732. Genesis 7:5. And Noah did everything that Jehovah had commanded him once again means it happened in this way.

See Genesis 6:22, which twice says that "Noah did;" this verse says it only once. And Genesis 6:22 uses the name God where this verse uses Jehovah. The reason is that the passage there dealt with matters of the intellect while this one deals with matters of the will. Matters of intellect regard matters of will as different and separate from themselves, but matters of will view matters of intellect as united to themselves, or as being one with themselves. The ability to understand, you see, rises from the will. This is why the previous chapter uses the word did twice where the present one uses it just once, and why the previous chapter uses the name God where the present one uses Jehovah.

408. When a church has been so thoroughly devastated that no more faith remains, it makes a new start; a new light shines out. In the Word, this is called "morning." The reason why the new light or morning does not dawn before devastation is complete is that any manifestation of faith or charity is mingled with something profane, and as long as they are mingled, no light or charity can be introduced. Tares destroy all the good seed. ¹ When there is no faith, faith can no longer be profaned, because no one believes what is said anyway.

Those who do not acknowledge and believe something but only know it cannot profane it, as pointed out earlier [§§302-303].

Jews these days, for instance, because they live among Christians, necessarily realize that Christians acknowledge the Lord as the Messiah that they (Jews) waited and are still waiting for. But they cannot profane the idea because they do not acknowledge or believe it. The same is true of Muslims and the people of unbaptized nations who have heard of the Lord. This was why the Lord came into the world at a time when the Jewish church no longer acknowledged or believed anything.

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