327. Saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof. That this signifies that the Lord from His Divine Human has Omnipotence and Omniscience, is evident from all that has preceded: for the subject hitherto treated of is that the Lord from His Divine Human has Omnipotence and Omniscience, and that thence judgment belongs to Him. That this is meant by, "Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof," is evident from the series of the things explained from the beginning of this chapter to the present verse, which I desire to cite in order, namely, that by, "I saw in the right hand of him that sat upon the throne," is signified the Lord as to Omnipotence and Omniscience, n. 297; by "a book written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals," is signified the state of the life of all in heaven and in the earth altogether hidden, n. 299, 300; by, "I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a great voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?" is signified exploration, whether there is any such as know and perceive the state of the life of all, (n. 302, 303; by "no one in heaven, or on earth, or under the earth, was able to open the book," is signified that no one [could] in the least from himself, n. 304; by, "Behold! the lion who is of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof," is signified that the Lord from His own power subdued the hells, and reduced all things in the heavens to order, and this by Divine good united to Divine truth in His Human, (n. 309, 310; by, "I saw a lamb having seven horns, and seven eyes," is signified the Lord as to the Divine Human, [and] that from it He has Omnipotence and Omniscience, n. 314, 316, 317; and by, "He came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne," is signified that those things are from His Divine Human, n. 319. Hence it is now clear, that here by, "Thou art worthy to take the book, and to loose the seals thereof," is signified that the Lord from the Divine Human has Omnipotence and Omniscience.

119. This is why in the Word the Lord is compared to the sun when the focus is on love and to the moon when the focus is on faith. It is also why the sun means a love for the Lord that comes from the Lord, and the moon means a faith in the Lord that comes from the Lord. Compare the following passages.

The light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days. (Isaiah 30:26)

When I annihilate you, I will cover the heavens and blacken the stars.

I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not make its light. I will blacken all the luminaries in the heavens above you and send darkness over your land. (Ezekiel 32:7-8)

I will darken the sun in its rising, and the moon will not make its light shine. (Isaiah 13:10)

The sun and the moon will be blackened and the stars will withdraw their shining; the sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood. (Joel 2:2, 10, 31, 3:15)

The sun became black as hairy sackcloth, and the moon became like blood, and the stars fell to earth. (Revelation 6:12-13)

Immediately after the affliction of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the stars will fall from heaven. (Matthew 24:29)

And elsewhere. In these passages, the sun means love and the moon faith, while the stars mean instances of recognizing what is good and true. ¹ These are said to be darkened, to lose their light, and to fall from heaven when they no longer exist.

The Lord's appearance as a sun in heaven may also be inferred from his transfiguration before Peter, James, and John, when "his face shone like the sun" (Matthew 17:2). This is how the Lord was seen by those disciples when they had been lifted out of their bodies and were in the light of heaven.

For this reason, when the early people (who constituted a representative church) were engaged in their divine worship, they faced the sun in the east. It is why they set their temples to face the east.

Footnotes: