39. Verse 20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth creeping things, living creatures; and let birds fly above the earth, upon the face ¹ of the expanse of the heavens.

After the great lights have been kindled and lodged in the internal man, from which the external man receives its light, a person starts to live for the first time. Till then he can hardly be said to have lived, for he had imagined that the good he had done he had done from himself, and the truth he had uttered he had spoken from himself. And since man functioning from himself is dead - there being nothing in him that is not evil and false - therefore whatever he brings forth from himself is not living. So true is this that of himself he is incapable of doing any good deed that is in itself good. The fact that man cannot begin to think about good or to will it, and so cannot do good, unless the Lord is the source, is clear to everyone from the doctrine of faith, for the Lord says in Matthew,

He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. Matthew 13:37.

Nor can good come from anywhere else than the one fount itself of all good, as yet again He says,

Nobody is good but one, God. Luke 18:19.

[2] Nevertheless when the Lord is revitalizing a person, or regenerating him, He does allow him, to begin with, to imagine that good and truth originate in himself, for at that point a person cannot grasp anything else, or be led to believe and finally perceive, that all good and truth come from the Lord alone. As long as he held the former opinion his truths and goods were comparable to 'a tender plant', then 'a plant bearing seed', and after that 'a fruit tree', which are inanimate. But once he has been brought to life by love and faith and believes that the Lord is at work in every good deed he does and in every truth he utters, he is compared first to creeping things from the water and to birds which fly above the earth, and then to beasts, all of which are animate and are called 'living creatures'.

Fotnoter:

83. And was dead. That this signifies that He is rejected, is evident from this, that the Lord is said to be dead, when there are no longer faith in and love to Him; for the Lord lives with those who are in love and in faith to Him; but with those who are not in love and in faith He does not live, but is said to be dead, because rejected. This is what is here meant, in the internal sense, by "and was dead," but in the sense of the letter it denotes that He was crucified. The Lord's being crucified also similarly signifies, in the internal sense, that He was rejected and so treated by the Jews. For the Lord, when He was in the world, was Divine truth itself; and because Divine truth was altogether rejected by the Jews, therefore also the Lord, who was the Divine truth, suffered Himself to be crucified. Such things are signified by all the facts related by the Evangelists concerning the Lord's passion; the particulars relating thereto, even the most detailed, involve such a signification; therefore, when the Lord speaks of His passion, He calls Himself the Son of man, that is, Divine truth (as may be seen above, n. 63). That the Divine truth was entirely rejected by the Jews is well known, for they did not acknowledge anything said by Him, not even that He was the Son of God.

[2] From these considerations it can be known how those things also are to be understood which the Lord spake to His disciples concerning His rejection by the Jews. Thus in Luke:

"The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes" (9:22).

And again:

"The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation" (17:25).

In Mark:

"It is written of the Son of man, that he must suffer many things, and be set at nought" (9:12).

In Luke:

"When Jesus took unto him the twelve, he said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things foretold by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished; that he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked and spitefully entreated, and spit upon; and afterwards they shall scourge him, and put him to death; and the third day he shall rise again" (18:31, 32, 33).

The particulars here mentioned show how the Jews treated the Divine truth, which was from the Word. Jerusalem, in this passage, is the Jewish church; to be delivered to the Gentiles, to be mocked, to be spitefully entreated, to be spit upon, to be scourged, to be put to death, denote the wicked ways in which they treated Divine truth; and because the Lord was Divine truth itself, as being the Word (John 1:14), and it was foretold in the prophets that Divine truth would be so treated in the end of the church, therefore it is said that all things should be accomplished which are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man.

[3] Similarly it is said in another passage:

"These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me" (Luke 24:44).

That all things were accomplished, when Jesus was crucified, He Himself said, when He was upon the cross:

"When Jesus knew that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, he saith, I thirst" (John 19:28).

The reason why He then said, I thirst, was, because He desired a new church, which should acknowledge Him. (That to thirst, in the spiritual sense, signifies to desire, and that it is said of the truths of the church, may be seen, Arcana Coelestia 4958, 4976, 8568.)

These are also the things which are predicted by Daniel concerning vastation and desolation:

"After sixty and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself; and the people of the prince that shall come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, so that its end shall be with a flood. At last upon the bird of abominations shall be desolation, and even to the consummation and decision it shall drop upon the devastation" (9:26, 27).

Desolation and vastation signify reprobation and rejection of Divine truth, with those who are of the church (as may be seen, Arcana Coelestia 5360, 5376).

[4] That Divine truth, which is the Word, was so rejected by the Jews, is also meant by these words in Matthew:

"I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise also shall the Son of man suffer of them" (17:12).

By Elias is signified the Word (as may be seen in Arcana Coelestia, in the preface to Gen. chapter 18, and n. 2762, 5247), and also by John the Baptist, therefore he was called Elias (n. 7643, 9372). Hence it is plain what is signified by its being said that Elias was come, and that they had done to him whatsoever they listed, and that the Son of man would in like manner suffer of them.

How the Jews explained the Word, and thus rejected it, is evident from very many passages in the Evangelists, where the Lord makes it clear. From these considerations it is now evident, that by "I was dead," is signified that He was rejected. (That the Lord also by the passion of the cross, glorified His Human, that is, made it Divine, may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 294, 295, 302, 305.)