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.

8426. 'At evening you will know that Jehovah has brought you out of the land of Egypt' means that at the end of a former state comes the revelation that they have been delivered. This is clear from the meaning of 'at evening' as the end of a former state, dealt with below; from the meaning of 'knowing' as being revealed, for what Jehovah causes a person to know is called revelation; and from the meaning of 'bringing out' as delivering, as often before, at this point from the molestations that are meant by 'the land of Egypt', 7278.

[2] The reason why 'at evening' means the end of a former state is that changes of state in the next life resemble the times of day in the world, that is to say, morning, midday, evening, and night or twilight, then morning again. It should be recognized that in the spiritual world changes of state are forever taking place, which all who are there pass through, the purpose of it all being that they may continue unceasingly to be made more perfect. For without changes of states, that is, without variations constantly following one another in sequence, those who are there cannot be made more perfect. The changes of states which follow one another in sequence, resembling the times of day and seasons of the year, are never exactly the same when they come round again, but are varied. The beginning of each state corresponds to morning on earth, and also in the Word is meant several times by 'morning'. The end of each state however corresponds to evening, and is also called 'evening' several times in the Word. When it is morning they are in a state of love; when it is midday they are in a state of light or truth; but when it is evening they are in a state that is dim so far as truths are concerned and rather cool so far as good is concerned, since it is a state in which the delight belonging to natural love rules them. This delight is what is meant by 'the selav' which the people received in the evening, and good is what is meant by 'the manna' which they received every morning.

[3] All this goes to show what 'the evening' means - the end of the state of whatever the subject may be; consequently it may mean the end of a state of the Church. But see what has been shown already about the meaning of 'the evening':

In the next life there are changes of state, just as in the world there are changes of times and seasons, 5672, 5962, 6110.

'Evening' is the end of a former Church, and 'morning' the beginning of a new one, 2323, 7844; therefore 'evening, and 'morning' mean the Coming or arrival of the Lord, 7844.

In heaven there is evening and twilight before morning, but no night; night occurs in hell, 6110.