9135. 'Or member of the flock' means or it is interior truth and good. This is clear from the meaning of 'member of the flock' as spiritual truth and good, thus interior truth and good, dealt with in 6016, 6045, 6049. Some places in the Word use the expression 'flocks', while others use 'members of the flock'. In the internal sense interior forms of good, and truths derived from them, are meant by 'flocks', whereas interior truths, and forms of good springing from them, are meant by 'members of the flock'. No one however can know the difference between them unless he knows the nature of a person's two states, the prior state and the subsequent state, when he is being regenerated. The prior state is one in which he is led by means of the truths of faith to the good of charity; the subsequent state is one in which he is governed by the good of charity and from this by the truths of faith. The prior state brings a person into the Church in order that he may come to have the Church within him; and when he comes to have the Church within him he is in the subsequent state. Forms of good and truths residing with him in the subsequent state are meant by 'flocks', but truths and forms of good residing with him in the prior state are meant by 'members of the flock'. This explains why at this point truths are mentioned first and forms of good second. Regarding the two states of a person who is being regenerated, or what amounts to the same thing, who comes to have the Church within him, see 7923, 7992, 8505, 8506, 8510, 8512, 8516, 8643, 8648, 8658, 8685, 8690, 8701, 8772, 8995, 9088, 9089.

[2] Those forms of good and those truths are called exterior which are in the external or natural man, and those are called interior which are in the internal or spiritual man. The reason why the latter are interior and the former exterior is that heaven is the source of the internal man's wisdom, but the world is the source of the external man's; for heaven is present with a person internally and the world externally. The words 'whether it is ox or ass, or member of the flock' are used to mean all exterior good and truth, and all interior truth and good. Furthermore the development of good in the external man is towards truth, in the internal man from truth towards good, in keeping with Divine order in heaven. ¹

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8511. Verses 28-31 And Jehovah said to Moses, How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? See! Because Jehovah has given you the sabbath, therefore on the sixth day He gives you the bread of two days; rest, each of you in his place, ¹ let no one go out of his place on the seventh day. And the people rested on the seventh day. And the house of Israel called its name Man; ² and it was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like that of a cake with honey.

'And Jehovah said to Moses' means that the appearance of the Divine had become obscured. 'How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws?' means because their actions were not in keeping with Divine order. 'See!' means that they should pay attention and stop to reflect. 'Because Jehovah has given you the sabbath' means the joining together of goodness and truth by the Lord. 'Therefore on the sixth day He gives you the bread of two days' means that for this reason right at the end of the former state He imparts so great an amount of good through truth that the joining together takes place after that. 'Rest, each of you in his place' means a state of peace. 'Let no one go out of his place on the seventh day' means that they must now remain in that state. 'And the people rested on the seventh day' means that the joining together of goodness and truth in a state of peace was now represented. 'And the house of Israel called its name Man' means its essential nature among them. 'And it was like coriander seed, white' means the truth within it, that it was pure. 'And the taste of it was like that of a cake with honey' means that the good was delightful, like that which began as truth but was made into good by means of delight.

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