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.

5277. 'And seven years of famine will arise after them' means subsequent states when there will be an absence of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'years' as states, dealt with in 482, 487, 488, 493, 893; from the meaning of 'famine' as an absence of religious knowledge or cognitions. dealt with in 1460, 9364; and from the meaning of 'after them' as subsequent ones.