When we eat, our bodies break down the food and get from it both energy and materials for building and repairing the body. The process is similar on a symbolic level in the Bible. Food represents the desire for good and the insight that comes from that desire for good – goodness and understanding that come from the Lord. But to put them to use we have to take them in and make them our own – which is spiritual eating.

302. The glorification of the Lord's human nature and his gaining control over the hells were accomplished by means of crises of the spirit. Beyond all others, the Lord suffered the most severe spiritual crises: 1663, 1668, 1787, 2776, 2786, 2795, 2816, 4295, 9528. The Lord fought out of his divine love for the human race: 1690, 1691, 1812, 1813, 1820. The Lord's love was a love for the salvation of the human race: 1820. The hells fought against the Lord's love: 1820. The Lord, alone and by his own power, fought against the hells and conquered them: 1692, 1813, 2816, 4295, 8273, 9937. As a result, the Lord alone became righteousness and merit: 1813, 2025, 2026, 2027, 9715, 9809, 10178. The Lord's last spiritual crisis was in Gethsemane and on the cross, followed by the complete victory through which he gained control over the hells and at the same time glorified his human nature: 2776, 2813, 2814, 10655, 10659, 10828. The Lord could not undergo spiritual crisis with respect to his divine nature: 2795, 2813, 2814. That is why he took on from his mother a weak human nature that was susceptible to spiritual crisis: 1414, 1444, 1573, 5041, 5157, 7193, 9315. Through spiritual crises and victories he drove out everything he had inherited from his mother and shed the human nature received from her so completely that finally he was no longer her son: 2159, 2574, 2649, 3036, 10830. Jehovah, who was within him, nevertheless seemed to be absent during his spiritual crises to the extent that he was centered in the human nature he had from his mother: 1815. This was the Lord's state of being humbled: 1785, 1999, 2159, 6866. Through spiritual crises and victories the Lord set everything in the heavens in order: 4287, 9528, 9715, 9937. By the same means he also united his human nature to his divine nature-that is, glorified his human nature: 1725, 1729, 1733, 1737, 3318, 3381, 3382, 4286, 4287, 9528, 9937.