904. That 'God spoke to Noah' means the Lord's presence with the member of the Church becomes clear from the internal sense of the Word. The Lord speaks to everybody, for whatever good and truth a person wills and thinks comes from the Lord. With everyone there are at least two evil spirits and two angels. The former activate his evils whereas the latter instill goods and truths. Every good or truth that angels instill is the Lord's; in this way the Lord is constantly speaking to man, though quite differently from one person to the next. To people who allow themselves to be carried away by evil spirits the Lord speaks as though He were not present, or so far away that He can hardly be said to be speaking. But to those who are being led by the Lord, the Lord speaks as one who is quite present. This becomes clear enough from the fact that nobody can possibly think of anything good and true except from the Lord.

[2] The Lord's presence is relative to the state of love towards the neighbour and of faith present in a person. It is in love towards the neighbour that the Lord is present, for He is present in all good, and not so much in so-called faith that is devoid of love. Faith devoid of love and charity is something severed or disjoined. Wherever conjunction exists there has to be a conjoining agency, which is exclusively love and charity. This may become clear to anyone from the fact that the Lord has compassion on everybody, loves everyone, and wishes to make everyone eternally happy. A person therefore who is devoid of the kind of love that leads him to have compassion on others, to love them, and to wish to make them happy, cannot be joined to the Lord because he is not at all like Him, and is in no sense the image of Him. Looking to the Lord by means of that which goes by the name of faith while hating the neighbour amounts not only to standing a long way off, but also to having between himself and the Lord a hell-like chasm into which the person would fall if he wished to go any nearer. For it is hatred towards the neighbour that constitutes that intervening hell-like chasm.

[3] The Lord is present with a person the moment he starts to love the neighbour. It is in love that the Lord is present, and to the extent that a person has love the Lord is present. And to the extent that the Lord is present He speaks to man. No one knows anything other than that he thinks from himself. Yet he possesses not one single idea of thought, not even the shred of an idea, from himself. Rather that which is evil and false he possesses through evil spirits from hell, and that which is good and true through angels from the Lord. Such is influx, the channel by which a person's life comes and by which consequently his soul interacts with the body. All these considerations make clear what 'God spoke to Noah' means. 'Saying to someone' means one thing, as in Genesis 1:29; 3:13-14, 17; 4:6, 9, 15; 6:13; 7:1, while 'speaking to someone' means another. Here speaking to Noah' means His being present, for the subject now is the regenerate person, who has had charity conferred on him.

7688. 'And the land was darkened' means that falsity was introduced where there had been truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'darkness' as falsities, dealt with in 1839, 1860, 4418, 4531, so that 'being darkened' is being subject to falsity. And since the vastation of those who belonged to the Church, had a knowledge of truths, but led an evil life, are the subject 'the land was darkened' means falsity where there has been truth. Truth is meant in the internal sense by 'light', and therefore falsity is meant by 'darkness'; for truth and falsity are opposites like light and darkness. And those guided by truth dwell in actual light, whereas those under the influence of falsity dwell in actual darkness. The inferior light which those under the influence of falsity in the next life dwell in turns into thick darkness at the presence of the superior light of heaven, and into even thicker darkness with those who have belonged to the Church, because their falsity has stood in opposition to the truth of faith, as accords with the Lord's words in Matthew,

If the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! Matthew 6:23.

And in the same gospel,

The sons of the kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness. Matthew 8:12.

'The sons of the kingdom' are members of the Church, and 'outer darkness' is more serious falsities, the term 'outer' being used because falsities in the outermost parts are more serious ones.

[2] The fact that falsities are called 'darkness' is clear from a number of places in the Word, for example in John,

Light has come into the world, but men preferred darkness rather than light, for their works were evil. John 3:19.

In the same gospel,

Walk, as long as you have the light, lest darkness overtakes you. I have come as light into the world in order that all who believe in Me may not remain in darkness. John 12:35, 46.

In Isaiah,

Woe to those who speak of evil as good, and of good as evil, who put darkness for light, and light for darkness! Isaiah 5:20.

In Jeremiah,

Give glory to Jehovah your God before He brings darkness and before your feet stumble on the twilight mountains; then you will look for light but He will turn it into the shadow of death, He will place it in thick darkness. Jeremiah 13:16.

In Ezekiel,

When I have blotted you out, I will cover the heavens and darken their stars. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light. All the bright lights in the heavens I will make dark over you, and I will put darkness over your land. Ezekiel 32:7-8.

In Joel,

The day of Jehovah is coming, it is near, a day of darkness and thick darkness, a day of cloud and gloom. Joel 2:1-2; Amos 5:18, 20.

In Zephaniah,

A day of wrath is that day, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and thick darkness. Zephaniah 1:15.

In these places 'darkness' means falsities. In addition 'darkness' in the Word means lack of knowledge of the truth, such as exists with gentiles who do not have the Word and know nothing about the Lord.