Arcana Coelestia # 31
31. That 'the great lights' mean love and faith, and are also mentioned as the sun, the moon, and the stars, is clear from various places in the Prophets, as in Ezekiel,
When I have blotted you out, I will cover the heavens and darken their stars, I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light. All the bright lights in the heavens I will make dark over you, and I will put darkness over your land. Ezekiel 32:7-8.
This refers to Pharaoh and the Egyptians, who are used in the Word to mean the sensory and the factual. The meaning here is that they will have blotted out love and faith by means of sensory evidence and factual knowledge. In Isaiah,
The day of Jehovah for making the earth a desolation; for the stars of the heavens and their constellations 1 will not give their light; the sun will be darkened in its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. Isaiah 13:9-10.
In Joel,
The day of Jehovah is coming, a day of darkness and thick darkness. The earth quakes before Him, the heavens tremble, the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. Joel 2:10.
[2] In Isaiah, in reference to the Lord's Coming and the enlightenment of gentiles, and so to a new Church, in particular to individuals who are in darkness but who are beginning to receive the light and be regenerated,
Arise, shine, for your light has come. Behold, darkness is covering the earth, and thick darkness the peoples, but Jehovah will arise upon you, and nations will walk towards your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light; your sun will no more go down nor your moon be withdrawn, for Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light. Isaiah 60:1-3, 19-20.
In David,
Jehovah makes the heavens by intelligence, He spreads out the earth upon the waters, He makes the great lights, the sun to have dominion over the day, and the moon and stars to have dominion over the night. Psalms 136:5-9.
And in the same author,
Praise Jehovah, sun and moon, praise Him, all stars of light! Praise Him, heaven of heavens, and waters that are above the heavens! Psalms 148:3-4.
[3] In all of these places 'the lights' mean love and faith. Because the lights represented and meant love and faith in the Lord, the Jewish Church was commanded to keep a light burning all the time from evening till morning, for every command which that Church received was representative of the Lord. Concerning this light it is said,
Command the sons of Israel that they take oil for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually. In the Tent of Meeting outside the veil which is before the testimony Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before Jehovah. [Exodus 27:20-21]
That this means the love and faith which the Lord kindles and causes to shine in the internal man, and by means of the internal man in the external man, will in the Lord's Divine mercy be shown at that point in Exodus.
Mga talababa:
1. literally, orions
Job 15
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Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
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"Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?
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Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches with which he can do no good?
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Yes, you do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God.
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For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.
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Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. Yes, your own lips testify against you.
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"Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills?
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Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
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What do you know, that we don't know? What do you understand, which is not in us?
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With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, much elder than your father.
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Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word that is gentle toward you?
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Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,
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That you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?
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What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
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Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight;
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how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!
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"I will show you, listen to me; that which I have seen I will declare:
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(Which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not hidden it;
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to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them):
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the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
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A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer shall come on him.
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He doesn't believe that he shall return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword.
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He wanders abroad for bread, saying, 'Where is it?' He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
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Distress and anguish make him afraid. They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
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Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty;
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he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers;
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because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat on his thighs.
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He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.
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He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.
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He shall not depart out of darkness. The flame shall dry up his branches. By the breath of God's mouth shall he go away.
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Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for emptiness shall be his reward.
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It shall be accomplished before his time. His branch shall not be green.
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He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive tree.
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For the company of the godless shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.
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They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit."
