4281. 'The hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him' means that in the descendants of Jacob that conjunction had been thoroughly damaged and the two loves pulled apart. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'wrestling' in this sense as being pulled apart and so suffering damage. It is evident from what has been stated above in 4280 that 'the hollow of the thigh' means a joining together; and that 'Jacob' in the Word means not only Jacob but also all his descendants is clear from very many places, such as Numbers 23:7, 10, 21, 23; 24:5, 17, 19; Deuteronomy 33:10; Isaiah 40:27; 43:1, 22; 44:1-2, 21; 48:12; 59:20; Jeremiah 10:16, 25; 30:7, 10, 18; 31:7, 11; 46:27-28; Hosea 10:11; Amos 7:2; Micah 2:12; 3:8; Psalms 14:7; 24:6; 59:13; 78:5; 99:4; and in other places.

[2] Jacob and his descendants were by nature such that with them celestial and spiritual love could not be joined to natural good, that is, the internal or spiritual man could not be joined to the external or natural man. This is evident from the details told in the Word concerning that nation. For they neither knew nor wished to know what the internal or spiritual man was, and therefore that matter was not revealed to them. In fact it was their belief that nothing existed with man apart from the external and natural. Nor in all their worship did they have anything else in mind, so that Divine worship with them was wholly idolatrous; for once internal worship is separated from external, it is nothing but idolatrous. The Church which was established among them was not in fact a Church but only a representative of the Church, for which reason that Church is called a representative Church. For it was possible for a representative of the Church to exist among such people, see 1361, 3670, 4208.

[3] Indeed in representations no attention is paid to the person who represents, only to the thing represented by him. Consequently not only persons represented Divine, celestial, or spiritual things, but also inanimate objects, such as Aaron's garments, the ark, the altar, the oxen and sheep which used to be sacrificed, the lampstand with its lamps, the bread of the presence on the table of gold, the oil with which they were anointed, the frankincense, and other objects like these. This was why their kings, bad ones no less than the good, represented the Lord's kingship, and why their high priests, bad ones no less than the good, represented the things that belong to the Lord's Divine priesthood, when they performed their own function in external form according to the prescribed rules and commands. In order therefore that among them a representative of the Church might come into existence they were provided through plainly visible revelation with such prescribed rules and such laws as would be entirely representative. Therefore as long as they kept to them and strictly complied with them, those people were able to play a representative role. But when they deviated from them into the prescribed rules and laws of other nations, and in particular to the worship of another god, they deprived themselves of their ability to play that representative role. For this reason they were coerced by external means - which were captivities, calamities, threats, and miracles - into obeying laws and prescribed rules that were truly representative, not by internal means, as those people are whose external worship has internal within it. These are the considerations that are meant in the internal historical sense by the words 'the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint', which sense has regard to Jacob and his descendants.

6135. 'Nothing is left before [my] lord apart from our bodies and our ground' means that the receptacles of goodness and truth have been made completely desolate. This is clear from the meaning of body' as the receptacle of good, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ground' as the receptacle of truth. The reason why 'ground' is the receptacle of truth is that it receives seeds, and seeds sown in it mean in a specific sense matters of faith derived from charity, thus of truth derived from good, 1025, 1447, 1610, 1940, 2848, 3038, 3310, 3373; consequently 'the ground' means the receptacle of truth. See also what has been stated and shown previously regarding the ground in 566, 1068, 3671. The fact that such receptacles have been made desolate is meant by 'nothing is left before [my] lord apart from'.

[2] In the genuine sense 'body' means the good of love and 'ground' the truth of faith. When truths and forms of the good of truth, meant by 'the silver' and 'the livestock', can be seen no longer on account of the desolation, 'body' means merely the receptacle for good and 'ground' the receptacle for truth. The reason why 'body' in the genuine sense means the good of love is that the body or the entire person meant by the body is a receptacle of life from the Lord, thus a receptacle of good; for the good of love composes the actual life in a person. The vital heat that consists in love is vital heat itself; and unless that heat exists in a person, the person is something dead. This then is the reason why in the internal sense 'body' means the good of love. Even if a person does not have heavenly love present in him but hellish love, the inmost centre of his life still owes its existence to heavenly love. For this love flows in constantly from the Lord and provides him with vital heat in its primary and original form; but as it comes to that person it is perverted by him, and this gives rise to hellish love, from which an unclean heat is radiated.

[3] I have been able to see quite clearly from the angels that 'body' in the genuine sense is the good of love. When they are present, love floods out of them, so much so that you think they are nothing but love; it floods out of their entire bodies. Also their bodies have a dazzling appearance, full of light shining from them; for the good of love is like a flame sending out from itself light, which is the truth of faith derived from that good. If this therefore is what the angels of heaven are like, what of the Lord Himself? He is the Source of every spark of love among the angels, and His Divine Love is seen as the Sun from which the whole of heaven receives its light, and from which all who are there derive their heavenly heat, that is, their love and so their life. The Lord's Divine Human is what appears in that way and is the Source of all those things. From this one may now see what is meant by the Lord's body - Divine Love, the same as is meant by His flesh, dealt with in 3813. Also, the Lord's very body - having been glorified, that is, made Divine - is nothing else than such Love; so what else can one feel the Divine, which is the Infinite, to be?

[4] From all this one may recognize that nothing else is meant by 'body' in the Holy Supper than the Lord's Divine Love towards the entire human race, described in the Gospels as follows,

Jesus, taking the bread and saying a blessing, broke and gave to the disciples and said, Take, eat, this is My body. Matthew 26:26; Mark 14:22; Luke 22:19.

He said, referring to the bread, 'this is My body' because 'bread' too means Divine Love, 276, 680, 2165, 2177, 3464, 3478, 3735, 4735, 5915.

[5] Divine Love is again meant by the Lord's body in John,

Jesus said, Destroy [this] temple and in three days I will raise it up again. But He was speaking of the temple of His body. John 2:19, 21.

'The temple of His body' is Divine Truth derived from Divine Good, for 'the temple' is the Lord's Divine Truth, see 3720. And since 'body' in the highest sense is the Divine Good of the Lord's Divine Love, all in heaven are said to be in the Lord's body.

[6] That the Lord's body is Divine Good is also clear from the following words in Daniel,

I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, a man clothed in linen whose loins were girded with gold of Uphaz, and his body was like tarshish, ¹ and his face was like the appearance of lightning, and his eyes were like fiery torches, and his arms and his feet like the shine of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude. Daniel 10:5-6.

'The gold of Uphaz' with which the man's loins were girded, 'the appearance of lightning' that his face had, 'the fiery torches' descriptive of his eyes, and 'the shine of bronze' descriptive of his arms and feet mean aspects of the good of love. 'Gold is the good of love, see 113, 1551, 1552, 5658, as also is 'fire', 934, 4906, 5215; and since 'fire' has that meaning, so does 'lightning'. 'Bronze' is the good of love and charity in the natural, 425, 1551; 'tarshish' which the rest of his body looked like, that is to say, which his trunk between head and loins looked like, means the good of charity and faith; for tarshish is a sparkling and precious stone.

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