The Bible

 

Genesis 1:9

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9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #31

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31. That 'the great lights' mean love and faith, and are also mentioned as the sun, the moon, and the stars, is clear from various places in the Prophets, as 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.

This refers to Pharaoh and the Egyptians, who are used in the Word to mean the sensory and the factual. The meaning here is that they will have blotted out love and faith by means of sensory evidence and factual knowledge. In Isaiah,

The day of Jehovah for making the earth a desolation; for the stars of the heavens and their constellations 1 will not give their light; the sun will be darkened in its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. Isaiah 13:9-10.

In Joel,

The day of Jehovah is coming, a day of darkness and thick darkness. The earth quakes before Him, the heavens tremble, the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. Joel 2:10.

[2] In Isaiah, in reference to the Lord's Coming and the enlightenment of gentiles, and so to a new Church, in particular to individuals who are in darkness but who are beginning to receive the light and be regenerated,

Arise, shine, for your light has come. Behold, darkness is covering the earth, and thick darkness the peoples, but Jehovah will arise upon you, and nations will walk towards your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light; your sun will no more go down nor your moon be withdrawn, for Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light. Isaiah 60:1-3, 19-20.

In David,

Jehovah makes the heavens by intelligence, He spreads out the earth upon the waters, He makes the great lights, the sun to have dominion over the day, and the moon and stars to have dominion over the night. Psalms 136:5-9.

And in the same author,

Praise Jehovah, sun and moon, praise Him, all stars of light! Praise Him, heaven of heavens, and waters that are above the heavens! Psalms 148:3-4.

[3] In all of these places 'the lights' mean love and faith. Because the lights represented and meant love and faith in the Lord, the Jewish Church was commanded to keep a light burning all the time from evening till morning, for every command which that Church received was representative of the Lord. Concerning this light it is said,

Command the sons of Israel that they take oil for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually. In the Tent of Meeting outside the veil which is before the testimony Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before Jehovah. [Exodus 27:20-21]

That this means the love and faith which the Lord kindles and causes to shine in the internal man, and by means of the internal man in the external man, will in the Lord's Divine mercy be shown at that point in Exodus.

Footnotes:

1. literally, orions

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #8420

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8420. 'Whether they walk in My law or not' means, whether they can lead a life of truth and good. This is clear from the meaning of 'walking' as living, dealt with in 519, 1794; and from the meaning of 'law' as the Word, dealt with in 2606, 3382, 6752. And since the Word is meant, so is Divine Truth, 7463, and thus also teachings about what is good and true, so that 'walking in the law of Jehovah' means leading a life of truth and good as teachings about them demand. Everyone knows that 'walking in the law' means living as the law demands, for the expression is part of everyday language. From this it may be seen that [the activity] 'walking' means living, and also that the actual word 'walking', like so many other words, carries the very meaning it possesses in the spiritual sense. This is attributable solely to the influx of the spiritual world into ideas composing thought, and then into words; for without that influx would anyone ever talk of walking instead of living - of walking in the law, in the statutes, in the commandments, or in the fear of God? The same applies to 'going', that it means living, referred to just above in 8417, and also to travelling, advancing, and sojourning. The reason why these words mean living is that the spiritual world is not one of spatial dimensions but of states of life instead, 2625, 2684, 2837, 3356, 3387, 4321, 4882, 5605, 7381.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.