8682. 'To eat bread with the father-in-law of Moses before God' means making their own these things coming from Divine Good. This is clear from the meaning of 'eating' as making one's own, dealt with in 3168, 3513 (end), 3596, 3832, 4745; and from the meaning of 'bread' as the good of love, dealt with in 2165, 2177, 3464, 3735, 4211, 4217, 4735, 5915, its coming from Divine Good being meant by the statement that they were going to eat bread 'before God'. Here 'bread' is used to mean all the food they had then, in particular the flesh of the sacrifices; for when sacrifices were offered, the flesh in them was eaten beside the altar. For the meaning of 'bread' as all food in general, see 2165.

The reason why the flesh of the sacrifices was eaten was in order that making heavenly good one's own might be represented, as well as togetherness in love. The flesh of a sacrifice, eaten by them then, meant the good of love, which was why this was for them a sacred feast. For the meaning of 'flesh' as the good of love, see 7850. From this one can see what the Lord meant when He said that they were to eat His flesh, John 6:53-56, and also, when He instituted the Holy Supper, that the bread was His body, Matthew 26:26. No one can possibly know what He meant then unless he knows that His words have an inner sense, and that in this sense celestial and spiritual realities are meant instead of natural things, and that natural things correspond to those realities and have spiritual meanings in keeping with correspondences. Without knowledge of these things no one could ever know why the Holy Supper was instituted, what is holy about the bread, why the bread is the body and is the flesh, and countless other questions besides these.

5915. 'And I will sustain you there' means a constant influx of spiritual life from the internal celestial. This is clear from the meaning of 'sustaining', when spoken by Joseph, who represents the internal celestial, as an influx of spiritual life from the internal celestial. In the internal sense 'sustainment' is nothing else than the influx of goodness and truth from the Lord by way of heaven. This is how angels are sustained, and it is how a person's soul, that is, his internal man, is sustained. This sustainment is what the sustaining of the external man by means of food and drink corresponds to; and for this reason good is meant by 'food' and truth by 'drink'. The nature of this correspondence is also such that when a person is eating food the angels present with him think of goodness and truth; and, what is amazing, their ideas vary according to the different kinds of food that he eats. When therefore in the Holy Supper a person receives bread and wine the angels present with him think about the good of love and the good of faith, 3464, 3735, for the reason that 'bread' corresponds to the good of love and 'wine' to the good of faith. And because they correspond to them they also carry the same meanings in the Word.

[2] The fact that a person's soul, that is, his internal man, is sustained by spiritual food and drink, which are goodness and truth, is clear from the Lord's words in Moses,

Man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every utterance of the mouth of Jehovah. Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4.

'Utterance of the mouth of Jehovah' is goodness and truth that go forth from Him. In John,

Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. John 6:27.

In the same gospel,

The disciples asked Jesus, saying, Master, eat. He said to them, I have food to eat of which you do not know. John 4:31-32.

And regarding drink, in the same gospel,

Jesus said, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow out from within him. ¹ John 7:37-38.

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