705. Passages in the Word that mention these four things - flesh, blood, bread, and wine - show that they mean the spiritual and heavenly things to which they correspond.

For example, we can see from the following passages that flesh in the Word means something spiritual and heavenly.

Come and gather for the feast of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders, the flesh of the mighty, the flesh of horses and those who ride on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slaves, small and great. (Revelation 19:17-18)

And in Ezekiel,

Gather yourselves from all sides to my sacrificial meal, which I will sacrifice for you, a great sacrificial meal on the mountains of Israel, so that you will eat flesh and drink blood. You will eat the flesh of the mighty and drink the blood of the leaders of the earth. At my sacrificial meal, you will eat fat until you are full and you will drink blood until you are drunk. You will be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with the mighty and all the men of war. This is how I will present my glory among the nations. (Ezekiel 39:17-21)

Surely everyone sees that in the passages just quoted flesh does not mean flesh and blood does not mean blood; they mean things that are spiritual and heavenly that correspond to them. Otherwise what else would these be but astoundingly nonsensical statements? Are people really going to eat the flesh of kings and commanders, the flesh of the mighty, and the flesh of horses and those who ride on them? Are they really going to be filled up at the table by eating horses, chariots, the mighty, and all the men of war? Are they really going to drink the blood of the leaders of the earth, and drink blood until they are drunk? Clearly, these statements concern the Lord's Holy Supper, as we can tell because of the mention of "the feast of the great God" and "a great sacrificial meal. "

[2] Since all things that are spiritual and heavenly relate exclusively to goodness and truth, it follows that flesh means good action that relates to goodwill and blood means truth that relates to faith. On the highest level, these words mean the divine goodness of the Lord's love and the divine truth of the Lord's wisdom.

In the following passage in Ezekiel, flesh again means spiritual goodness.

I will give them one heart, and I will create a new spirit within you. I will remove their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26)

In the Word, "heart" means love. Therefore a heart of flesh means a love for what is good.

The passages cited below on the meaning of bread and wine [707-708] make it clearer still that flesh and blood mean spiritual goodness and spiritual truth, since the Lord indicates that his flesh is bread and his blood is wine that we drink from a cup.

2245. 'The men looked from there' means the Lord's thought from the Divine. This is clear from the meaning of 'looking from' as thinking, for 'seeing' in the internal sense, as in everyday speech, is understanding, since the understanding is internal sight, and thus 'looking from' means thinking, which is the activity of the internal sight or the understanding; and also from the meaning of 'the men' as the Divine. In various places in this chapter 'the men' are mentioned, and in various other places 'Jehovah' instead of 'the men'. When 'the men' is used the Trinity is meant, that is, the Divine itself, the Divine Human, and the [Holy] proceeding. The Lord's thought from this Divine is meant by the words 'the men looked from there'. That thought came from the Human joined to the Divine, which conjunction was dealt with at the start of this chapter; but the perception from which the thought stemmed came from the Divine, which explains why immediately afterwards in this same verse reference is made to Jehovah in the words 'he stood before Jehovah'. And when the Human had been joined to the Divine, the [Holy] proceeding was together with them as well.