9544. 'And you shall make its dishes, its cups, and its small dishes, and its small brushes, with which it shall be covered' means cognitions of celestial good and truth. This is clear from the meaning of vessels in general as factual knowledge or cognitions, dealt with in 3068, 3079, so that the particular vessels that are mentioned here are cognitions of celestial good and truth. Celestial good is the good of love to the Lord, and celestial truth is the good of mutual love, cognitions of those kinds of good being meant by such vessels. And since cognitions of them are meant, and cognitions are contained in the memory belonging to the natural man, and the natural is external, it says that the table shall be covered with those vessels. For since the natural lies externally or below, covering over and enclosing what lies inwardly or above, it is called a covering, 6377. What use those vessels were to serve, see Leviticus 24:6-7; and Numbers 4:7-8.

9544a 'From pure gold you shall make them' means that they are derived from good. ¹

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5915. 'And I will sustain you there' means a constant influx of spiritual life from the internal celestial. This is clear from the meaning of 'sustaining', when spoken by Joseph, who represents the internal celestial, as an influx of spiritual life from the internal celestial. In the internal sense 'sustainment' is nothing else than the influx of goodness and truth from the Lord by way of heaven. This is how angels are sustained, and it is how a person's soul, that is, his internal man, is sustained. This sustainment is what the sustaining of the external man by means of food and drink corresponds to; and for this reason good is meant by 'food' and truth by 'drink'. The nature of this correspondence is also such that when a person is eating food the angels present with him think of goodness and truth; and, what is amazing, their ideas vary according to the different kinds of food that he eats. When therefore in the Holy Supper a person receives bread and wine the angels present with him think about the good of love and the good of faith, 3464, 3735, for the reason that 'bread' corresponds to the good of love and 'wine' to the good of faith. And because they correspond to them they also carry the same meanings in the Word.

[2] The fact that a person's soul, that is, his internal man, is sustained by spiritual food and drink, which are goodness and truth, is clear from the Lord's words in Moses,

Man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every utterance of the mouth of Jehovah. Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4.

'Utterance of the mouth of Jehovah' is goodness and truth that go forth from Him. In John,

Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. John 6:27.

In the same gospel,

The disciples asked Jesus, saying, Master, eat. He said to them, I have food to eat of which you do not know. John 4:31-32.

And regarding drink, in the same gospel,

Jesus said, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow out from within him. ¹ John 7:37-38.

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