In many cases, the spiritual meaning of "own," both as a verb and as an adjective, is relatively literal. When people are described as the "Lord's own," however, it specifically means those people who know Him and have His Word. This has taken various forms since the dawn of humanity; in the prehistoric church known as the "Most Ancient Church" the Lord's truth -- the direct expression of His love -- flowed into people directly. In the Ancient Church the Lord's Word was recognized in nature and in the form of deeply representative stories, some of which were passed on to us in the early chapters of Genesis. Among the Children of Israel the Lord's Word was expressed through the Ten Commandments, the laws of Moses, the very history of the nation of Israel and the various psalms and prophecies. The early Christians had those stories along with the teaching and inspiration of Jesus himself. We now have the whole Bible, including the teachings of Jesus, and can understand the Bible's true meaning. Each of these churches, then, was at some point the Lord's own.

988. 'Upon every bird of the air' ¹ means over falsities that go with reasoning. This is clear from the meaning of 'a bird'. In the Word birds mean intellectual concepts - gentle, useful, and beautiful ones mean intellectual concepts that are true, but savage, useless, and ugly ones intellectual concepts that are false, that is, falsities that go with reasoning. That they mean intellectual concepts, see 40, 776, 870. From this it is also evident that birds mean reasonings and the falsities that go with them. To leave no one in any doubt, the places quoted below, in addition to what is mentioned in 866 concerning the raven, will serve to confirm the point. In Jeremiah,

I will visit them with four kinds [of destroyers], with the sword to slay, with dogs to tear, with the birds of the air, ¹ and with the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. Jeremiah 15:3.

In Ezekiel,

Upon its ruin will dwell every bird of the air, ¹ and on its branches will be every wild animal of the field. Ezekiel 37:13.

In Daniel,

At length upon the bird of abominations will come desolation. Daniel 9:27.

In John,

Babylon, a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. Revelation 18:1.

And the Prophets declare many times that dead bodies would be given as food to the birds of the air ¹ and to the beasts of the earth, Jeremiah 7:33; 19:7; 34:20; Ezekiel 29:5; 39:4; Psalms 79:2; Isaiah 18:6. This meant that they would be destroyed by falsities, which are 'the birds of the air' ² , and by evils or evil desires, which are 'the beasts of the earth'.

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