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.

The Bible generally uses two different terms for large groups: “people” and “nations.” When it uses “nation,” it is talking about a group with the desire for good as its ultimate underlying motivation; when it uses the term “people” it is talking about a group whose deep motivation is to seek true ideas and concepts. As with all symbolism in the Bible, this can be also used in a negative sense, to describe groups with the lust for evil or those driven by false concepts. It can also be used in the abstract, with “nation” representing desires for good themselves and “people” representing true ideas themselves. In a way, these meanings make sense if we look at the two words themselves. “People” brings to mind a collection of individuals, and that is somewhat how it is with ideas -- you can have many of them that inter-relate, but also stand somewhat on their own, individually. “Nation” is a more unified term, reflecting the way that a desire for good tends to unify other feelings.