10373. For in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth. That this signifies a state of combat and of labor while the church is being set up, is evident from the signification of "six days," when the subject treated of is the setting up of the church and the regeneration of man, as being a state of combat against evils and falsities, thus the state which precedes and prepares for the conjunction of good and truth (see above, n. 10366, 10367); and from the signification of "heaven and earth;" as being the church. [2] By "making heaven and earth" in the Word is not meant the very first creation of the visible heaven and earth; but the setting up of the church and the regeneration of man therein; by "heaven" is meant his internal, and by "earth" his external. That this creation is meant, is evident from the passages in the Word where "creating" is spoken of, as in these:
The people which shall be created shall praise Jah (Ps. 102:18). Thou sendest forth Thy spirit, they are created; and Thou renewest the faces of the earth (Ps. 104:30). Thus said Jehovah thy Creator, O Jacob, thy Former, O Israel, for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou art Mine. Everyone called by My name, I have created him for My glory; I have formed him; yea, I have made him (Isa. 43:1, 7);
and in other places. It is said "create," "form," and "make," and elsewhere "Creator," "Former," and "Maker;" and by "creating" is signified something new that did not exist before; by "forming" is signified the quality; and by "making," the effect. [3] (That "to create" and "make a new heaven and a new earth" denotes to set up a new church, its internal and its external-as in Isa. 65:17; 66:22; Rev. 21: 1-see n. 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118, 3355, 4535; and that the "earth" in the Word denotes the church, n. 9325; and also that the creation of heaven and earth in the first chapter of Genesis denotes the setting up of the Most Ancient Church, n. 8891, 9942.)
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