5943. 'And you will eat the fat of the land' means making the good there their own. This is clear from the meaning of 'eating' as being communicated, joined together, and made one's own, dealt with in 2187, 2343, 3168, 3517 (end), 3832, 4745; and from the meaning of 'the fat of the land' - of Egypt - as the good within the natural. The meaning of 'fat' as that which is celestial or good is clear from many places in the Word, not only the fat found in an animal's body but also fat obtained from other sources, such as butter and oil; and other products with any fat in them - such as milk, honeys, or resins - also mean good in the measure that they have it in them.

[2] 'Fat' was representative of celestial good, thus of love received from the Lord, as is clear from the burnt offerings and sacrifices in these all the fat had to be burned on the altar, thereby providing 'an odour of rest to Jehovah'; and the children of Israel were forbidden because of this to eat fat. From these regulations, as from all the rest, it may be plain to see that the observances established among the Israelites were representative of celestial and spiritual realities and thus held what was holy within them. If this had not been so there would have been no Divine purpose at all behind the requirements to sacrifice all the fat of an animal, making this 'an odour of rest to Jehovah', or behind the Prohibition that forbade the eating of fat, and also of blood. It would surely be a stupid way of thinking about the Divine if one were to believe that He could take pleasure in fat or that Jehovah should make a requirement that did not conceal something deeper. Furthermore a person would be far too earthly - and bodily-minded if he had no interest at all in knowing the real meaning of such requirements; it would be a sign that he had no desire to know anything about the Word and eternal life.

[3] Regarding 'the fat' the following is stated in Moses,

You shall take all the fat covering the entrails, and the omentum over the liver, and the fat on the kidneys; and you shall burn them on the altar. Exodus 29:13, 22.

See also Leviticus 3:4-5, 9-10, 14-15; 4:8-9, 19, 26, 31, 35; 7:3-4. They were also required to sacrifice the fat on the breast, Leviticus 7:30-31. The phrase 'an odour of rest to Jehovah' occurs in the following places,

This is the bread of Jehovah's fire-offering for an odour of rest. Leviticus 3:16. The priest shall sprinkle the blood on the altar of Jehovah, and shall offer the fat for an odour of rest to Jehovah. Leviticus 17:6.

And elsewhere,

The fat of the firstborn of an ox and of a sheep must be burned on the altar as an odour of rest to Jehovah. Numbers 18:17.

'An odour of rest' means the pleasure gained from the good of love.

[4] As regards the non-eating of fat by the children of Israel, Let all the fat be for Jehovah. Therefore this is a perpetual statute throughout your generations, in all your dwelling-places: You shall not eat any fat or any blood. Leviticus 3:16-17.

And elsewhere,

Speak to the children of Israel, saying, You shall not eat any fat, neither of ox, nor sheep, nor she-goat. Everyone who eats the fat from a beast, from one offered as a fire-offering to Jehovah, that soul eating it will be cut off from his peoples. Nor shall you eat any blood Leviticus 7:23-26.

[5] Burnt offerings and sacrifices were the main form taken by Divine worship among those people, 923, 2180. For this reason worship is meant by 'burnt offerings and sacrifices' in general, while the essential nature of worship is meant by what was offered in sacrifice and by the whole procedure followed then. 'The fat and the burning of it' meant the very Divine celestial itself, namely the good of love received from the Lord, as may also be seen in the following places:

In Isaiah,

Jacob, you have not bought Me [sweet] cane with silver, and you have not satisfied Me with the fat of your sacrifices; you have wearied Me so much with your sins. ¹ Isaiah 43:24.

'You have not bought [sweet] cane with silver' stands for, You have not acquired the truths of faith for yourself; and 'you have not satisfied Me with the fat of sacrifices' stands for, Nor [have you offered] the good of love.

[6] In David,

I will offer You burnt offerings of fat ones, with the incense of rams. Psalms 66:15.

'Burnt offerings of fat ones' stands for worship fired by love. In Moses,

When it will be said, Where are their gods, the rock in which they trusted, who ate the fat of their sacrifices, [who] drank the wine of their drink-offering? Deuteronomy 32:37-38.

This would have been said by gentiles who imagined that the gods were fed especially by such offerings. They were totally unaware of the fact that 'the fat of sacrifices' was what was celestial, or the good of love, within worship, and that 'the wine of a drink-offering' was the truth of faith derived from that good. These offerings, when they were made, stirred the affections of the angels and were therefore prescribed so that through representatives and correspondences heaven might be near to man.

[7] In David,

Jehovah will remember all your offerings, and will make your burnt offering fat. Psalms 20:3.

'Making a burnt offering fat' stands for making worship good. In Isaiah,

Jehovah Zebaoth will make for all peoples on this mountain a feast of fat things, a feast of lees, ² of fat things full of marrow, of sedimentary lees. ³ He will swallow up death for ever, and the Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from upon all faces. Isaiah 25:6, 8.

'A feast' stands for heaven and being joined to angels there through love and charity, 3596, 3832, 5161, 'fat things' being forms of the good of love and charity. In the same prophet,

Why do you spend money on that which is not bread, and your labour on that which does not satisfy? Attend diligently to Me and eat what is good, that your soul may delight itself in fatness. Isaiah 55:2.

[8] In Jeremiah,

I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and will give them gladness instead of their sorrow. And I will fill the soul of the priests with fat, and My people will be satisfied with My goodness. Jeremiah 31:13-14.

'Fat' plainly stands for what is good, for it is said that 'the soul will be satisfied' with it and it is referred to as 'Jehovah's goodness', meaning nothing else than what is celestial, which is received from Him. In David,

My soul will be satisfied as with fatness and fat, and my mouth will praise You with joyful lips. ⁴ Psalms 63:5.

Here the meaning is similar. In the same author,

You have crowned the year of Your goodness, and Your tracks drip with fatness. Psalms 65:11

In the same author,

The sons of man put their trust in the shadow of Your wings. They will be filled with the fat of Your house, and You give them drink from the river of Your delights. Psalms 36:7-8.

In Isaiah,

Then Jehovah will give rain for your seed with which you will sow the land, and bread of the produce of the earth; and there will be fatness and wealthiness. Isaiah 30:23.

[9] In John,

All things fat and splendid have gone away, and you will find them no more. Revelation 18:14.

This refers to Babylon. 'All things fat and splendid have gone away' stands for the departure of all forms of the good of love and truth of faith. In Moses,

He caused him to suck honey out of the crag and oil out of the stony rock - butter from the herd, and milk from the flock, with the fat of lambs and of rams, the breed ⁵ of Bashan, and of goats, with the kidney-fat of wheat; and of the blood of the grape you drink unmixed wine. Deuteronomy 32:13-14.

This refers to the spiritual Ancient Church, whose various kinds of good - meant by 'honey', 'oil', 'butter', 'milk', and 'fat' - are enumerated.

[10] Because 'fat' meant good, the word was also applied to the kinds of things that had no fat in them but nevertheless had good as their meaning, so that 'fat' and 'good' were so to speak one and the same. An example of this is the fat of wheat in the verses quoted immediately above, and similarly in David,

I would feed them with the fat of wheat. Psalms 81:16.

And elsewhere,

He is the one who makes peace your border, and with the fat of wheat He satisfies you. Psalms 147:14.

Also in Moses,

Because all the fat of the pure oil, and all the fat of the new wine and of the grain, which were the first fruits, were Jehovah's, they were given to Aaron. Numbers 18:12.

Poznámky pod čarou:

2343. 'And they ate' means making one's own. This is clear from the meaning of 'eating' as being communicated and joined together, thus being made one's own, dealt with already in 2187. What has been stated and explained so far makes clear how the contents of the previous and the present verses are arranged and link together in the internal sense - from the fact that 'the angels' means the Lord's Divine Human and His Holy proceeding, 'turning aside to him' means staying with, 'coming to his house' being confirmed in good, 'making a feast' dwelling together, 'baking unleavened bread' being purified, and 'eating' taking into oneself and making one's own. It shows the nature of the train of thought in the internal sense, though nothing at all of that sense is apparent in the historical sense.

[2] Such is the order and the train of thought that exists with all the individual parts of the Word. But the nature of that actual train of thought cannot begin to reveal itself when each word is explained separately; for in that case each is seen in isolation from the rest and the continuity of meaning is lost. It reveals itself when all the separate details are seen together within one complete idea, or are perceived as one complete mental picture, as is done by those who have the internal sense and who at the same time dwell in heavenly light from the Lord. Within these words [used here in Genesis] such people are given to see the entire process of the reformation and regeneration of those who become members of the Church, represented here by Lot. That is to say, they first of all perceive some degree of temptation, but when they persevere and overcome the Lord stays with them, and confirms them in good, brings them to Himself into His kingdom, and dwells together with them, and there purifies and perfects them, at the same time granting them as their own things that are good and happy. All this He accomplishes by means of His Divine Human and His Holy proceeding.

[3] Within the Church it is indeed well known that all regeneration or new life, and therefore salvation, comes from the Lord alone, but few believe it. The reason they do not believe it is that the good of charity does not exist in them. It is as impossible for those in whom that good does not exist to believe it as it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle; for the good of charity is the very seed-bed of faith. Truth and good agree together, but truth and evil never do. They have contrary natures and turn away from each other. Insofar therefore as someone is moved by good, he can be governed by truth, that is, insofar as charity exists with him faith is able to, especially the most fundamental matter of faith that all salvation comes from the Lord.

[4] That this is the most fundamental matter of faith is clear from many places in the Word, as in John,

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16.

In the same gospel,

He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not believe in the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him. John 3:36.

In the same gospel,

This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom the Father has sent. John 6:29.

In the same gospel,

This is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. John 6:40.

In the same gospel,

Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. John 8:24.

In the same gospel,

I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he die, yet will he live. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. John 11:25-26.

[5] Nobody is able to believe in the Lord unless he is governed by good, that is, no one can possess faith unless he has charity. This too is clear in John,

As many as received Him, to them He gave power to be sons of God, to those believing in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:12-13.

And in the same gospel,

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing. If a man does not abide in Me he is cast forth as a branch and is withered. As the Father has loved Me so I have loved you; abide in My love. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. John 15:5-6, 9, 12.

[6] From all these quotations it becomes clear that love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour constitute the life of faith. But that people who are immersed in evil, that is, who lead a life of evil, cannot possibly believe that all salvation comes from the Lord has become clear to me from those who have entered the next life from the Christian world; and also from people who during their lifetime have confessed with their lips the established teaching of faith, and indeed have taught it themselves, that without the Lord there is no salvation, but who, for all that, have led a life of evil. At the very mention of the Lord's name these people have filled the atmosphere around them entirely with objections. For in the next life solely that which people are thinking is perceived and sends out from itself a sphere, in which the nature of the faith possessed by those people reveals itself, see 1394.

[7] At the mere mention of love or charity among these people I perceived emanating from them something that was so to speak full of darkness and at the same time dust-filled. The product of some filthy love, it was by nature such that it obliterated, stifled, and corrupted all feeling of love to the Lord and of charity towards the neighbour. Such is the faith at the present day, which, they say, saves without the goods that flow from charity.

[8] The same people were also asked what faith they had since it was not the faith they had professed during their lifetime. Since in the next life nobody can conceal what he actually thinks, they said that they believed in God the Creator of all things. They were examined however as to whether this was really so, and it was discovered that they did not believe in any God at all but thought that all things were the product of natural forces, and all that has been said about eternal life is nonsense. Such is the faith of everyone inside the Church who does not believe in the Lord but says that he believes in God the Creator of all things. For truth cannot flow in from any other source than the Lord, and truth cannot be sown in anything other than good which is derived from the Lord.

[9] That the Lord's Divine Human and His Holy proceeding are together the channel and the source of life and salvation is well recognized from the words of the Holy Supper, 'This is My body, This is My blood', which is the Lord's Divine Human. And it is clear that this is the source of everything holy. Whether we speak of the Divine Human, or His Body, or Flesh, or Bread, or Divine Love, it amounts to the same thing; for the Lord's Divine Human is pure Love, and the Holy [proceeding] consists in love alone, while the Holy that constitutes faith is derived from this.