6078. 'For there is no pasture for the flock which belongs to your servants' means that factual knowledge holding forms of the good of truth is wanting. This is clear from the meaning of 'pasture for the flock' as factual knowledge holding forms of the good of truth, so that 'no pasture' means factual knowledge that does not hold any forms of the good of truth. In the internal sense 'pasture' is that which supports spiritual life; in particular it is truth contained in factual knowledge, for the human soul desires such truth just as the body desires food. Nourishment is derived from it, and for that reason 'feeding' means receiving instruction, 5201. That factual knowledge and truths sustain the human soul is quite evident from a person's desire for knowledge, as well as from the correspondence of food with factual knowledge, 1480, 3114, 4792, 5147, 5193, 5340, 5342, 5576, 5579, 5915. This correspondence also manifests itself when a person is eating food. If he eats it while talking and listening the vessels that receive the chyle are opened, and he is nourished more fully than if he is alone. Spiritual truths and instruction in them would have the same kind of effect on people if they were to have an affection for what is good. The fact that truths nourish spiritual life is revealed primarily among good spirits and among angels in heaven. Those spirits and angels have a constant desire to acquire knowledge and wisdom; and when they lack this spiritual food they feel desolate, listless, and famished. Nor are they refreshed and raised into the bliss of their life until their desires are satisfied. But if that factual knowledge is to yield the soul wholesome nourishment, that knowledge must contain life received from forms of the good of truth. If it does not contain life received from them factual knowledge still sustains a person's inner life, but his natural life, not his spiritual life.

[2] The meaning of 'pasture' in the internal sense as that which sustains a person's spiritual life is also evident from other places in the Word, as in Isaiah,

I have given you as a covenant to the people, to restore the land; to say to the bound, Go out, to those who are in darkness, Reveal yourselves. They will feed along the ways, and on all slopes will their pasture be. Isaiah 49:8-9.

'Feeding along the ways' stands for receiving instruction in truths, 'the ways' being truths, see 627, 2333, and 'feeding' receiving instruction, 5201. 'On all slopes will their pasture be' stands for being sustained with good, for 'slopes', like 'mountains' are forms of the good of love, 795, 796, 1430, 2722, 4210.

[3] In Jeremiah,

Woe to the shepherds destroying and scattering the flock of My pasture. Jeremiah 23:1.

'Pasture' stands for the kinds of things that sustain spiritual life. In the same prophet,

The princes of Zion have become like deer, they have not found pasture. Lamentations 1:6.

'They have not found pasture' stands for no truth of good.

[4] In Ezekiel,

I, even I will look for My sheep. I will feed them in a good pasture, and their fold will be on the mountains of the loftiness of Israel; there ¹ they will lie down in a good fold, and on fat pasture they will feed upon the mountains of Israel. Ezekiel 34:11, 14.

'A good and fat pasture upon the mountains of Israel' stands for forms of the good of truth. In the same prophet,

Is it a small thing to you? You feed off the good pasture but tread down with your feet the rest of your pastures. Ezekiel 34:18.

Here the meaning is similar. In Hosea,

I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought. When [they had] their pasture, they were filled; they were filled and their heart was exalted. Hosea 13:5-6.

In Joel,

The beasts groan, the herds of cattle are perplexed because they have no pasture, even the flocks of sheep ² are made desolate. Joel 1:18.

In David,

Jehovah is my Shepherd; He will make me lie down in green pasture; ³ He will lead me away to still waters; He will restore My soul. Psalms 23:1-3.

In the same author,

Jehovah made us and not we ourselves, His people and the flock of His pasture; therefore we are His, His people, and the flock of His pasture. ⁴ Psalms 100:3.

[5] 'Pasture' in these quotations stands for the truths in which a person receives instruction, here the kinds of things which have regard to spiritual life. For the nature of spiritual life is such that if it lacks that pasture it languishes and so to speak fades away, like the body when it lacks food. The fact that 'pasture' is the goodness and truth that refresh and sustain a person's soul or spirit is plain from the Lord's words in John,

I am the door. If anyone enters through Me he will be saved, and will go in and out, and find pasture. John 10:9.

'Pasture' stands for the forms of good and the truths which those people have who acknowledge the Lord and seek life from Him alone.

Poznámky pod čarou:

9995. 'Of fine wheat flour you shall make them' means truth which springs from Divine Good, of which those [celestial kinds of good] consist. This is clear from the meaning of 'fine flour' as truth, dealt with below; from the meaning of 'wheat' as the good of love, dealt with in 3941, and so in the highest sense as Divine Good; and from the meaning of 'making them' as the requirement that those kinds of celestial good, meant by unleavened bread, cakes, and wafers, must consist of that truth. The situation in all this is that all the truths and forms of good that exist in heaven have their origin in Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good. This Divine Truth as received by angels in the celestial kingdom is called celestial good, but as received in the spiritual kingdom by angels there it is called spiritual good; for no matter how often Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good is called Truth it is still good. The reason for referring to it as Truth is that it appears in heaven, before angels' outward sight there, as light; for the light there is Divine Truth, but the heat within that light, which is the good of love, causes it to be good. The situation is similar with people in this world. When the truth of faith emanates from the good of charity, as happens when a person has been regenerated, truth appears as good, which is also as a consequence called spiritual good since the inner being of truth is good, and truth is the outward form of good.

[2] From all this it may become clear why a person finds it so hard to distinguish between thinking and willing, for when he wills something he says that he thinks it, and often when he thinks something that he wills it. Yet they are as distinct and separate as truth and good are; for the inner being of thought is the will and the outward form of the will is thought, just as the inner being of truth is good and the outward form of good is truth, as stated immediately above. Since a person finds it so hard to distinguish one from the other he does not know what the inner being of his life is, or that good constitutes it, not truth except insofar as it springs from good. Good belongs to the will, and the will consists in what a person loves, so that truth does not become the being of a person's life until he loves it; and when the person loves it he does it. Truth however belongs to the understanding, whose function is thinking; and when he thinks it he is able to speak about it. Also it is possible to understand the truth and think it without willing or doing it; but then it does not become the person's own, part of his life, because it does not have within itself the inner being of his life. Knowing nothing about any of this a person consequently ascribes salvation wholly to faith and scarcely at all to charity, when in fact faith receives its inner being of life from charity, even as truth receives it from good.

[3] Furthermore all good with a person is given form by truth, for good flows in from the Lord by an inward path, while truth enters by an outward path. They then marry in the internal man, though in one way in the case of a spiritual person or angel and in another in the case of a celestial person or angel. With a spiritual person or angel the marriage takes place in the understanding part of the mind, but in a celestial person or angel in the will part. The outward path by which truth enters lies through hearing and sight into the understanding, but the inward path by which good flows in from the Lord lies through what is inmost in the person into the will. On this subject see what has been shown in the places referred to in 9596. From all this it is evident that the celestial kinds of good meant by unleavened bread, cakes, and wafers, come into being through Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good, and that this is what should be understood by 'of fine wheat flour you shall make them'. This goes to explain why minchahs, though varying in how they were made, all consisted of fine flour mixed with oil, see Leviticus 2:1-16; 6:20-23; Numbers 7:13ff; 15:2-15; 28:11-15.

[4] The fact that 'fine flour', and also 'flour', mean truth that springs from good is clear from the following places: In Ezekiel,

You ate fine flour, honey, and oil; therefore you became extremely beautiful. Ezekiel 16:13.

These things are said of Jerusalem, by which the Ancient Church is meant in that chapter in Ezekiel. 'Fine flour' means that Church's truth which springs from good, 'honey' its delight, 'oil' the good of love, and 'eating' making it one's own. The words 'you became beautiful' are consequently used, for spiritual beauty comes as a result of truths and forms of good.

[5] In Hosea,

He does not have any standing grain; the ears will yield no flour. [If] by chance they do yield it, aliens will swallow it up. Hosea 8:7.

'Standing grain' means the truth of faith springing from good, in the process of being conceived, 9146, 'the ears will yield no flour' sterility because there is no truth springing from good, and 'aliens' who 'will swallow it up' falsities arising from evil that will consume it.

[6] In 1 Kings 17:12-15 the Sidonian woman in Zarephath told Elijah that she had nothing to make a cake with except a handful of flour in a jar and a tiny amount of oil in a flask. So Elijah told her that she should make a cake for him first, and that 'the jar of flour will not be used up, nor will the flask of oil fail', which was indeed what happened. Here 'flour' means the Church's truth, and 'oil' its good; for the woman in Sidon represents a Church that is in possession of cognitions or knowledge of truth and good, while Elijah the Prophet represents the Lord in respect of the Word. From this it is evident what this miracle has to do with, for all the miracles described in the Word have to do with things such as belong to the Church, 7337, 8364, 9086. From this it is evident what is meant by 'the jar of flour will not be used up, nor will the flask of oil fail' if from the little she had she made a cake for Elijah first and for her son after that. For the meaning of 'the woman' as the Church, see 252, 253; for that of 'Sidon' as cognitions of truth and good, 1201; and for that of 'Elijah' as the Lord in respect of the Word, 2762, 5247 (end).

[7] In Isaiah,

O daughter of Babel, take a mill, and grind flour. Isaiah 47:1-2.

'Daughter of Babel' stands for those within the Church who are outwardly holy but inwardly unholy. 'Grinding flour' stands for choosing matters from the literal sense of the Word such as serve to strengthen the evils of self-love and love of the world. For any such evil is unholy, 'grinding' describes choosing, and also explaining in support of those kinds of love, while 'flour' means truth that serves, see 4335.

[8] From all this it is evident what 'grinding' means and therefore what something 'ground up' means, as in Jeremiah,

Princes have been hung up by their hands, the faces of the old men have not been honoured; the young men have been led away to grind at the mill. Lamentations 5:12-13.

In Moses,

Moses took the calf which they had made, and burned it in the fire, and ground it up till it became fine powder ¹ . Then he sprinkled it over the face of the water and made the children of Israel drink it. Exodus 32:20; Deuteronomy 9:21.

And in Matthew,

At that time two will be in the field, one will be taken, the other left behind. Two women grinding; one will be taken, the other will be left behind. Matthew 24:40-41.

From these places it is evident what 'grinding' means, namely this: In a good sense it means choosing truths from the Word and explaining them in such a way that they are made to serve what is good, and in a bad sense in such a way that they are made to serve what is bad, see 7780. And from this it is also clear what something 'ground up' means, consequently what 'flour' and 'fine flour' mean.

Poznámky pod čarou: