1153. And fine flour and wheat.- That these signify worship from truths and goods that are from a spiritual origin, profaned, is evident from the signification of fine flour, which denotes truth from a spiritual origin, of which we shall speak presently; and from the signification of wheat, which denotes good from a spiritual origin (concerning which see above, n. 374, 375). The reason why these things also signify worship is, that the meat offering, which, together with the sacrifices, was offered up upon the altar, was composed of them, similarly the wine and oil; for the meat offerings were prepared with oil, and the drink offerings with wine. On account of the gathering in of these things, festivals also were instituted in which they rejoiced on account of their produce. Fine flour signifies truth from spiritual good, because it is prepared from wheat, which signifies spiritual good, as truth is derived from good.

[2] Since this truth of the church was signified by fine flour, therefore the quantity to be used in the cakes that were called the meat offerings and were offered with the sacrifices upon the altar, was prescribed (concerning which see Exodus 29:5-7, 13; Numbers 18, 28, 29). Similarly the quantity of fine flour in the cakes of proposition, or shew-bread, was prescribed (Leviticus 23:17; chap. 24:5), for it was commanded, that "the meat offering which was to be offered upon the altar should be prepared from fine flour, and oil and frankincense poured thereon" (Leviticus 2:1). On account of this signification of fine flour, when Abraham spoke with the three angels, he said to Sarah his wife, "Hasten and knead three measures of fine flour, and make cakes" (Genesis 18:6).

[3] Fine flour also signifies the truth of good from a spiritual origin in Ezekiel:

"Fine flour, honey, and oil hast thou eaten, whence thou art become exceeding beautiful, and hast prospered unto a kingdom. My bread which I gave thee, fine flour, honey, and oil, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast set before" idols "for an odour of rest" (16:13, 19).

This treats of Jerusalem, by which the church as to doctrine is signified; and in that chapter its quality at its beginning is described, and what it became afterwards. Fine flour and oil signify truth and good from a spiritual origin, while honey signifies good from a natural origin. By becoming exceedingly beautiful is signified to become intelligent and wise; by prospering unto a kingdom is signified even to become a church, a kingdom signifying a church. By setting those things before idols for an odour of rest, is signified the idolatrous worship into which the true worship of the church was afterwards converted.

[4] By the meal of barley, however, truth from a natural origin is signified, for barley signifies natural good just as wheat signifies spiritual good.

Thus in Isaiah,

"Take thee a mill-stone and grind flour, make thyself bare" (47:2).

This refers to Babel. By taking a millstone and grinding flour is signified to falsify the truths of the Word, and by making herself bare or naked is signified to adulterate the goods of the Word.

In Hosea,

"They sow the wind, and they reap the whirlwind; he hath no standing corn, the blade shall yield no meal, and if it do yield, strangers shall devour it" (8:7).

Here also meal (farina) signifies truth from a natural origin.

[5] Continuation concerning the Athanasian Creed.- The fifth law of the Divine Providence is, That man should not know from feeling and perception in himself how good and truth from the Lord enter by influx, and how evil and falsity enter by influx from hell; nor see how the Divine Providence operates in favour of good against evil; for in such case man would not act as of himself from freedom according to reason. It is sufficient for him to know and acknowledge these things from the Word, and from the doctrine of the church. This is meant by the Lord's words in John:

"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh, or whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit" (3:8);

and also by these words in Mark:

"The kingdom of God is as if a man should cast seed upon the earth, and should sleep and rise night and day; but the seed springeth up and groweth he knoweth not how; for the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself, first the blade, then the ear, at length the full corn in the ear; and when the fruit is brought forth, he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come" (4:26-29).

The reason why man does not perceive the operation of the Divine Providence in himself is, that such perception would take away his freedom, and consequently the power of thinking as if from himself, and with it also all the enjoyment of life, so that a man would be like, an automaton, in which there is no power of reciprocation as means by which conjunction is effected; and he would also be a slave, and not a free man.

[6] The reason why Divine Providence moves so secretly, that scarcely any vestige of it appears, although it operates in the most minute things of man's thought and will that regard his eternal state, is, that the Lord continually desires to impress His love on him, and His wisdom by means of it, and thus to create him into His image. The Lord, therefore, acts upon man's love, and from it upon his understanding, and not from his understanding upon his love. Love together with its affections, which are manifold and innumerable, is not perceived by man except by a most general feeling, and consequently in so small a degree as scarcely to amount to anything; and yet man is to be led from one affection of his loves into another, according to the connection in which they are from order, so that he may be reformed and saved, which is incomprehensible, not only to men, but also to the angels.

[7] If man knew any thing of these secret operations (arcana) he could not be withdrawn from leading himself, even though it were continually from heaven into hell, notwithstanding that he is constantly led by the Lord from hell towards heaven; for from himself he constantly acts in opposition to order, but the Lord constantly acts according to it. For, in consequence of the nature derived from his parents, man is in the love of himself, and in the love of the world, and consequently from a feeling of delight he perceives the whole of these loves as good; and still those loves as ends must be removed. This is effected by the Lord by an infinity of ways which appear like labyrinths, even before the angels of the third heaven.

[8] From these considerations it is evident, that it would be of no advantage to a man to know any thing of this from feeling and perception, but that on the contrary it would be hurtful to him, and would destroy him for ever. It is sufficient for him to be acquainted with truths, and by means of them with the nature of good and evil, and to acknowledge the Lord and His Divine government in every thing; then so far as he knows truths, and by means of them sees what good and evil are, and does truths as if from himself, so far the Lord, by love, introduces him into wisdom and the love of wisdom, conjoining wisdom with love, and making them one because they are one in Himself. The ways by which the Lord leads man may be compared with the vessels through which his blood flows and circulates; and also with the fibres and their foldings within and without the viscera of the body, especially in the brain, through which the animal spirit (spiritus animalis) flows and imparts life.

[9] Man is not aware how all these things enter by influx and flow through him; and yet he lives, provided he knows and does what is conducive to his well being. But the ways by which the Lord leads him are much more complicated and intricate, both those by which He leads man through the societies of hell, and away from them, and those by which He leads man through the societies of heaven, and interiorly into them. This, therefore, is what is meant by the words: "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou knowest not whence it cometh and whither it goeth" (John 3), also, by the seed springing up and growing, a man knowing not how (Mark 4:27). Of what importance is it for a man to know how the seed grows, provided he knows how to plough the earth, to harrow it, to sow the seed, and when he reaps the harvest, to bless God?

5247. 'And he clipped [his hair and beard]' means a casting aside and the change made so far as the coverings of the exterior natural were concerned. This is clear from the meaning of 'clipping' - that is, clipping the head and beard - as casting aside the coverings of the exterior natural. For 'hair' which was clipped means the exterior natural, see 3301. Also, both hair on the head and that composing the beard correspond in the Grand Man to the exterior natural. This explains why in the light of heaven sensory-minded people - that is, those who have had no belief in anything apart from that which is natural, and have had no desire to understand how anything more internal or purer can exist apart from that which they can perceive with their senses - have a hairy appearance in the next life. They look so hairy that their faces are scarcely anything else than hairy beards. I have seen faces covered with hair like these on many occasions. But rationally-minded people, that is, spiritually-minded ones, with whom the natural has played a correctly subordinate role, are seen with tidy hair. Indeed from the state of people's hair in the next life one can tell what the natural with them is like. The reason spirits appear with hair on their heads is that in the next life spirits look exactly like people on earth. This too is why the Word sometimes includes a description of the hair of the angels people have seen.

[2] From all this one may now see what is meant by 'clipping', as in Ezekiel,

The priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, shall put off their garments in which they have been ministering and lay them in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments, and they shall not sanctify the people in their own garments. And they shall not shave their head and shall not let their hair grow long; they shall surely clip their heads. Ezekiel 44:15, 19-20.

This refers to a new Temple and a new priesthood, that is, to a new Church. 'Putting on other garments' means holy truths; 'not shaving their head, and not letting their hair grow long, but surely clipping their heads' means not casting aside the natural but taking measures to make it conformable, and so to make it subordinate. Anyone who believes that the Word is indeed holy can see that these and all the other details mentioned by the prophet which describe a new land, a new city, and a new Temple and priesthood must not be taken literally. The statement, for example, that the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, will minister there, at which time they will put off their ministerial garments and put on new ones, and will also clip their heads, is not meant literally; rather, each and all the details given by the prophet have as their meaning such things as are aspects of a new Church.

[3] The following rules were laid down for the high priest, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, in Moses,

The priest who is chief among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been consecrated ¹ to wear the garments, shall not shave his head or rend his garments. Leviticus 21:10.

The sons of Aaron shall not introduce any baldness on their head or shave the corner of their beard. They shall be holy to their God, and they shall not profane the name of their God. Leviticus 21:5-6.

You shall purify the Levites like this: Sprinkle over them the water of expiation, and they shall pass a razor over their flesh and wash their garments, and they shall be pure. Numbers 8:7.

These rules would never have been given unless they had held holy ideas within them. Can there be anything holy or anything of the Church in the actual rule forbidding the high priest to shave his head or rend his garments, or in the actual rule forbidding the sons of Levi to introduce any baldness on their head or shave the corner of their beard, or in that commanding the Levites to shave their flesh with a razor when they underwent purification? Rather, the possession of an external or natural man made subordinate to the internal or spiritual man, both of which have thereby been made subordinate to the Divine, is the holy idea within those rules; and it is also what angels perceive when man reads about them in the Word.

[4] The same goes for what is said about a Nazirite who was holy to Jehovah. If someone next to him happened to die suddenly and so defile his consecrated head, the Nazirite was required to clip his head on the day of his cleansing; on the seventh day he had to clip it. On the day that the days of his Naziriteship were completed he had to clip his consecrated head at the door of the Tent of Meeting and to take the hair from his head and put it on the fire which was under the sacrifice of peace offerings, Numbers 6:8, 9, 13, 18. For the meaning of a Nazirite and what aspect of holiness he represented, see 3301. No one can possibly understand why anything holy existed within the Nazirite's hair unless he knows from correspondence what is meant by 'the hair' and from this what aspect of holiness a Nazirite's hair corresponded to. Nor can anyone likewise understand how the source of Samson's strength lay in his hair, which he told Delilah about in the following description,

No razor has come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite of God from my mother's womb. If I am shaved, my strength will depart from me, and I shall become weak and be like anyone else. And Delilah called a man who shaved off the seven locks of his hair; and his strength departed from him. After that, when the hair on his head began to grow, even as it had been shaved off, his strength returned to him. Judges 16:17, 19, 22.

Without any knowledge of correspondence who can see that the Lord's Divine Natural was represented by 'a Nazirite', or that 'Naziriteship' had no other meaning than this, or that Samson's strength was due to that representation?

[5] Anyone who does not know, and more so one who does not believe that the Word has an internal sense, and that the sense of the letter serves to represent the real things contained in the internal sense, will recognize scarcely anything holy at all in these matters, when in fact the greatest holiness lies within them. Anyone who does not know, and more so one who does not believe that the Word has an internal sense that is intrinsically holy cannot know what the following texts enfold within them: In Jeremiah,

Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth. Cut off the hair of your Naziriteship and throw it away. Jeremiah 7:28-29.

In Isaiah,

On that day the Lord will shave by means of a razor hired at the crossing-places of the River - by means of the king of Asshur - the head and the hair of the feet; and it will consume the beard also. Isaiah 7:20.

In Micah,

Make yourself bald, and shave your head for the children of your delight; extend your baldness like an eagle, for they have departed from you. Micah 1:16.

Nor will anyone know the aspect of holiness contained in the reference to Elijah's being a man covered with hair, who wore a skin girdle around his loins, 2 Kings 1:8. Nor will he know why the children who called Elisha baldhead were torn apart by the bears out of the forest, 2 Kings 2:23-24.

[6] Both Elijah and Elisha represented the Lord as to the Word, and so represented the Word itself, specifically the prophetical part, see Preface to Genesis 18, and 2762. Being covered with hair and having a skin girdle meant the literal sense, 'a man covered with hair' meaning that sense so far as truths were concerned, 'wearing a skin girdle around his loins' so far as forms of good were concerned. For the literal sense is the natural sense of the Word since it employs ideas formed from things that exist in the world, whereas the internal sense is the spiritual sense because it employs ideas formed from things existing in heaven. These two senses are related to each other in the way that the internal and the external are related in the human being. But because the internal can have no existence without the external, the external being the last and lowest degree of order within which the internal is held in being, the calling of Elisha 'baldhead' therefore meant the shameful accusation made against the Word that it lacked so to speak an external and so lacked a sense suited to man's capacity to understand it.

[7] From all this one may see that every particular detail in the Word is holy. However, this holiness within the Word is discerned by no one unless he is acquainted with the internal sense; yet an inkling of it flows from heaven into someone who believes that the Word is holy. The internal sense known to the angels is the channel through which that influx comes; and even if the person has no understanding of that sense it nevertheless stimulates an affection in him, because the affection felt by the angels who know that sense is communicated to him. From this it is also evident that the Word was given to man so that he might have a means of communication with heaven and so that by flowing into him Divine Truth in heaven might stimulate affection in him.

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