31. The fact that the great lights symbolize love and faith and that they are named sun, moon, and stars can be seen in many places in the prophets. In Ezekiel, for instance:
When I blot you out I will cover the heavens and black out their stars; the sun I will cover with a cloud, and the moon will not make its light shine. All the lamps of light in the heavens I will black out above you, and I will bring shadow over your land. 1 (Ezekiel 32:7-8)
This passage is directed at Pharaoh and the Egyptians. In the Word, these people stand for sensory evidence and factual information, and the idea here is that they used both things to blot out love and faith. In Isaiah:
The day of Jehovah [comes] to make the earth a desolation, since neither the stars of the heavens nor their Orions 2 will shine their light. The sun has been shadowed over in its emergence, and the moon will not radiate its light. (Isaiah 13:9-10)
In Joel:
The day of Jehovah has come, a day of shadow and darkness. Before him the earth trembles, the heavens shake, the sun and moon turn black, and the stars hold back their rays. (Joel 2:1-2, 10)
[2] The following passage in Isaiah discusses the Lord's Coming and the light brought to the nations — in other words, a new church, and specifically the individuals who are in shadow but welcome the light and are being reborn.
Rise, shine, because your light has come! Look — shadows cover the earth, and darkness, the peoples. And Jehovah will dawn above you; and the nations will walk toward your light, and monarchs, toward the brightness of your rising. Jehovah will become an eternal light to you. No longer will your sun set, and your moon will not withdraw, because Jehovah will become an eternal light to you. (Isaiah 60:1-2, 3, 19-20)
In David:
Jehovah makes the heavens with understanding; he spreads the earth out on the waters; he makes the great lights — the sun to rule during the day and the moon and stars to rule during the night. (Psalms 136:5-6, 7, 8, 9)
In the same author:
Give glory to Jehovah, sun and moon! Give glory to him, all you shining stars! Give glory to him, heavens of heavens and waters above the heavens! (Psalms 148:3-4)
In all these places the sources of light symbolize love and faith.
[3] Because lights represented and symbolized love for and faith in the Lord, the Jewish church 3 was commanded to keep a light burning perpetually, from evening to morning, since every activity that was required of that church represented the Lord. The command for the perpetual light was as follows:
Command the children of Israel to take oil for the light, to make [the fire of] the lamp go up continually. In the meeting tent, outside the veil that is by [the ark of] the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall arrange it before Jehovah, from evening till morning. (Exodus 27:20-21)
This symbolizes love and faith, which the Lord kindles and causes to shine in our inner self, and through our inner into our outer self, as will be shown in its proper place [§9783], with the Lord's divine mercy.
Fotnoter:
1. The Latin word here (terra) and the Hebrew word for which it stands (אֶרֶץ ['ereṣ]) mean both "land" and "earth." Swedenborg emphasizes it as he does many other instances of words for earth and sky in §§25, 28, 29, 30. [LHC]
2. "Orions" seems to mean simply constellations. Swedenborg used the Latin word oriones here, which is the hypothetical plural of Orion, the mythological hunter for whom one of the constellations is named. The Hebrew word, as the third Latin edition points out, is the plural of כְּסִיל (kǝsîl), which is the name for the same constellation. [LHC]
3. On the meaning of "church" here, see note 2 in §4. [LHC]
