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:

6516. 'In my grave which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there you are to bury me' means that it - the Church - was to be restored to life where the previous one had existed. This is clear from the meaning of 'a grave' and 'burying' as restoring to life, dealt with in 5551; and from the meaning of 'the land of Canaan' as the Lord's kingdom and the Church, dealt with in 1413, 1437, 1607, 1866, 3038, 3481, 3705, 4240, 4447. The reason Jacob wished to be buried in the land of Canaan, where Abraham and Isaac had been buried, and not in any other place was that his descendants were going to possess that land, and so he would be lying among his own people. But in the internal sense not this but something else is meant, namely regeneration and resurrection, because these are what the Church resides in. For 'burial' means in the internal sense regeneration and resurrection, 2916, 1917, 4621, 5551. While 'the land of Canaan' means the Church, as is evident from the places referred to above in the present paragraph, and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob represent the Lord as regards the Divine itself and the Divine Human, and in the relative sense the Lord's kingdom as regards the internal aspect and the external aspect of it, 1965, 1989, 2011, 3245, 3305 (end), 4615, 6098, 6185, 6276. This then is what is meant in the internal sense by the burial of them in that land; and it explains why among Jews who believe in resurrection the conviction continues to exist that even though they have been buried in some other place they will nevertheless rise again in the land of Canaan.

[2] The reason why it is said that the Church was to be restored to life in the place where the previous one had existed is that the Lord's Church had existed in that land since most ancient times, see 3686, 4447, 4454, 4516, 4517, 5136. It also explains why Abraham was told to go there and why the descendants of Jacob were led into it. And the reason for all this was not that the land was holier than all others but that since most ancient times all the locations there, both provinces and cities as well as mountains and rivers, had been representative of such things as belonged to the Lord's kingdom; and the actual names conferred on those locations implied such things. For every particular name supplied from heaven to a place or person implies some celestial or spiritual reality; and when the name has been supplied from heaven, that reality is perceived by them there. The Most Ancient Church too, which was celestial and was in contact with heaven, was one that used to confer names. The reason therefore why the Church was to exist again in that land was that a Word was going to be given in which every detail would be representative of and would mean some spiritual or celestial reality, and that Word would accordingly be understood in heaven no less than on earth. But this could not possibly have been accomplished unless also the names of places and persons had had spiritual meanings. This is the reason why the descendants of Jacob were led into that land, why prophets were raised up there through whom the Word was written, and therefore why a representative of the Church was established among Jacob's descendants. From all this one may see the reason for the statement that the Church was to be restored to life where the previous one had existed.

[3] The fact that names in the Word mean spiritual things may be seen in 1224, 1264, 1876, 1888, 4442, 5225, as well as in the multitude of places where explanations are given of what their meanings are. But the fact that in heaven they perceive what the meanings are of names used in the Word, and that they do this without prior instruction, is an arcanum unknown as yet to anyone and must therefore be described. When the Word is read the Lord comes in and teaches; also - and this is one of the marvels in the spiritual world - writings exist, which I have frequently seen and been able to read yet not understand. But good spirits and angels understand them perfectly well because those writings accord with the universal language they speak. I have been led to know that individual words used there, even individual letters, hold within themselves the kinds of things that belong to that world, thus spiritual things, and that these are perceived there from the breath that is used, and from the affection resulting from the uttering of those words, thus from the varying smooth or rough delivery of them. But it is probable that hardly anyone will believe this. This arcanum has been disclosed so that people may know that those in heaven perceive instantly what the meanings are of names used in the Word, because those names are registered in heaven.