43. Verse 22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas; and let birds be multiplied upon the earth.

Everything that has life in it from the Lord is fruitful and multiplies without limit. This does not happen during a person's lifetime, but in the next life it does so to an astonishing extent. In the Word 'to be fruitful' has reference to matters of love, while 'to multiply' has reference to matters of faith. The fruit of love contains the seed by which it multiplies itself to so great an extent. The Lord' s blessing also means, in the Word, fruitfulness and multiplication, for they are the outcome of that blessing.

Verse 23 And there was evening, and there was morning, a fifth day.

115. The reason why the Lord says to the angel of this church, "I am the first and the last, who was dead and is alive," is, that those within the church who are in the spiritual affection of truth are here treated of; these are such as search out truths from the Word, and who, when they have found them, rejoice in heart, for no other reason than that they are truths; and that also those are here spoken of who are in a merely natural affection of truth, being such as neither search for truths, nor rejoice in them because they are truths, but only acquiesce in the doctrinals of their church, not caring whether they are true or false; these they learn, so far as to retain them in the memory, and they also confirm them from the literal sense of the Word; and this they do solely for the sake of acquiring fame, honours, or gain; these are they with whom the Lord is said to be dead, that is, repudiated. The spiritual affection of truth, which is to love truth because it is truth, is granted only to those who are conjoined to the Lord by the acknowledgment of and faith in His Divine Human, because all the truth of heaven and all the truth of the church is from no other source than the Divine Human of the Lord, for therefrom proceeds the Divine truth, which is called the Spirit of Truth, or the Holy Spirit; also all affection of truth, and all wisdom to the angels of heaven. (That this is the case may be seen in the work, Heaven and Hell 126-140, 265-275, 346-356). These are they with whom the Lord is alive.