Wine played a key role in the ancient world, where safe, reliable water sources were scarce. It could be stored for long periods of time; if lightly fermented it was rich in sugar content; it was high in mineral content; it tasted good and generally had intoxicating qualities. Thus it was a valuable commodity and treated with reverence.

Wine is, of course, made from grapes. Grapes – sweet, juicy, nutritious and full of energy-rich fructose – represent the Lord's own exquisite desire to be good to us. That's powerful stuff! But grapes have a short shelf life; you might eat a bunch for a burst of energy, but you can't exactly carry them around with you for long-term sustenance. And so it is with desires for good: They tend to come to us in energizing bursts, but fade away fairly quickly. We need something more stable and lasting.

At some point in the distant past people figured out that if you squeeze the juice from the grapes and let it ferment, the result is a liquid that offers that stability: wine. The spiritual meaning works the same way; if we examine our desires for good, try to understand and think about how to apply them, what we will get are concepts about what good really is, how to recognize it and how to make it happen. And just like the wine, these ideas offer stability and portability. For instance, finding a wallet full of cash on the sidewalk might severely test our desire to be honest, but the idea that "you shall not steal" is pretty hard to shake.

Wine, then, on the deepest level represents divine truth flowing from divine goodness – the true principles that arise from the fact that the Lord loves us and desires everything good for us.

Wine comes in many varieties, though, and is used in many ways. Depending on context it can represent truth that arises from a desire for good on much more mundane levels. You want your children to be healthy so you make them brush their teeth even though they complain and it's a pain in the neck; the truth that brushing their teeth is good for them is wine on a very day-to-day level.

In some cases wine can also actually represent good things that arise from true ideas, something of a reverse from its inmost meaning. This happens when we are in transitional stages, setting higher ideas and principles above our less-worthy desires in an effort to reshape our actions. In that case our principles are the things being squeezed, with good habits the result.

There is also, of course, a darker side to wine. There is a good deal of debate about just how much alcohol wine had in Biblical times, and some of it may indeed have been more like concentrated grape juice. But there are also many references to wine and drunkeness, so some of it, at least, was fairly potent.

On a spiritual level, getting drunk on wine represents relying too much on our ideas, taking logic to such an extreme that we forget the good things we were trying to achieve in the first place.

(Odkazy: Apocalypse Explained 376 [1-40], 1152; Apocalypse Revealed 316, 635; Arcana Coelestia 1071 [1-5], 1727, 3580 [1-4], 5117 [7], 6377, 10137 [1-10]; The Apocalypse Explained 329 [2-4]; The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine 219)

3580. 'And abundance of grain' means natural good from this, 'and of new wine' means natural truth from the same. This is clear from the meaning of 'grain' as good, and from the meaning of 'new wine' as truth. When these two are used in reference to the natural they mean natural good and truth, but when they are used in reference to the rational they are 'bread and wine' - 'bread' being celestial good, see 276, 680, 1798, 2165, 2177, 3464, 3478, and 'wine' that which is spiritual, namely truth deriving from good, 1071, 1798. These meanings of 'grain' and 'wine' may also be seen from the following places in the Word:

In Haggai,

The heavens have withheld their dew, and the earth has withheld its increase. And I have called for a drought over the land, and over the mountains, and over the grain, and over the new wine, and over that which the earth brings forth. Haggai 1:10-11.

Here 'a drought' stands for a lack of dew and rain, and so for a lack of truth deriving from any good. 'A drought over the grain' is the lack of good, and 'a drought over the new wine' the lack of truth.

[2] In Moses,

Israel will dwell securely, alone at Jacob's spring, in a land of grain and new wine; and his heavens will distill dew. Deuteronomy 33:28.

'Alone' stands for those who are not infested by evils and falsities, 139, 471. 'A land of grain and new wine' stands for the good and truth of the Church.

In Hosea,

I will be as the dew to Israel, he will blossom ¹ as the lily, and strike root like Lebanon. His branches will go out, and his beauty will be like the olive, and his odour like that of Lebanon. Those dwelling in its shadow will turn back, they will quicken the grain and will blossom as the vine; the memory of it will be as the wine of Lebanon. Hosea 14:5-7.

Here 'the grain' stands for spiritual good, 'the wine' for spiritual truth.

In Isaiah,

A curse will consume the earth. The new wine will mourn, the vine will languish; all the merry-hearted will sigh. Isaiah 24:6-7.

This refers to the vastation of the spiritual Church. 'The new wine will mourn' stands for the fact that truth will come to an end.

[3] In Jeremiah,

Jehovah has redeemed Jacob. They will come and sing on the height of Zion, and they will converge towards the goodness of Jehovah. towards the grain, and towards the new wine, and towards the oil, and towards the young ² of the flock and of the herd. Jeremiah 31:11-12.

'The grain' and 'the new wine' stand for good and for truth derived from good, 'the oil' for the good which is both a producer and a product of these, 'the young of the flock and of the herd' for the truth which is acquired in this manner. This being the meaning of those things they are called 'the goodness of Jehovah'.

In Hosea,

She did not know that it was I who gave her the grain and the new wine and the oil, and who multiplied the silver and the gold which they made for Baal. Therefore I will return and take back My grain and My new wine in its season, and I will snatch away My wool and My flax. Hosea 2:8-9.

This refers to the Church when perverted, and it is evident that 'grain' is not used to mean grain, nor 'new wine' new wine, nor yet oil, silver, gold, wool, and flax to mean such material things. Rather, spiritual things are meant, that is, those which consist in what is good and true.

Something similar is the case where in the same prophet a new Church is dealt with,

I will betroth you to Me in faith, and you will know Jehovah. And it will be on that day, that I shall hear the heavens, and they will hear the earth, and the earth will hear the grain, and the new wine, and the oil, and these will hear Jezreel. Hosea 2:20-22.

'Jezreel' stands for a new Church.

In Joel,

Awake, you drunkards, and weep; and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine that has been cut off from your mouth. The field has been laid waste, the land is mourning because the grain has been laid waste; the new wine has dried up, the oil languishes. Joel 1:5, 10.

[4] In the same prophet,

Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in Jehovah your God, for He has given you the morning rain for righteousness, and will cause the morning and the evening rain to come down on you in the first [month]. And the threshing-floors will be full of perfect grain, and the presses will overflow with new wine and oil. Joel 2:23-24.

In the same prophet,

It will happen on that day, that the mountains will drip new wine, and the hills will flow with milk, and all the streams of Judah will flow with water, and a spring will come forth from the house of Jehovah. Joel 3:18.

This refers to the Lord's kingdom, it being spiritual things that are meant by 'new wine', 'milk', and 'water', the abundance of which is being described in this fashion.

In Zechariah,

Jehovah their God will serve them on that day, as a flock His people. For how great is his goodness, and how great his beauty! Grain will make the young men flourish, and new wine the virgins. Zechariah 9:16-17.

In David,

You visit the earth and delight in it; You greatly enrich it; the stream of God is full of water; You prepare their grain. The meadows clothe themselves with flocks, and the valleys are covered over with grain; let them clap their hands, let them also sing. Psalms 65:9, 13.

From all these places it is now evident what 'grain' is and what 'new wine' is.

Poznámky pod čarou: