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.

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680. The fact that goods and truths are man's real food may be clear to anyone, for the person who is deprived of them has no life within himself, and is a dead man. The food on which the soul of the person feeds who is dead in this sense consists of the delights arising from evils, and of the pleasures gained from falsities. These are the food of death. These delights and pleasures also derive from bodily, worldly, and natural things, which have no life at all within them. Furthermore such a person does not know what spiritual and celestial food is. Every time 'food' or 'bread' is mentioned in the Word he assumes that food for the body is meant. In the words of the Lord's Prayer, 'Give us our daily bread', for example, he thinks purely of nourishment for the body. There are some whose ideas do extend further and who assert that this petition includes all other physical requirements, such as clothing, money, and so on. Indeed they will argue fiercely that no other kind of food is meant, even though they clearly see that the petitions coming before and after it entail purely celestial and spiritual things, and refer to the Lord's kingdom, and possibly know as well that the Lord's Word is celestial and spiritual.

[2] From this and other similar considerations it becomes sufficiently clear just how bodily-minded the man of today is, and that like the Jews, he is unwilling to accept anything stated in the Word except in a very crude and materialistic way. The Lord Himself clearly teaches what His Word means by 'food' and 'bread': He speaks of food in John as follows,

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

And of bread He says in the same gospel,

Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living Bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this Bread he will live for ever. John 6:49-51, 58.

Even today there are people who, like those who first heard these words, declare,

This is a hard saying; who can listen to it? And some drew back and no longer walked with Him. John 6:60, 66.

To those people the Lord said,

The words which I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life. John 6:63.

[3] It is similar with water, in that it means the spiritual things of faith: He speaks of water in John as follows,

Jesus said, Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but he who drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up into eternal life. John 4:13-14.

Even today there are people like the woman to whom the Lord spoke at the spring, who replied,

Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst nor come here to draw. John 4:15.

[4] In the Word 'food' means nothing other than spiritual and celestial food, which is faith in the Lord and love. This is clear from many places in the Word, as in Jeremiah,

The enemy has stretched out his hand over all the desirable things of Jerusalem, because she saw the nations come into her sanctuary, concerning whom You did command, They shall not enter your congregation. All the people groan as they search for bread. They have given their desirable things for food to restore the soul. Lamentations 1:10-11.

Here no other bread or food is meant than spiritual, for the subject is the sanctuary. In the same author,

I called to my lovers, they deceived me. My priests and my elders breathed their last in the city, for they sought food for themselves to refresh their soul. Lamentations 1:19.

Here the meaning is similar. In David,

They all look to You to give them their food in due season. You givest to them - they gather it up. You openest Your hand - they are satisfied with good. Psalms 104:27-28.

This in like manner stands for spiritual and celestial food.

[5] In Isaiah,

Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Isaiah 55:1.

Here 'wine and milk' stands for spiritual and celestial drink. In the same prophet,

A virgin is conceiving and bearing a son, and you will call His name Immanuel. Butter and honey will He eat that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. It will be that because of the abundance of milk they produce he will eat butter, for butter and honey will everyone eat that is left in the midst of the land. Isaiah 7:14-15, 22.

Here 'eating honey and butter' means that which is celestial-spiritual, and 'those who are left' stands for remnants, which are referred to in Malachi as well,

Bring all the tithes ¹ to the storehouse that there may be food in My house. Malachi 3:10.

'Tithes' ¹ stands for remnants. Further concerning the meaning of 'food', see 56-58, 276.

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