who makes all things, who stretches out the heavens Alone, and who spreads out the earth by Myself. Isaiah 44:24.

Also, when it is speaking of the Lord's Coming,

A bruised reed He does not break off and a smoking wick He does not quench; He brings forth judgement towards truth; that is, He neither shatters man's illusions nor stifles his desires. Instead He bends them towards truth and good. This verse in Isaiah continues,

The God Jehovah creates the heavens and stretches them out: He spreads out the earth and what comes from it: He gives breath ¹ to the people upon it, and spirit to those who walk on it. Isaiah 42:3-5.

Such phrases recur several times elsewhere.

Footnotes:

6649. 'And the land was filled with them' means even to the point at which the Church was complete. This is clear from the meaning of 'being filled' as that which is complete; and from the meaning of 'the land' as the Church, dealt with in 82, 662, 1066, 1067, 1262, 1411, 1413, 1607, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118 (end), 2928, 3355, 4447, 4535, 5577. 'The land of Goshen' where the children of Israel now were means the Church. The fact that this was where the Church was before the children of Israel entered the land of Canaan is clear from what follows - from the absence there of the plagues which occurred elsewhere in Egypt, and also from the presence of light there while darkness reigned elsewhere, Exodus 10:21-23, making that territory entirely separate from all other territories in Egypt. The same fact is also clear from the consideration that 'the land of Goshen' means the middle or inmost part of the natural, 5910, 6028, 6031, 6068, and so means the Church since the spiritual Church exists in the inmost part of the natural.