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 Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light; your sun will no more go down nor your moon be withdrawn, for Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light.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:

841. 'Noah', as previously, means the member of the Ancient Church, and 'every wild animal and every beast that was with him in the ark' means all things that resided with him. This becomes clear from what has been stated already concerning Noah and concerning the meaning of 'wild animal' and 'beast'. In the Word 'wild animal' takes on a two-fold sense; it stands for things with a person that are alive and for things that are dead. The reason why it stands for those that are alive is that this expression in Hebrew means a living thing. But because the most ancient people in their humility acknowledged that they themselves were but wild animals, things with a person that are dead were therefore meant as well by the same expression. Here 'wild animal' means both what is alive and what is dead in their entirety, as is usually the case with someone after temptation. Things that are alive and those that are dead - that is, those that are the Lord's and those that are the person's own - seem so intermingled that at that time the person scarcely knows what truth and good are. At that time however the Lord is re-arranging and restoring all things to order, as becomes clear from what follows. For the fact that 'wild animal' means things that are alive with man, see the previous chapter, 7:14, and also verses 17, 19 of the present chapter. And from what has been shown several times already about wild animals and beasts, for example in 45, 46, 142, 143, 246, it is clear that it also means the things with a person that are dead.