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 Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light; your sun will no more go down nor your moon be withdrawn, for Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light.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

Фусноте:

8862. The reason why 'the words which God spoke' means God's truths for those in heaven and for those on earth is that the Ten Commandments or Decalogue, and then the statutes, declared and commanded from Mount Sinai, are truths such as are intended not only for those who are on earth but also for those who are in heaven. All the words, that is, all the truths that come from the Lord are not merely for people in the world but also at the same time for angels; for they pass through heaven and thereby to earth. But they do not sound the same in heaven as they do on earth, because there they exist in a spiritual form, whereas on earth they exist in natural form. What they are like in their spiritual form compared with what they are in their natural form is clear from the internal sense and the external sense of the particular things in the Word. In the internal sense they are spiritual matters, but in the external sense, which is the sense of the letter, they are natural ones. The latter have been made suitable for those on earth, but the former for those in heaven.

[2] The truth of this may be seen from the consideration that the Word, sent by the Divine Himself, has passed from Him through heaven to earth. When it reaches earth it is truth made suitable for the human race, which lives amid earthly and bodily things. But as it exists in heaven it is made suitable for angels, who live amid spiritual and celestial things. Because it is like this the Word is in itself holy; for it contains what is heavenly and Divine within it. This is perfectly clear from the Ten Commandments. Anyone can see that those commandments are the kind of laws that are well known everywhere on earth - that one should honour parents, that one should not kill, commit adultery, or steal, and that people should not answer as false witnesses. Consequently the Israelite nation could have known these laws from natural enlightenment alone; for is there any nation that does not know them? And yet Jehovah Himself came down to declare them; and He declared them out of fire that was burning 'even to the heart of heaven'. ¹ From this it becomes clear that those commandments contain more within them than is apparent in the letter; that is to say, they contain truths such as are intended at the same time for heaven and which fill heaven. Everything in the Word is like this since it comes from the Divine. All this shows why the Word is holy and what should be understood by statements about the inspiration of the Word even to every jot and tattle, and to every small part of a letter, Matthew 5:18; Luke 16:17. The nature therefore of the Ten Commandments in the spiritual sense, that is, as they exist in heaven, will be seen in what is to follow.

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