Arcana Coelestia #16
16. Verse 1. In the beginning God created heaven and earth. The most ancient times of all are called 'the beginning', and are throughout the Prophets referred to as 'days of antiquity' and also 'days of eternity'. 'The beginning' also embodies within it that first Period when a person is being regenerated, for at that time he is being born anew and receiving life. Regeneration itself is therefore called a new creation of man. Almost everywhere in the prophetical sections 'to create', 'to form', and 'to make' mean to regenerate, though each of these verbs has a different shade of meaning, as in Isaiah,
Every one who is called by My name - I have created him for My glory, I have formed him, I have also made him. Isaiah 43:7
This is why the Lord is called Redeemer, One who forms from the womb, Maker, and also Creator, as in the same prophet,
I am Jehovah, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King. Isaiah 43:15.
In David,
A people to be created will praise Jah. Psalms 102:18.
In the same author,
You send forth Your Spirit; they are created; and You renewest the face 1 of the ground. Psalms 104:30.
'Heaven' means the internal man, and 'earth' the external man prior to regeneration. This will be seen further on.
Footnotes:
1. literally, the faces
Habakkuk 1
1
The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw.
2
Yahweh, how long will I cry, and you will not hear? I cry out to you "Violence!" and will you not save?
3
Why do you show me iniquity, and look at perversity? For destruction and violence are before me. There is strife, and contention rises up.
4
Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth; for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice goes forth perverted.
5
"Look among the nations, watch, and wonder marvelously; for I am working a work in your days, which you will not believe though it is told you.
6
For, behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, that march through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs.
7
They are feared and dreaded. Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.
8
Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. Their horsemen press proudly on. Yes, their horsemen come from afar. They fly as an eagle that hurries to devour.
9
All of them come for violence. Their hordes face the desert. He gathers prisoners like sand.
10
Yes, he scoffs at kings, and princes are a derision to him. He laughs at every stronghold, for he builds up an earthen ramp, and takes it.
11
Then he sweeps by like the wind, and goes on. He is indeed guilty, whose strength is his god."
12
Aren't you from everlasting, Yahweh my God, my Holy One? We will not die. Yahweh, you have appointed him for judgment. You, Rock, have established him to punish.
13
You who have purer eyes than to see evil, and who cannot look on perversity, why do you tolerate those who deal treacherously, and keep silent when the wicked swallows up the man who is more righteous than he,
14
and make men like the fish of the sea, like the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?
15
He takes up all of them with the hook. He catches them in his net, and gathers them in his dragnet. Therefore he rejoices and is glad.
16
Therefore he sacrifices to his net, and burns incense to his dragnet, because by them his life is luxurious, and his food is good.
17
Will he therefore continually empty his net, and kill the nations without mercy?
