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.

3926. 'A second son to Jacob' means a second general truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'son' as truth, dealt with in 489, 491, 533, 1147, a general truth being meant at this point, as is clear from what has been stated and shown above concerning the twelve sons of Jacob and concerning the twelve tribes named after them; that is to say, the general aspects of the Church, and consequently the general aspects of faith and love, or of truth and good, are meant and represented by those sons. They also mean in the contrary sense every general aspect of that which is not faith or love, that is, every aspect of falsity and evil, as will be evident from what is said further on.