414. 'So that the day should not shine for a third part of it, and the night likewise' signifies no longer any spiritual truth nor natural truth serviceable for doctrine and life out of the Word with them. By 'that the day should not shine' is understood no light derived from the sun, and by 'the night likewise' not shining is understood no light derived from the moon and the stars. By light in general is signified Divine Truth, which is Truth out of the Word: by the light of the sun spiritual Divine Truth, and by the light of the moon and the stars natural Divine Truth, both out of the Word. Divine Truth in the spiritual sense of the Word is like the light of the sun by day, and Divine Truth in the natural sense of the Word is like the light of the moon and stars by night. Indeed, the spiritual sense of the Word inflows into the natural sense thereof as the sun does with its own light into the moon, and causes it to appear in a mediate manner. In this manner also does the spiritual sense of the Word enlighten men, even those who do not know anything about that sense, while they are reading the Word in the natural sense. It, however, enlightens a spiritual man as the light from the sun enlightens his eye, but a natural man as the light derived from the moon and stars does his eye. Each one is enlightened in accordance with the spiritual affection of truth and good, and at the same time in accordance with the genuine truths by means of which he has opened his rational. [2] These things are understood by 'day' and 'night' also in the following passages:-
God said, Let there be luminaries in the expanse of the heavens, to distinguish between the day and the night: and God made two great luminaries, a great luminary to rule in the day, and a lesser luminary to rule in the night, and the stars: and God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth, and to rule in the day and in the night, and to distinguish between the light and the darkness Gen. i 14-19.
Jehovah made great luminaries, the sun for dominion in the day, and the moon and stars for dominion in the night Ps. cxxxvi 7-9.
To Thee, O Jehovah, is the day, and to Thee the night, Thou hast prepared the light and the sun Ps. lxxiv 16.
Jehovah giving the sun for the light of the day, the statutes of the moon and stars for the light of the night Jer. xxxi 35.
If you render My covenant of the day and My covenant of the night of no effect, so that there be not day and night in their season, My covenant also with David My servant shall become of no effect: if I do not set My covenant of the day and night, the statutes of heaven and earth, I shall also disapprove the seed of Jacob and of David Jer. xxxiii 20, 21, 25, 26.
These passages have been quoted so that it may be known that the darkening of both the lights [spiritual and natural] is understood.
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