6148. 'Only the ground of the priests he did not buy' means that the internal obtained for itself from the natural every capacity to receive good, because every such capacity came from itself. This is clear from the representation of 'Joseph', about whom these things are said, as the internal, dealt with already; from the meaning of 'the ground' as the receptacle of truth, dealt with above in 6135-6137, at this point the capacity to receive good, for the capacity of something is its inherent ability to receive, which causes a receptacle to be a receptacle (that capacity comes from good, that is, from the Lord through good, for if the good of love did not flow in from the Lord no one would ever have the capacity to receive truth or good. That inflow of the good of love from the Lord causes everything present inwardly in a person to be of a receptive nature. The truth that the capacity to receive good comes from the natural is meant by the fact that the ground lay in Egypt, since 'Egypt' means the natural in respect of factual knowledge, 6142); from the meaning of 'the priests' as good, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'not buying' as not taking those capacities to itself - not in the way that it made truths and forms of the good of truth, together with their receptacles, its own, which came about through periods of desolation and sustainment - for the reason that those capacities came from itself, from the internal. All these meanings serve to show that 'only the ground of the priests he did not buy' means that the internal obtained for itself from the natural every capacity to receive good, because every such capacity came from itself.

[2] The implications of all this are that a person's capacities to receive truth and good come directly from the Lord; he obtains them without any help at all from himself. A person's capacity to receive goodness and truth is maintained in him unceasingly; and from that capacity he possesses understanding and will. But a person does not receive them if he turns to evil. The capacity to receive does, it is true, remain, but its access to thought and sensitivity is blocked, on account of which his capacity to see what is true and have a sensitive awareness of what is good perishes. And it perishes to the extent that he turns to evil and in faith and life becomes firmly settled in it. The fact that a person contributes nothing whatever to his capacity to receive truth and good is well known from the Church's teaching that nothing at all of the truth of faith and nothing at all of the good of charity comes from man but from the Lord. Yet a person can destroy that capacity residing with him. From all this one may now see how one should understand the idea that the internal obtained for itself from the natural every capacity to receive good, because every such capacity came from itself. The expression 'from the natural' is used because the inflow of good from the Lord is effected by the Lord through the internal into the natural; and once the capacity to receive has been obtained from there, the inflow takes place, for now there is reception, see 5828.

[3] So far as the meaning of 'the priests' as forms of good is concerned, it should be recognized that there are two realities which go forth from the Lord - goodness and truth. Divine Good was represented by priests, and Divine Truth by kings; and this is why 'the priests' means forms of good and 'the kings' truths. Regarding the attribution of Priesthood and Kingship to the Lord, see 1728, 2015 (end), 3670. In the representative Ancient Church those two offices of priest and king existed jointly in one personage, the reason for this being that goodness and truth which go forth from the Lord are united; and they are also joined together in heaven among the angels.

[4] A personage in the Ancient Church in whom the two offices existed joined together was called Melchizedek, a name meaning king of righteousness. This may be seen from the following statement about Melchizedek who came to Abraham, ¹

Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; and he was a priest to God Most High. And he blessed Abraham. Genesis 14:18-19.

His representation of the Lord in both offices is evident from the fact that he was a king and at the same time a priest, and from the fact that he was allowed to bless Abraham and offer him bread and wine, which even at that time were the symbols of the good of love and the truth of faith. His representation of the Lord in both offices is further evident in David,

Jehovah has sworn and will not repent, You are a priest for ever after the manner of Melchizedek. Psalms 110:4.

These words were spoken in reference to the Lord. 'After the manner of Melchizedek' means that He is both King and Priest, that is, in the highest sense that Divine Good and Divine Truth go forth together from Him.

[5] Because a representative Church was going to be established also among the descendants of Jacob, they too were to have a single personage to represent jointly Divine Good and Divine Truth, which go forth from the Lord united. But on account of the wars and the idolatry of that people the two were in fact divided right from the start; those who ruled over the attended to sacred duties were referred to as the priests, who belonged to the seed of Aaron and were the Levites. At a later time the two functions were joined together in a single person, as they were in Eli and Samuel. Yet because the nature of the people was such that the representative Church could not be established among them, only a representative of the Church, on account of the practice of idolatry prevalent among them, the two functions were allowed to be separated. The Lord was then represented in respect of Divine Truth by kings and in respect of Divine Good by priests. The separation took place because the people desired it, not because the Lord took any pleasure in it, as is clear from the Word of Jehovah to Samuel,

Obey the voice of the people in all that they have said to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them; and show them the right of the king. 1 Samuel 8:7-end; 12:19-20.

[6] The reason why the two functions were not meant to be separated was that Divine Truth separated from Divine Good condemns all people, whereas Divine Truth united to Divine Good saves them. Judged by Divine Truth a person is condemned to hell, but Divine Good brings him out of there and raises him into heaven. Salvation comes of mercy and so sprigs from Divine Good; but damnation exists when a person rejects mercy and so casts Divine Good away from himself, as a consequence of which he is left to be judged by Truth. As regards 'kings' representing Divine Truth, see 1672, 1728, 2015, 2069, 3009, 3670, 4575, 4581, 4966, 5044, 5068.

[7] 'The priests' represented the Lord in respect of Divine Good, and for that reason good is meant by them. This becomes clear from the internal sense of all that was prescribed regarding the priesthood when Aaron was chosen, and after him the Levites, such as these prescriptions:

The High Priest alone should enter the Holy of holies and minister there. [Leviticus 16.]

Things holy to Jehovah were to be for the priest. Leviticus 23:20; 27:21.

They were not to have any portion or inheritance in the land, but Jehovah would be their portion and inheritance. Numbers 18:20; Deuteronomy 10:9; 18:1.

The Levites were given to Jehovah instead of the firstborn, and they were given by Jehovah to Aaron. Numbers 3:9, 12-13, Numbers 3:40-end; 8:16-19.

The high priest and the Levites were to be in the middle of the camp when they pitched it and when they were journeying. Numbers 1:50-54; 2:17; 3:23-38; 4:1-end.

No one from the seed of Aaron who had a blemish in himself was to approach to offer burnt offerings or sacrifices. Leviticus 21:17-20.

And there are many other prescriptions besides these, such as those in Leviticus 21:9-13, and elsewhere.

[8] In the highest sense all these prescriptions relating to the priests represented the Lord's Divine Good and therefore in the relative sense the good of love and charity. Aaron's vestments however, called 'vestments of holiness', represented Divine Truth from Divine Good. These matters will in the Lord's Divine mercy be dealt with in the explanations of what appears in Exodus.

[9] Since truth is meant by 'kings' and good by 'priests', 'kings and priests' are mentioned together many times in the Word, as in John, Jesus Christ has made us kings and priests to His God and Father. Revelation 1:6; 5:10.

By virtue of the truth of faith we are said to have been made 'kings', and by virtue of the good of charity to have been made 'priests', so that the truth and good residing with those who abide in the Lord have been joined together, in the way they are in heaven, as stated above. This is what is meant by 'being made kings and priests'.

[10] In Jeremiah,

It will happen on that day, that the heart of the king and of the princes will perish, and the priests will be dumbfounded and the prophets left wondering. Jeremiah 4:9.

In the same prophet,

The house of Israel is ashamed, they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets. Jeremiah 2:26.

In the same prophet,

The kings of Judah, the princes, the priests, and the prophets, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Jeremiah 8:1.

In these places 'kings stands for truths, 'princes' for first and foremost truths, 1482, 1089, 5044, 'priests' for forms of good, and 'prophets' for those who teach, 2534.

[11] Quite apart from this it should be recognized that Joseph did not buy the ground of the priests. The fact that this was representative of the consideration that the whole of a person's capacity to receive truth and good comes from the Lord is evident from a similar law in Moses regarding the fields belonging to the Levites,

The field of the country surrounding the cities of the Levites shall not be sold, for it is their eternal possession. Leviticus 25:34.

The meaning here in the internal sense is that no one ought to lay any claim to the good of the Church, which is the good of love and charity, because that good is from the Lord alone.

Poznámky pod čarou:

2177. That 'meal of fine flour' means the spiritual and celestial ingredients [of the rational] which were present at that time with the Lord, and 'cakes' the same when both had been joined together, is quite clear from the sacrifices of the representative Church and from the minchah presented at the same time, which consisted of fine flour mixed with oil and made into cakes. Representative worship consisted primarily in burnt offerings and sacrifices. What these represented has been stated above where 'bread' was the subject, in 2165, namely the celestial things of the Lord's kingdom in heaven and of the Lord's kingdom on earth, which is the Church, and also the things of the Lord's kingdom or Church as it exists with every individual, and in general everything that is in essence love and charity, since these are celestial entities. In those times all the sacrifices were called 'bread'. Along with those sacrifices a minchah was included - which, as has been stated, consisted of fine flour mixed with oil to which also incense was added - and also a wine-offering.

[2] What these latter represented becomes clear too, namely things similar to those represented by sacrifices but of a lower order, thus the things which belong to the spiritual Church, and also those which belong to the external Church. It may become clear to anyone that such things would never have been prescribed unless they had represented Divine things, and also that each one represented some specific thing. For unless they had represented Divine things they would have been no different from similar things found among gentiles, among whom also there were sacrifices, minchahs, libations, and incense, as well as perpetual fires and many other things which had come down to them from the Ancient Church, especially from the Hebrew Church. But because they were separated from the internal, that is, the Divine things represented by them, those external forms of worship were nothing but idolatrous, as they also came to be among the Jews, who likewise sank into all kinds of idolatry. From this it may become clear to anyone that heavenly arcana were present within every form of ritual, especially so within the sacrifices and every detail of them.

[3] As regards the minchah, the nature of it and how it was to be made into cakes is described in a whole chapter in Moses - in Leviticus 2; also Numbers 15, and elsewhere. The law regarding the minchah is described in Leviticus in the following words,

Fire shall be kept burning unceasingly on the altar; it shall not be put out. And this is the law of the minchah: Aaron's sons shall bring it before Jehovah to the front of the altar, and he shall take up from it a fistful of fine flour of the minchah and of the oil of it and all the frankincense which is on the minchah, and he shall burn it on the altar; it is an odour of rest for a memorial to Jehovah. And the rest of it Aaron and his sons shall eat. Unleavened bread shall be eaten in a holy place. In the court of the tent of meeting shall they eat it. It shall not be cooked leavened; I have given it as their portion from My fire-offerings; it is most holy. Leviticus 6:13-17.

[4] The fire which was to be kept burning unceasingly on the altar represented the Lord's love, that is, His mercy, which is constant and eternal. 'Fire' in the Word means love, see 934, and therefore 'the fire-offerings made for an odour of rest' means the good pleasure which the Lord takes in those things that belong to love and charity. That 'odour' means good pleasure, that is, that which is pleasing, see 925, 1519. Their 'taking a fistful' represented their being required to love with all their soul or strength, for 'the hand' or 'the palm' of the hand means power, as shown in 878, from which 'the fist' also means the same. 'The fine flour together with the oil and the frankincense' represented all things of charity - 'fine flour' the spiritual ingredient of it, 'oil' the celestial, and 'frankincense' that which was in this manner pleasing. That 'fine flour' represents the spiritual ingredient is evident from what has just been stated and from what is stated below. That 'oil' represents the celestial ingredient, or the good or charity, see 886, and that 'frankincense' on account of its odour represents that which is pleasing and acceptable, 925.

[5] Its being 'unleavened bread' or not fermented means that it was to be genuine, thus something offered from genuineness of heart and having no uncleanness. The eating of the rest by Aaron and his sons represented man's reciprocation and his making it his own, and thus represented conjunction by means of love and charity; and it is for this reason that they were commanded to eat it 'in a holy place'. Hence it is called something most holy. These were the things which were represented by the minchah. It was also the way in which the representatives themselves were perceived in heaven; and when the member of the Church understood them in the same way his ideas were like the perception which the angels possess, so that he was in the Lord's kingdom in heaven even though he was on earth.

[6] For more about the minchah - what it was to consist of in any particular kind of sacrifice; the way in which it was to be baked into cakes; what kind was to be offered by those who were being cleansed, and also what kinds on other occasions (all of which would take too long to introduce and explain here) - see what is said about it in Exodus 29:39-41; Leviticus 5:11-13; 6:16-17, 19-21; 10:12-13; 23:10-13, 6, 17; Numbers 5:15 and following verses; 6:15-17, 19-20; 7: in various places; 28:5, 8, 9, 12-13, 20-21, 28-29; 29:3-4, 9-10, 14-15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, 37

[7] 'Fine flour made into cakes' had in general the same representation as bread, namely the celestial ingredient of love, while 'meals represented its spiritual ingredient, as becomes clear in the places indicated above. The loaves which were called 'the bread of the Presence' or 'the shewbread' consisted of fine flour, which was made into cakes and placed on the table to provide an unceasing representation of the Lord's love, that is, of His mercy, towards the whole human race, and man's reciprocation. These loaves are spoken of in Moses as follows,

You shall take fine pour and bake it into twelve cakes; two-tenths [of an ephah] shall there be in one cake And you shall place them in two rows, six in a row, on the clean table before Jehovah. And you shall put pure frankincense on each row, and it shall be bread serving as a memorial, a fire-offering to Jehovah. Every sabbath day [Aaron] shall set it out in order before Jehovah continually; it is from the children of Israel as an eternal covenant. And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, for it is to him the most holy of fire-offerings to Jehovah, by an eternal statute. Leviticus 24:5-9.

Every item and smallest detail mentioned here represented the holiness of love and charity, 'fine flour' having the same representation as meal of fine flour, namely that which is celestial and that which is spiritual that goes with it, and 'cake' the two when joined together.

[8] From this it is clear what the holiness of the Word is to those who possess heavenly ideas, and indeed what holiness was present within this particular representative observance, on account of which it is called 'most holy'. It is also clear how devoid of holiness the Word is to those who imagine that it does not have anything heavenly within it and who keep solely to externals. Exemplifying the latter are those who in the present verse under consideration perceive 'the meal' to be merely meal, 'the fine flour' merely fine flour, and 'the cake' merely a cake, and who imagine that these things have been stated without each one that is mentioned embodying something of the Divine within it. Their attitude is similar to that of those who imagine that the bread and wine of the Holy Supper are no more than a certain religious observance that does not have anything holy within it. Yet in fact it possesses such holiness that the minds of men are linked by means of it to the minds of those in heaven, when from an internal affection they think that the bread and wine mean the Lord's love and man's reciprocation, and by virtue of that interior thought and affection they abide in holiness.

[9] Much the same was implied by the requirement that when the children of Israel entered the land they were to present as a heave-offering to Jehovah a cake made from the first of their dough, Numbers 15:20. The fact that such things are meant is also evident in the Prophets, from' among whom for the moment let this one place in Ezekiel be introduced here,

You were adorned with gold and silver, and your raiment was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil. You became exceedingly beautiful, and attained to a kingdom. Ezekiel 16:13.

This refers to Jerusalem, by which is meant the Church, which Church in its earliest days bore an appearance such as this, that is to say, the Ancient Church, which is described by means of raiment and many other adornments. Its affections for truth and good are also described by 'the fine flour, honey, and oil'. It may become clear to anyone that all these details mean in the internal sense something altogether different from what they do in the sense of the letter. And the same applies to Abraham's saying to Sarah, 'Take quickly three measures of meal of fine flour, knead it, and make cakes'. That 'three' means things that are holy has been shown already in 720, 901.