9995. Of fine flour of wheat shalt thou make them. That this signifies the truth that is from Divine good, and from which are these things, is evident from the signification of “fine flour,” as being truth (of which below); and from the signification of “wheat,” as being the good of love (see n. 3941), thus in the supreme sense Divine good; and from the signification of “making them,” as being that these celestial goods, which are signified by “bread, cakes, and wafers, of unleavened things,” are from this truth. The case herein is as follows. All the truths and goods that are in the heavens are from the Divine truth that proceeds from the Lord’s Divine good. As received by the angels in the celestial kingdom this Divine truth is called “celestial good;” but in the spiritual kingdom, as received by the angels there, it is called “spiritual good.” For howsoever the Divine truth that proceeds from the Lord’s Divine good is called truth, it is nevertheless good. The reason why it is called truth, is that it appears in the heavens, before the external sight of the angels there, as light; for the light in the heavens is Divine truth. But the heat in this light, which is the good of love, makes it to be good. Similar is the case with man. When the truth of faith proceeds from the good of charity, which is the case when the man has been regenerated, it then appears as good, which from this is called “spiritual good;” for the being of truth is good, and truth is the form of good.

[2] From this it can be seen why a man finds it so difficult to distinguish between thinking and willing; for when he wills anything, he says that he thinks it; and often when he thinks anything, that he wills it. And yet they are distinct, like truth and good; for the being of thought is will, and the form of will is thought; as the being of truth is good, and the form of good is truth, as just said. As a man finds such difficulty in distinguishing between these two, he therefore does not know what is the being of his life, and that it is good; and not truth except insofar as this comes forth from good. Good pertains to the will, and will is that which man loves; and therefore truth does not become the being of man’s life until he loves it; and when a man loves it he does it. But truth pertains to the understanding, the office of which is to think, and when a man thinks it, he can speak about it. Moreover, it is possible to understand and think truth without willing and doing it; but when it is devoid of will, it is not appropriated to the man’s life, because it has not in it the being of his life. Being ignorant of this, a man attributes everything of salvation to faith, and scarcely anything to charity; when yet faith has its being of life from charity, as truth has it from good.

[3] Moreover, all the good with man is formed by means of truth; for good flows in by an internal way from the Lord, and truth enters by an external way; and they enter into a marriage in the internal man; but in one way with a spiritual man and angel, and in another way with a celestial man and angel. With a spiritual man and angel, the marriage is effected in the intellectual part; but in a celestial man and angel in the will part. The external way, by which truth enters, is through the hearing and sight into the understanding; but the internal way, by which good flows in from the Lord, is through his inmost into the will (on which subject see what was shown in the passages cited in n. 9596). From all this it is evident that the celestial goods signified by the “bread, cakes, and wafers of unleavened things” come forth from the Divine truth that proceeds from the Lord’s Divine good; and that this is meant by “of fine flour of wheat thou shalt make them.” As this is so, all the meat-offerings, which were prepared in various ways, were made of fine flour mingled with oil (Leviticus 2:1; 6:13-16; Numbers 7:13, and following verses; 15:2-15; 28:11-15).

[4] That “fine flour,” and also “meal,” denote the truth which is from good, is evident from the following passages, in Ezekiel:

Thou didst eat fine flour, honey, and oil, whence thou becamest beautiful exceedingly (Ezekiel 16:13);

this is said of Jerusalem, by which is here meant the Ancient Church; “fine flour” denotes the truth from the good of this church; “honey” denotes its delight; “oil” denotes the good of love; and “to eat” denotes to appropriate; therefore it is said “thou becamest beautiful,” for spiritual beauty is from truths and goods.

[5] In Hosea:

It hath no standing crop, the shoot shall yield no meal; if perchance it yield, strangers shall swallow it up (Hos. 8:7).

The “standing crop” denotes the truth of faith from good in conception (n. 9146); “the shoot shall yield no meal” denotes barrenness, because there is no truth from good; the “strangers who shall swallow it up” denote the falsities from evil which will consume it.

[6] In the first book of Kings:

The woman of Zidon in Zarephath said to Elijah that she had nothing of which to make a cake, except a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse. Elijah said that she should make for him a cake in the first place, and the cask of meal would not be consumed, and the cruse of oil would not fail; which also came to pass (1 Kings 17:12-15);

by “meal” is here signified the truth of the church; and by “oil” its good; for by the woman in Zidon is represented the church which is in the knowledges of truth and good; and by Elijah the prophet, the Lord as to the Word; from which it is evident what this miracle involves, for all the miracles treated of in the Word involve such things as are of the church (n. 7337, 8364, 9086). From this it is evident what is signified by the barrel of meal not being consumed, and the cruse of oil not failing, if the woman made a cake of what little she had for Elijah in the first place, and for her son afterward. (That “woman” denotes the church, see n. 252, 253; that “Zidon” denotes the knowledges of truth and good, n. 1201; and that “Elijah” denotes the Lord as to the Word, n. 2762, 5247)

[7] In Isaiah:

O daughter of Babel, take the millstone and grind meal (Isaiah 47:1-2);

“the daughter of Babel” denotes those in the church who are in a holy external, but in a profane internal; “to grind meal” denotes to select from the sense of the letter of the Word such things as serve to confirm the evils of the loves of self and of the world, which evil is profane; “to grind” denotes to select, and also to explain in favor of these loves; and “meal” denotes truth serving for this (n. 4335).

[8] From this it is plain what is meant by “grinding,” consequently what by that which is ground; as in Jeremiah:

Princes were hanged up by their hand, the faces of elders were not honored, they carried away the young men to grind (Lam. 5:12-13).

Moses took the calf which they had made, and burnt it with fire, and ground it to powder; then he strewed it upon the faces of the waters, and made the sons of Israel drink (Exodus 32:20; Deuteronomy 9:21).

Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left: two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left (Matthew 24:40-41);

from this it is evident what is meant by “grinding;” that in a good sense it denotes to select truths from the Word and explain them so as to be of service to good; and in a bad sense so as to be of service to evil (n. 7780); from which it is also evident what is signified by that which is ground, consequently by “meal,” and “fine flour.”

5247. And he shaved. That this signifies rejection and change as to what is of the exterior natural, is evident from the signification of “shaving the head and the beard,” as being to reject such things as are of the exterior natural; for the “hair” that was shaved off signifies this natural (see n. 3301). The hair both of the head and of the beard corresponds in the Grand Man to the exterior natural; and therefore sensuous men (that is, they who have believed nothing but what is natural, and have not been willing to understand that there is anything more interior or purer than what they could apprehend by the senses) in the other life when in the light of heaven, they appear hairy, so much so that the face is scarcely anything but beard. Such hairy faces have often been seen by me. But they who have been rational, that is, spiritual men, in whom the natural has been rightly subordinated, appear becomingly furnished with hair. Nay, from the hair in the other life may be known the quality of spirits in respect to the natural. The reason why spirits appear with hair is that in the other life spirits appear altogether as do men on earth. Hence it is that the angels spoken of in the Word as being seen are sometimes described even in respect to their hair.

[2] From what has now been said it is evident what is signified by “shaving,” as in Ezekiel:

The priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, shall put off their garments wherein they minister and lay them in the bedchambers of holiness, and they shall put on other garments, neither shall they sanctify the people in their garments, and they shall not shave their heads and let down their hair, in polling they shall poll their heads (Ezekiel 44:19-20);

this is said of the new temple and the new priesthood, that is, of the new church; and the “putting on of other garments” signifies holy truths; their “not shaving their heads nor letting down their hair, but in polling to poll their heads” signifies not rejecting the natural, but accommodating it so that it may be in accord, thus making it subordinate. Everyone who believes the Word to be holy can see that these and the rest of the things said in the prophet about the new earth, the new city, the new temple, and new priesthood, will not be at all as is stated in the letter there; as that the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, will minister therein, and will then put off the garments of their ministry and put on other garments, and will poll their heads; but that all and everyone of these things signify such things as belong to a new church.

[3] Neither would the statutes have been commanded in regard to the high priest, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, in the following passages from Moses, if they had not contained holy things within:

The priest chief of his brethren, upon whose head the anointing oil has been poured, and he hath filled his hand to put on the garments, shall not shave his head, and shall not tear his garments (Leviticus 21:10).

The sons of Aaron shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave the corner of their beard; they shall be holy to their God, and not profane the name of their God (Leviticus 21:5-6).

Thus shalt thou purify the Levites. Sprinkle the waters of expiation upon them, and they shall make to pass a razor over their flesh, and they shall wash their garments; and they shall be pure (Numbers 8:7).

What is there that is holy or that is of the church in these things-that the high priest should not shave his head nor tear his garments; that the sons of Aaron should not make baldness upon their head nor shave the corner of their beard, and that the Levites when being purified should be shaved with a razor upon their flesh? But to have the external or natural man subordinate to the internal or spiritual, and thus to have both subordinate to the Divine, this is a holy thing, and is what the angels perceive when these passages of the Word are being read by man.

[4] So also it was with the Nazirite, who was holy unto Jehovah:

If any man should by chance die very suddenly beside him, and he hath defiled the head of his Naziriteship; then he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing, on the seventh day shall he shave it. And when the days of his Naziriteship are fulfilled, the Nazirite shall shave the head of his Naziriteship at the door of the tent of meeting; and shall take the hair of his head and put it on the fire that is under the sacrifice of peace-offerings (Numbers 6:9, 13, 18);

what the Nazirite was, and what holiness he represented, may be seen above (n. 3301). That holiness should abide in his hair can never be comprehended unless it is known what “hair” is by correspondence, thus to what holiness the hair of the Nazirite corresponded. In like manner it cannot be comprehended how Samson had strength from his hair, of which he speaks thus to Delilah:

There hath not come up a razor upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite of God from my mother’s womb; if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man. And Delilah called a man, who shaved off the seven locks of his head and his strength went from upon him. And afterward when the hair of his head began to grow after it was shaved off, strength returned to him (Judges 16:17, 19, 22);

who without knowledge derived from correspondence can know that the Lord as to the Divine natural was represented by the Nazirite, and that the Naziriteship had no other meaning, and that Samson’s strength was from this representative?

[5] One who does not know, and especially who does not believe, that there is an internal sense in the Word, and that the sense of the letter is representative of the things in the internal sense, will scarcely acknowledge that there is anything holy in these things; when yet that which is most holy is in them. If a man does not know, and especially if he does not believe that the Word possesses an internal sense which is holy, neither can he know what the following passages bear in their bosom, as in Jeremiah:

Truth is perished and is cut off from their mouth. Cut off the hair of thy Naziriteship, and cast it away (Jeremiah 7:28-29).

In Isaiah:

In that day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired in the passages of the river, through the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet; and shall also consume the beard (Isaiah 7:20).

In Micah:

Make thee bald, and shave thee on account of the sons of thy deliciousnesses, enlarge thy baldness as the eagle, because they have migrated from thee (Micah 1:16).

Nor can he know what holiness is involved in that which is related of Elijah, in that he was a hairy man, and girt with a girdle of skin about his loins (2 Kings 1:8); nor why the children who called Elisha bald were torn by she-bears out of the wood (2 Kings 2:23-24).

[6] By Elijah and by Elisha was represented the Lord as to the Word, thus by them was represented the Word, specifically the prophetic Word, as may be seen in what is prefaced to the eighteenth chapter of Genesis and at n. 2762. The “hairiness” and the “girdle of skin” signified the literal sense, a “hairy man” this sense in respect to truths, and a “girdle of skin” about the loins this sense in respect to goods. For the literal sense of the Word is its natural sense, because it is from the things in the world; and the internal sense is the spiritual sense, because it is from the things in heaven. These two senses are circumstanced as are the internal and external of man; and because there is no internal without an external, for the external is the ultimate of order in which the internal subsists, therefore it was a reproach against the Word to call Elisha bald, implying that it is devoid of an external, thus that the Word has no sense that is adapted to the apprehension of man.

[7] From all this it is evident that all the details of the Word are holy; but the holiness therein is not apparent to the understanding, except that of one who knows its internal sense; nevertheless by influx from heaven it comes to the perception of him who believes the Word to be holy. This influx is effected through the internal sense in which the angels are; and although this sense is not understood by the man, still it affects him, because the affection of the angels who are in it is communicated. From this it is plain also that the Word has been given to man in order that he may have communication with heaven, and that the Divine truth which is in heaven may affect him by means of the influx.