Apocalypse Revealed # 414
414. So that a third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night. This symbolically means that they no longer have in them any spiritual truth or natural truth from the Word serviceable for doctrine and life.
The day's not shining means that they had no light from the sun, and "likewise the night" means that they had no light from the moon and stars. Light in general symbolizes Divine truth, which is truth from the Word. The light of the sun symbolizes spiritual Divine truth, and the light of the moon and stars symbolizes natural Divine truth, both acquired from the Word. Divine truth in the spiritual sense of the Word is like the light of the sun during the day, and Divine truth in the natural sense of the Word is like the light of the moon and stars at night. The spiritual sense of the Word, moreover, flows into its natural sense, as the sun does with its light to the moon, and this reflects the light of the sun indirectly.
In this way also does the spiritual sense of the Word enlighten people, even people who know nothing of that sense, when they read the Word in its natural sense. However, it enlightens a spiritual person as light from the sun does his eye, but a natural person as light from the moon and stars does his eye. Everyone is enlightened in accordance with his spiritual affection for truth and goodness, and at the same time in accordance with the genuine truths by which he has opened his rational faculty.
[2] Day and night also have this meaning in the following places:
God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night...." Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule by day, and the lesser light to rule by night. He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule by day and by night, and to divide the light from the darkness. (Genesis 1:14-19)
(Jehovah) made great lights..., the sun to rule by day..., the moon and stars to rule by night... (Psalms 136:7-9)
The day is Yours, (O Jehovah,) the night also is Yours; You have prepared the light and the sun. (Psalms 74:16)
...Jehovah... gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night... (Jeremiah 31:35)
If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, then My covenant also may be broken with David My servant... If I have not appointed My covenant with day and night, the ordinances of heaven and earth, I also will reject the offspring of Jacob and David... (Jeremiah 33:20-21, 25-26)
I cite these passages to make known that the darkening of both kinds of light is meant.
Job 24
1
"Why aren't times laid up by the Almighty? Why don't those who know him see his days?
2
There are people who remove the landmarks. They violently take away flocks, and feed them.
3
They drive away the donkey of the fatherless, and they take the widow's ox for a pledge.
4
They turn the needy out of the way. The poor of the earth all hide themselves.
5
Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert, they go forth to their work, seeking diligently for food. The wilderness yields them bread for their children.
6
They cut their provender in the field. They glean the vineyard of the wicked.
7
They lie all night naked without clothing, and have no covering in the cold.
8
They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for lack of a shelter.
9
There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor,
10
So that they go around naked without clothing. Being hungry, they carry the sheaves.
11
They make oil within the walls of these men. They tread wine presses, and suffer thirst.
12
From out of the populous city, men groan. The soul of the wounded cries out, yet God doesn't regard the folly.
13
"These are of those who rebel against the light. They don't know its ways, nor stay in its paths.
14
The murderer rises with the light. He kills the poor and needy. In the night he is like a thief.
15
The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, 'No eye shall see me.' He disguises his face.
16
In the dark they dig through houses. They shut themselves up in the daytime. They don't know the light.
17
For the morning is to all of them like thick darkness, for they know the terrors of the thick darkness.
18
"They are foam on the surface of the waters. Their portion is cursed in the earth. They don't turn into the way of the vineyards.
19
Drought and heat consume the snow waters, so does Sheol those who have sinned.
20
The womb shall forget him. The worm shall feed sweetly on him. He shall be no more remembered. Unrighteousness shall be broken as a tree.
21
He devours the barren who don't bear. He shows no kindness to the widow.
22
Yet God preserves the mighty by his power. He rises up who has no assurance of life.
23
God gives them security, and they rest in it. His eyes are on their ways.
24
They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone. Yes, they are brought low, they are taken out of the way as all others, and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.
25
If it isn't so now, who will prove me a liar, and make my speech worth nothing?"
