8811. 'And so it was on the third day' - means at the end of purification. This is clear from the meaning of 'the third day' as the end of the state of preparation to receive, as above in 8791, and so the end of purification.

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'.

3483. Everything at all visible in the universe is representative of the Lord's kingdom, so much so that nothing exists in the starry sky above, or on this planet and in its three kingdoms below, which is not in its own way representative. For every single thing within the natural order is an ultimate image, in that the Divine issues forth into celestial things, which are expressions of good; celestial things issue forth into spiritual, which are expressions of truth; and celestial and spiritual things issue forth into natural things. This shows how stupid, indeed how earthly and also topsy-turvy, human intelligence is which separates or isolates natural forces from that which is prior to them and flowing into them - that is, from their efficient cause - and then attributes everything to natural forces. And people who think and talk in this fashion seem to themselves to be wiser than anybody else, that is to say, by their attribution of everything to natural forces. Angelic intelligence however is quite the reverse - it attributes nothing to natural forces but every single thing to the Lord's Divine, and so to life, not to anything devoid of life.

[2] The learned know that remaining in being consists in perpetual coming into being. Nevertheless it is contrary to their affection for falsity, and consequently to their reputation for being learned, to say that natural forces are constantly kept in being, even as they came into being, from the Lord's Divine. Now because every single thing remains in being from the Divine, that is, is constantly coming into being from Him, and every single thing from that source is inevitably a representative of the real thing by means of which it has come into being, the whole visible universe is therefore nothing else than a theatre that is representative of the Lord's kingdom. And this in turn is a theatre representative of the Lord Himself.