24. Verse 6 And God said, Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let there be a distinguishing of the waters from the waters.

After the Spirit of God, which is the Lord's mercy, has brought out into the daylight cognitions of truth and good, and has shed the light of dawn to reveal that the Lord does exist, and that He is good itself and truth itself, and that no good or truth exists except from the Lord, a distinction is at that point made between the internal man and the external man, and so between cognitions which reside with the internal man and the facts which belong to the external man. The internal man is called 'an expanse, and the cognitions residing with the internal man are called 'the waters above the expanse', while the facts belonging to the external man are called 'the waters below the expanse'.

[2] Until his regeneration starts a person is not aware of even the existence of the internal man, let alone the identity of the internal man. Submerged in bodily and worldly concerns he imagines there is no difference between the two. Furthermore he has submerged in those same concerns the things that belong to the internal man and has made one thorough obscurity out of things that are distinct and separate. For this reason it is first said, 'Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters', and then, 'Let there be a distinguishing of the waters from the waters', and not a distinguishing of the waters. But this is followed immediately by the statement, Verses 7-8, And God made the expanse and He made a distinction between the waters that were under the expanse and the waters that were above the expanse; and it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven.

[3] The second thing therefore that a person notices when being regenerated is that he is starting to become aware of the existence of the internal man, or that what reside in the internal man are goods and truths which are the Lord's alone. And since the external man during regeneration is such as still imagines that he is the source of the good deeds he performs, or of the truth he utters, and since such a person, by means of them, is led by the Lord to do good and to speak truth as if they were his own, therefore the identification of those under the expanse comes first, and the identification of those above the expanse follows. It is also a heavenly arcanum that the Lord uses those things that are man's own - both his illusions of the senses and his desires - to lead and direct him towards the things that are goods and truths. Every single movement of regeneration is accordingly a progression from evening to morning - from external man to internal, that is, from earth to heaven. This is why the expanse, or internal man, is now called 'heaven'.

8898. 'In order that your days may be prolonged on the land' means the resulting state of life in heaven. This is clear from the meaning of 'being prolonged' as that which has reference to good and the increase of it, dealt with below; from the meaning of 'your days' as states of life, dealt with in 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850, 5672, 5962, 6110, 7680, 8426; and from the meaning of 'the land' - at this point the land of Canaan, since the children of Israel are told 'it is the land which Jehovah your God gives you' - as the Lord's kingdom, dealt with in 1413, 1437, 1607, 1866, 3038, 3481, 3686, 3705, 4240, 4447. The reason why 'being prolonged' has reference to good and the increase of it is that the prolongation of days is the length of time that life will last, and in heaven there is neither time nor space, but states instead of them. Therefore 'being prolonged', since it has reference to a state in respect of good, means the increase of it. For length is spoken of in regard to good, and breadth to truth, see 1613, 4482; and in heaven there are no areas of space, just as there are no periods of time, but states instead of them, 1274, 1382, 2625, 2788, 2837, 3254, 3356, 3404, 3938, 4321, 4814, 4882, 4901, 4918, 5605, 6110, 7218, 7381.

7218. 'And for hard servitude' means as a result of molestations by utter falsities. This is clear from the meaning of 'servitude' as molestation by falsities, dealt with in 7120, 7129, so that 'hard servitude' is molestation by utter falsities. For those who are molested by utter falsities and are not refreshed with truths to dispel those falsities, even though the life they lead is a life made up of the truth of faith and the good of charity, suffer the greatest agony; and as long as that state lasts they are subject to a kind of hard servitude. So it is that such molestations are meant by 'hard servitude'. It should be recognized that every element of thought flows in from an outside source, but that when spirits pass through the state of evening and night they are compelled during that state to think about the falsities which are introduced, and are totally unable to break free from that state of compulsion. But when they pass through the state of morning and noon their thought is in a state of freedom; for then they are allowed to think about the things they love, thus about the truths and forms of good that compose faith and charity since these are the objects of their love. Freedom consists in whatever springs from love, see 2870-2893.