Arcana Coelestia volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

ARCANA COELESTIA 24The day of Jehovah cometh to set the land in desolation, for thestars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light;the sun is darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause herlight to shine (Isa. 13:9–10).Again, in Joel:The day of Jehovah cometh, a day of darkness and of thickdarkness; the earth trembleth before him, the heavens are incommotion; the sun and the moon are blackened, and the starswithdraw their brightness (Joel 2:1–2, 10).[2] Again, in Isaiah, speaking of the advent of the Lord and theenlightening of the gentiles, consequently of a new church, and inparticular of all who are in darkness, and receive light, and arebeing regenerated:Arise, shine, for thy light is come; behold darkness covers the earth,and thick darkness the peoples, and Jehovah shall arise upon thee, andthe gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thyrising; Jehovah shall be to thee a light of eternity, thy sun shall no morego down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself, for Jehovah shall be tothee a light of eternity (Isa. 60:1–3, 20).So in David:Jehovah in intelligence maketh the heavens; he stretcheth out theearth above the waters; he maketh great luminaries, the sun to rule byday, the moon and stars to rule by night (Ps. 136:5–9).Glorify ye Jehovah, sun and moon, glorify him, all ye stars of light,glorify him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that are above theheavens (Ps. 148:3–4).[3] In all these passages, “luminaries” signify love and faith. It wasbecause “luminaries” represented and signified love and faithtoward the Lord that it was ordained in the Jewish church that aperpetual luminary should be kept burning from evening tillmorning, for every ordinance in that church was representative ofthe Lord. Of this luminary it is written: