24. Verse 6 And God said, Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let there be a distinguishing of the waters from the waters.

After the Spirit of God, which is the Lord's mercy, has brought out into the daylight cognitions of truth and good, and has shed the light of dawn to reveal that the Lord does exist, and that He is good itself and truth itself, and that no good or truth exists except from the Lord, a distinction is at that point made between the internal man and the external man, and so between cognitions which reside with the internal man and the facts which belong to the external man. The internal man is called 'an expanse, and the cognitions residing with the internal man are called 'the waters above the expanse', while the facts belonging to the external man are called 'the waters below the expanse'.

[2] Until his regeneration starts a person is not aware of even the existence of the internal man, let alone the identity of the internal man. Submerged in bodily and worldly concerns he imagines there is no difference between the two. Furthermore he has submerged in those same concerns the things that belong to the internal man and has made one thorough obscurity out of things that are distinct and separate. For this reason it is first said, 'Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters', and then, 'Let there be a distinguishing of the waters from the waters', and not a distinguishing of the waters. But this is followed immediately by the statement, Verses 7-8, And God made the expanse and He made a distinction between the waters that were under the expanse and the waters that were above the expanse; and it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven.

[3] The second thing therefore that a person notices when being regenerated is that he is starting to become aware of the existence of the internal man, or that what reside in the internal man are goods and truths which are the Lord's alone. And since the external man during regeneration is such as still imagines that he is the source of the good deeds he performs, or of the truth he utters, and since such a person, by means of them, is led by the Lord to do good and to speak truth as if they were his own, therefore the identification of those under the expanse comes first, and the identification of those above the expanse follows. It is also a heavenly arcanum that the Lord uses those things that are man's own - both his illusions of the senses and his desires - to lead and direct him towards the things that are goods and truths. Every single movement of regeneration is accordingly a progression from evening to morning - from external man to internal, that is, from earth to heaven. This is why the expanse, or internal man, is now called 'heaven'.

5340. 'And he gathered all the food of the seven years' means the preservation of truth linked to good, multiplied in the initial phases. This is clear from the meaning of 'gathering' here as preserving (for it says that he gathered it and laid it up in the cities, in the midst of them, which means that he stored it in the interior parts and thereby preserved it; for it was put to use in the years of famine); from the meaning of 'the food' as everything by which the internal man is nourished, namely good and truth, as may be recognized from the correspondence of earthly food which nourishes the external man with spiritual food which nourishes the internal man. Here therefore truth linked to good is meant, because this is what is preserved and stored away in a person's interior parts. 'Seven years' means the initial phases, when truths become multiplied, 5339. From all this it is evident that 'he gathered all the food of the seven years' means the preservation of truth linked to good, multiplied in the initial phases.

[2] The expression 'the preservation of truth linked to good' is used, but because few are aware of what truth linked to good is, let alone of how and when truth becomes linked to good, let something therefore be said about this. Truth comes to be joined to good when a person finds joy in doing good to his neighbour for truth and goodness' own sake, and not for any selfish or worldly reason. When that affection moves a person the truths he hears or reads or thinks about become joined to good; and this can usually be seen in an affection for truth which has that end in view.