8541. SPIRITS AND INHABITANTS OF THE PLANET JUPITER - continued

As regards their worship of God, the most important aspect of it is their acknowledgement of our Lord as the Supreme One who governs heaven and earth. They call Him the one and only Lord; and because they acknowledge and worship Him during their lifetime they therefore seek Him after death, and find Him. He is none other than our Lord. When asked whether they know that the one and only Lord is a Person they replied that they all know Him to be a Person, because He has been seen as a Person by many on their planet; that He informs them of the truth, and keeps them in being; and that He imparts eternal life to those who believe in Him. They went on to say that He has revealed to them how they ought to live and how they ought to believe, and that what He has revealed is passed down from parents to children. In that way teachings are spread to all the families and so to an entire clan descended from the same father. They said in addition that those teachings seem to them to have been inscribed on their minds, a conclusion they come to because they can perceive instantly and recognize automatically whether what others say about the life of heaven with a person is true or not.

8469. 'The number of your souls' means the amount for all in a community, that is to say, the amount of the good of truth meant by 'the manna'. This is clear from the meaning of 'according to the number of souls' as the amount sufficient for all in a community. For when 'an omer a head' means the amount sufficient for each individual, 'according to the number of souls' means the amount for all in a community. The subject here is good as it exists with those who belong to the Lord's spiritual kingdom, the good which is meant by 'the manna' and which will be given in an amount sufficient for each person and sufficient for a community. For each household among the children of Israel represented one community in heaven, 7836, 7891, 7996, 7997.

The situation with the communities in heaven is that heaven is made up of countless communities that are distinct and separate from one another. All in each community share a common good, which is distinct from the good of other communities. Also each member of a community possesses a particular kind of good, distinct from the good any other in the community possesses. The different kinds of good that members of a community possess, which are distinct and so various but nevertheless compatible, compose a form called a heavenly form. Heaven as a whole is made of such forms. They are called forms when they are thought of as combinations of good, but communities when they are thought of as combinations of persons. These things were represented by the divisions of the children of Israel into tribes, families, and households.