8812. 'When it came to be morning' means a state when they were governed by good. This is clear from the meaning of 'morning' as a state of the good of love, dealt with in 8426. From these details - that Jehovah, that is, the Lord, came down onto Mount Sinai on the third day, and also in the morning of that day - it is plainly evident that this event was representative of some Divine reality in heaven which no one can come to know about except from the correspondence of such things as arise in the natural world with realities in the spiritual world, and therefore from the spiritual meaning of those things. This is so here so far as the meaning of 'morning' and 'the third day' are concerned. 'The third day' means the end of a former state, and it does so because 'three' means what is complete from start to finish, 8790; and 'morning' means a state of the good of love, because the sun - the sun in the next life which gives light to angels and the whole of heaven - is the Lord. The fire there is His Divine Love, which gives vital heat to all that lives, and the light there is Divine Truth which enlightens all who receive it. The sun there is altogether different from the sun in the world, whose fire is fire and not love, and whose radiating light is light and not truth.

[2] All this goes to show what kind of effects the fire and also the light coming from the sun in the world produce, and what kind of effects the fire and light coming from the sun of heaven produce. The sun in the world provides heat and light without life, whereas the sun in heaven provides heat and light together with life. The latter, being provided by the sun of heaven, are therefore called spiritual, because they hold life within them, whereas the former, which are provided by the sun of the world, are called natural and do not hold life within them. The life in living things that is recognized in their heat and indicated by it does not come from the heat of the sun in the world but from the heat of the sun in heaven. When the latter heat enters heat in the world it produces that effect; the body feels it as elemental heat, but this has vital heat in it, which has its origin in the love that is heat from the sun of heaven. The truth that vital heat springs from a source other than the sun in the world, and that it owes its origin to love and exists according to the amount and the character of that love within it, anyone is able to know provided that he is prepared to think about it properly. Anyone can know except those who do not acknowledge anything internal in the human being and attribute everything to natural forces.

[3] Since therefore heat from the sun in heaven, which is the Lord, is the good of love, and the light from it is the truth of faith, one may see what is meant by 'morning', and what by 'midday', 'evening', and 'night' in the next life. They are states of good and truth or love and faith, 'morning' being a state of the good of love, 'midday' a state of the truth of faith, 'evening and night' a deprivation of them, which is ignorance and blindness in insights that belong to faith, and also slowness and coldness in feelings that belong to heavenly love.

[4] Furthermore the situation with the sun of heaven is as it is with the sun in the world, in that it is motionless and does not bring about those states by any wheeling round of its own. Rather the things around it bring them about, just as a planet travelling round the sun and at the same time rotating on its axis produces changes. The appearance therefore is that those changes are attributable to the sun, but in reality they are not attributable to the sun, only to the planet going round it. So also in heaven. Changes of state there, to which morning, midday, evening, and night correspond, are not attributable to the sun there, for that sun is always radiating heat and light, that is, the good of love and the truth of faith. Instead those changes are attributable to the recipients, that is to say, to the angels and spirits, who move through a regular cycle of such changes as their life progresses. At one point it is morning, that is, they are filled with the good of love; at another it is midday, that is, they are enlightened with the truth of faith; and at yet another it is evening and night, that is, these gifts become vague and dull with them.

[5] The reason why the situation in the world is as it is in heaven, except for the difference that in the world the regular cycle consists of states belonging to the times of day, while in heaven it consists of states of life, is that all things in the world have been created in the image of those in heaven. For natural things arise from spiritual ones as effects from their causes. Consequently there is a correspondence of all things in the world with those in heaven, and therefore the whole natural order is nothing other than a theatre representative of the Lord's kingdom, 3483, 4939, 8211.

4981. 'And the blessing of Jehovah was' means increases. This is clear from the meaning of 'the blessing of Jehovah'. In the genuine sense 'the blessing of Jehovah' means love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour, for those who are endowed with these are called 'the blessed of Jehovah' since they are in that case endowed with heaven and eternal salvation. Consequently 'the blessing of Jehovah' in the external sense, that is, in the sense which has to do with a person's state in the world, means resting content in God and on that account being content with one's position in society and with the amount of wealth one possesses, whether one is among the highly honoured and is wealthy or among the not so honoured and the poor. For the person who rests content in God regards positions and wealth as means to fulfill useful purposes; and when he thinks about these and at the same time about eternal life, he rates them as nothing and eternal life as that which is essential.

[2] Because 'the blessing of Jehovah (or the Lord)' implies such increases in the genuine sense, blessing also implies countless other benefits and consequently means the various gifts which flow from it, such as enrichment with spiritual and celestial good, 981, 1731; fruitfulness resulting from the affection for truth, 2846; undergoing rearrangement into heavenly order, 3017; being endowed with the good of love and thereby being joined to the Lord, 3406, 3504, 3514, 3530, 3584; and joy, 4216. What is meant by 'blessing' therefore in any specific instance becomes clear from the context in which it appears. Here the meaning of 'the blessing of Jehovah' as increases in good and truth, that is, in life and doctrine, is evident from what follows it, for there it says that this blessing of Jehovah was 'in the house and in the field', and 'house' means good which is the good of life, while 'field' means truth which is the truth of doctrine. From this it is evident that increases in these are meant in this case by 'the blessing of Jehovah'.

7844. 'between the evenings' means a last and first state. This is clear from the meaning of 'evening' as a state of falsity and also a state of ignorance of truth; for the shade of evening is falsity and also ignorance of truth. All the times of day, like all the seasons of the year, mean in the spiritual sense alternating states involving truth and good, 5672, 5962, 6110. The end of them and the beginning of them is the evening; consequently when it says 'between the evenings' it implies all those states. At this point therefore 'between the evenings' means the state of deliverance of those governed by truth springing from good, and the state of damnation of those governed by falsity arising from evil, states which are meant by the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt when the firstborn there were killed. The fact that all this is called 'the evening' is clear from the following in Moses,

You shall sacrifice ¹ the Passover in the evening when the sun goes down, at the fixed time of your departure from Egypt. Deuteronomy 16:4, 6.

[2] From this it is evident that the end of the state of molestations and the beginning of the state of the deliverance of those represented by the children of Israel is meant by 'between the evenings'. From that beginning the state moves on for them towards morning, which is a raising to heaven. It is evident too that the end of the state of molestations and the beginning of the state of the damnation of those represented by the Egyptians is meant by 'between the evenings'. But these people's state moves on towards night, which is a casting into hell. The casting of the latter into hell is represented by being drowned in the Sea Suph, while the raising of the former to heaven is represented by being led into the land of Canaan.

[3] In the Word the expression 'the evening' is used in various places, and by it is meant a last phase of a Church and also a first phase of it - a last one with those among whom the Church is coming to an end, and a first with those among whom it is just beginning. This explains why 'the evening' primarily means the Lord's Coming, for that was the time of the end of the former Church and of the beginning of the new. The first state of the new Church is also called 'the evening' since a member of the Church starts with light that is dim and advances to that which is clear, and this for him is the morning.

[4] The fact that the Lord's Coming into the world is meant by 'the evening' and 'the morning' is clear in Daniel,

I heard a holy one speaking, For how long is this vision, the continual [burnt offering], and the transgression, and the treading down of the sanctuary and the host? And he said to me, Up to the evening [when it is becoming] morning two thousand three hundred times, for then the sanctuary will be made correct. Daniel 8:13-14.

Here it is self-evident that 'the evening' is used to mean the last phase when the Church had been completely laid waste and the Lord came into the world, and 'morning' to mean light and the rise of a new Church from Him.

[5] A similar prophecy appears in Zechariah,

There will be one day, which will be known to Jehovah, not day nor night, because around evening time there will be light. Zechariah 14:7.

In Zephaniah,

Let there at length be a territory for the remnant of the house of Judah; they will pasture on them. In the houses of Ashkelon they will find rest in the evening, when Jehovah their God will visit them, and return their captives. ² Zephaniah 1:7.

'The evening' stands for the first state of an arising Church. Since 'the evening' meant the last state of an old Church and the first of a new, Aaron and his sons were commanded to cause a lamp to burn ³ from evening until morning before Jehovah, Exodus 27:20-21.

[6] The fact that 'the evening' is the last state of the Church, when dense falsity reigns because there is no faith, and dense evil because there is no charity, is evident in Jeremiah,

Woe to us, ⁴ for the day goes away, for the shadows of evening are set at an angle! Jeremiah 6:4.

In Ezekiel,

I spoke to the people in the morning, and my wife died at evening. Ezekiel 24:18.

'Wife' stands for the Church. In David,

At dawn it will flourish and shoot up, ⁵ at evening one will cut it down, it will wither. Psalms 90:6.

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