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:

146. To him that overcometh, to him will I give to eat of the hidden manna, signifies that those who conquer in temptations will have the delight of heavenly love from the Lord's Divine Human. This is evident from the signification of "overcoming," as being those who conquer in temptations (for it is these that are treated of in what is written to the angel of this church, see above, n. 130; from the signification of "giving to eat," as being to be appropriated and to be conjoined by love and charity (See Arcana Coelestia 2187, 2343, 3168, 3513, 5643) and as it is said "of the hidden manna," which means the Lord in respect to His Divine Human, the "eating" of this here signifies the delight of heavenly love, for this is appropriated by the Lord's Divine Human to those who receive Him in love and faith; also from the signification of the "hidden manna," as being the Lord in respect to His Divine Human. That this is "manna" is manifest from the Lord's own words in John:

Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, He gave them bread out of heaven to eat. The bread of God is He who cometh down out of heaven, and giveth life unto the world. I am the bread of life. Your fathers did eat the manna in the wilderness, and they are dead. This is the bread which cometh down out of heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down out of heaven; if any man eat of this bread he shall live forever. The bread that I will give is My flesh (John 6:31-58).

That it is the Lord Himself who is meant by "manna" and by "bread," He plainly teaches, for He says, "I am the bread of life which came down out of heaven." That it is the Lord in respect to the Divine Human, He also teaches when He says, "The bread that I will give is My flesh."

[2] The Lord taught the same when He instituted the Holy Supper:

Jesus took bread and blessed it, and gave to the disciples, and said, Take, eat, this is My body (Matthew 26:26; Mark 14:22; Luke 22:19).

"To eat of this bread" is to be conjoined to the Lord by love, for "to eat" signifies to be appropriated and to be conjoined (as above), and love is spiritual conjunction. The same is signified by "eating in the kingdom of God," in Luke:

Blessed is he that eateth bread in the kingdom of God (Luke 14:15).

Ye shall eat and drink at My table in My kingdom (Luke 22:30).

In Matthew:

Many shall come from the east and the west, and shall recline to eat with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God (Matthew 8:11).

(That by "Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," the Lord is meant, see Arcana Coelestia 1893, 4615, 6098, 6185, 6276, 6804, 6847) In John:

Work not for the food which perisheth; but for the food which abideth, which the Son of man shall give unto you (John 6:27).

That the "Son of man" is the Lord in respect to the Divine Human, see above, n. 63.

[3] It is called "hidden manna," because the delight of heavenly love, which those receive who are conjoined to the Lord through love, is wholly unknown to those that are in a love not heavenly; and this delight no one is able to receive except he that acknowledges the Lord's Divine Human; for from this the delight proceeds. Because this delight was unknown to the children of Israel in the wilderness, they called it "manna," as appears in Moses:

Jehovah said unto Moses, Behold, I will cause bread to rain from heaven itself for you. And in the morning the dew lay round about the camp. And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold upon the face of the wilderness a small round thing; and when they saw it, they said, This is manna? (what is this)? Moses said unto them, this is the bread which Jehovah giveth you to eat. And the house of Israel called the name thereof manna (Exodus 16:3-36).

In the same:

Jehovah fed thee with manna which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by all that is uttered by the mouth of Jehovah doth man live (Deuteronomy 8:3).

This delight, which is meant by "manna," was unknown to the sons of Israel, because they were in corporeal delight more than other nations, and those who are in that delight are altogether incapable of knowing anything of heavenly delight. (That the sons of Israel were such, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 248.) The term "delight" is used, and the delight of love is meant, for every delight of life is of love.

[4] As it is the delight of heavenly love that is signified by "eating of the hidden manna," therefore it is called "the bread of the heavens" in David:

Jehovah commanded the skies from above, and opened the doors of the heavens; and He rained down upon them manna for food, and gave them corn of the heavens (Psalms 78:23, 24).

In another place:

Jehovah satisfied them with the bread of the heavens (Psalms 105:40).

It is called the "bread of the heavens," because it rained down from heaven with the dew, but in the spiritual sense it is called the "bread of the heavens" because it flows down from the Lord through the angelic heaven. In that case no other heaven is meant, and no other bread than that which nourishes the soul of man. That it is in this sense that "bread" is to be understood here is evident from the words of the Lord Himself in John:

That He is the manna, or bread, that came down out of heaven (John 6:31-58).

And in Moses:

That Jehovah fed them with manna, that He might make them to know that man doth not live by bread only, but by all that is uttered by the mouth of Jehovah (Deuteronomy 8:3).

"What is uttered by the mouth of Jehovah" is everything that proceeds from the Lord, and this, in a special sense, is Divine truth united with Divine good (See the work on Heaven and Hell 13, 133, 139, 140, 284-290).

[5] This delight is also described by the correspondences in Moses:

The manna appeared like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like cakes made with honey (Exodus 16:31).

And in another place in the same:

They made cakes of it; and the taste of it was as the taste of the juice of oil (Numbers 11:7, 8).

The appearance and taste of the manna was such because "coriander seed, white," signifies truth from a heavenly origin; "cake," the good of heavenly love; "honey" its external delight; "oil" that love itself; and its "juice," from which was the taste, its internal delight: and the "rain with dew," in which the manna was, the influx of Divine truth in which that delight is. (That "seed" signifies truth from a heavenly origin, seeArcana Coelestia 3038, 3373, 10248, 10249; that "white" is predicated of that truth, n. 3301, 3993, 4007, 5319; that "cake" signifies the good of heavenly love, n. 7978, 9992, 9993; that "oil" signifies that love itself, n. 886, 3728, 9780, 9954, 10261, 10269; its "juice," therefore, signifies the delight of that love, because the taste is therefrom, and the taste is the delight and pleasantness, see n. 3502, 4791-4805. But more about these matters may be seen in the explanation of chapter 16 of Exodus in The Arcana Coelestia.)

[6] The delight of heavenly love is signified by "eating of the hidden manna," when yet by "the hidden manna" the Lord in respect to the Divine Human is signified, because it is the same whether you say the Lord's Divine Human, or the Divine Love, for the Lord is Divine Love itself, and what proceeds from Him is Divine good united to Divine truth; both are of love, and are also the Lord in heaven; consequently "to eat of Him" is to be conjoined to Him, and this by love from Him. (But these things may be better understood from what is said and shown in the work on Heaven and Hell 13-19, 116-125, 126-140; also in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 210-222, 307)