688. "And You have given them blood to drink. For they are deserving." This symbolically means that of the Lord's Divine providence, those who have confirmed themselves in faith alone in doctrine and life have been permitted to falsify the Word's truths and to infuse their life with those falsified truths.

To drink blood symbolically means not only to falsify the Word's truths, but also to infuse one's life with those falsified truths; for someone who drinks, assimilates into himself what he drinks and infuses himself with it.

The text says, "For they are deserving." And the reason is that people who accept faith alone and live in accordance with it are caught up in evils in the way they live, and it is evil that brings this about in them. It is of people caught up in evils, then, that the text says here that they are deserving, as we say of people in the world who are punished for their evil deeds that they deserve the punishment.

Regarding the Divine providence in this circumstance, see nos. 686-687 above.