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 Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light; your sun will no more go down nor your moon be withdrawn, for Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light.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

30. Vers. 14. Et dixit Deus, Sit luminaria in expanso caelorum, ad distinguendum inter diem et inter noctem; et erunt in signa, et in stata tempora, et in dies, et annos. Et erunt in luminaria in expanso caelorum, ad lucem dandum super terra; et factum ita. Et fecit Deus duo luminaria magna, luminare magnum ad dominandum die, et luminare minus ad dominandum nocte, et stellas. Et posuit illa Deus in expanso caelorum, ad lucem dandum super terra. Quid ‘luminaria magna’, non satis intelligi potest nisi sciatur primum quae essentia fidei, tum quae ejus progressio apud eos qui e novo creantur. Ipsa essentia et vita fidei est solus Dominus; qui enim non credit in Dominum non habere potest vitam, ut Ipse dixit apud Johannem, Qui credit in Filium, habet vitam aeternam, qui vero non credit Filio, non videbit vitam, sed ira Dei manebit super eo, 3:36.

[2] Progressio fidei apud eos qui e novo creantur, est talis; primum nullius vitae sunt, nam in malo et falso non est vita, sed in bono et vero: dein accipiunt vitam a Domino per fidem, primum per fidem memoriae, quae est fides scientifica; tum per fidem intellectu, quae est fides intellectualis; dein per fidem corde, quae est fides amoris seu salvifica. Fides scientifica et intellectualis repraesentata est a versu 3 ad 13 per inanimata; fides autem vivificata per amorem repraesentatur a versu 20 ad 25 per animata; quare hic nunc primum agitur de amore et inde fide, ¹ quae vocantur ‘luminaria’; amor est ‘luminare magnum, quod dominatur die’; fides ex amore est ‘luminare minus, quod dominatur nocte; ’ quae quia unum facient, dicitur de iis in singulari, sit, non autem sint, luminaria.

[3] Amor et fides se habent in interno homine sicut calor et lux in externo corporeo, quare illa per haec repraesentantur; ideo luminaria posita dicuntur in expanso caelorum, seu in interno homine, magnum luminare in ejus voluntate et minus in ejus intellecta, sed apparent solum in voluntate et intellectu, sicut lux solis in objectis; est solius Domini Misericordia, quae amore voluntatem et veritate seu fide intellectum afficit.

Footnotes: