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.

10687. 'And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant' means the Word, through which heaven is joined to a person. This is clear from the meaning of 'the tablets', on which the Law has been written, as the Word, dealt with in 9416, 10375, 10376, 10453, 10461; and from the meaning of 'the covenant' as a joining together, dealt with in the places referred to above in 10632. The reason why the joining of heaven to a person is meant is that pure correspondences were used when the Word was written, which makes it such that it joins heaven to a person. Heaven is conscious of the internal sense of the Word, to which sense the external sense corresponds; when therefore a person reads the Word the angels present with the person perceive its spiritual meaning, which is the internal sense. As a consequence of this a holy influence is received from the angels, which leads to a joining together; and it is with that end in view that a Word such as this has been given. Regarding the truth that the Lord, and so heaven, is joined to a person through the Word, see in the places referred to in 10375. As for what the correspondences are of which the written Word consists, this has been shown wherever explanations have been provided.