16. Lacking a spiritual understanding, no one would know why the prophet Jeremiah was commanded to buy a belt and put it around his waist, not to put it in water, and to hide it in a crevice in the rocks near the Euphrates (Jeremiah 13:1-7). No one would know why the prophet Isaiah was commanded to take the sackcloth off his waist and the sandals off his feet and to go naked and barefoot for three years (Isaiah 20:2-3). No one would know why the prophet Ezekiel was commanded to take a razor to his head and his beard and then to divide the hair, burning a third of it in the middle of the city, striking a third with a sword, and scattering a third to the wind; also, to bind a few hairs in his hems, and eventually to throw a few into the midst of a fire (Ezekiel 5:1-4). The same prophet was commanded to lie on his left side for three hundred ninety days and on his right side for forty days and to make himself a cake out of wheat, barley, millet, and spelt and bake it over cow dung and eat it; and at another time to make a siege wall and a mound against [an image of] Jerusalem and besiege it (Ezekiel 4:1-15). No one would know why the prophet Hosea was twice commanded to take a whore as his wife (Hosea 1:2-9; 3:2-3), and other things of the same sort.

Beyond that, without a spiritual understanding who would know the meaning of all the objects in the tabernacle - the ark, for example, the mercy seat, the angel guardians, the lampstand, the altar of incense, the showbread on the table, its veils and curtains? Without a spiritual understanding, who would know the meaning of Aaron’s sacred garments - his tunic, robe, ephod, the Urim and Thummim, his turban, and so on? Without a spiritual understanding, who would know the meaning of all the commandments about burnt offerings, sacrifices, grain offerings, and drink offerings, about Sabbaths and festivals? The truth is that every bit of what was commanded meant something about the Lord, heaven, and the church.

You can see clearly in these few examples that there is a spiritual meaning throughout the Word and in its details.

6576. 'I will sustain you and your young children' means that they will have life from the Divine by way of the internal, through truth which is of the understanding and good which is of the will. This is clear from the meaning of 'sustaining' as an influx of goodness and truth, dealt with in 6106, thus life conveyed through truth and good; and from the representation of 'Joseph' as the internal, dealt with in 6499. But since spiritual life does not originate in the internal but in the Lord, though it comes by way of the internal, the expression 'from the Divine by way of the internal' is used. 'You and your young children' means spiritual truths within the natural and the innocence within those truths, which will have life from the Divine by way of the internal through truth and good. The reason why 'sustaining' means life conveyed through truth and good is that spiritual food consists in knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom, thus in truth and good, see 56-58, 681, 4791, 5293, 5740, 5741, 5576, 5579. The expressions 'truth which is of the understanding' and 'good which is of the will' are used because all truth belongs to the understanding, and good to the will; for the understanding is the receptacle of truth, and the will is the receptacle of good.