10033. As the subject treated of in this chapter is the sacrifice and the burnt-offering by which Aaron and his sons were to be inaugurated into the priesthood, a few more words shall be said about the blood and the fat. That all the blood of the sacrifice and of the burnt-offering was to be poured forth at the altar, and that all the fat was to be burned on the altar, is evident from the statutes and the laws concerning the burnt-offerings and the sacrifices in Leviticus. That it was so done was because the “blood” signified Divine truth, and the “fat” Divine good. (That “blood” had this signification is evident from what was shown concerning blood in n. 4735, 6378, 6978, 7317, 7326, 7850, 9127, 9393; and that “fat” signified Divine good, from w hat was shown in n. 5943.)

[2] That by “blood” is signified Divine truth is evident in Ezekiel:

Gather yourselves from every side upon My sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh and drink blood. Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth; ye shall eat fat to satiety, and drink blood even to drunkenness, of My sacrifice which I will sacrifice for you; ye shall be sated upon My table with horse, with chariot, with the mighty man, and every man of war. Thus will I put My glory among the nations (Ezekiel 39:17-22);

everyone can see that by “blood” is not here meant blood, for it is said that they should “drink the blood of the princes of the earth, and this even to drunkenness;” and also that they should “eat fat even to satiety;” and then that they should be “sated with horse and with chariot.” From this it is plain that something else than blood is meant by “blood,” and something else than the princes of the earth by these “princes;” also something else than fat, and than horse and chariot, by “fat” and “horse” and “chariot;” but what is signified cannot be known except by means of the internal sense, which teaches that “blood” denotes Divine truth; “the princes of the earth,” the primary truths of the church; “fat,” Divine good; a “horse,” the internal sense of the Word; and a “chariot,” the very doctrine therefrom. That “blood” denotes Divine truth is evident from the passages above cited; also that “the princes of the earth” denote primary truths (n. 5044); “the earth,” the church (n. 9325); a “horse,” the internal sense of the Word (n. 2760-2762); and a “chariot,” doctrine (n. 5321, 8215).

[3] From all this it is now evident what is signified by the words of the Lord in John:

Jesus said, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye shall have no life in you. He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood, abideth in Me, and I in him (John 6:53-56).

(That “flesh” denotes Divine good, see n. 3813, 7850, 9127; and that “the Son of man whose flesh they were to eat and whose blood they were to drink” denotes the Lord as to Divine truth from Divine good, n. 9807)

[4] But that “fat,” or “fatness,” denotes Divine good, is evident in Isaiah:

In this mountain Jehovah shall make for all peoples a feast of fat things (Isaiah 25:6).

Attend unto Me, and eat ye good, and your soul shall be delighted in fatness (Isaiah 55:2).

I will fill the soul of the priests with fatness, and My people shall be sated with My good (Jeremiah 31:14).

From all this it can be seen why all the fat of the sacrifice was to be burnt upon the altar, and why all the blood was to be poured forth at its side.

[5] As “blood” and “fat” signified these Divine things, therefore the Israelitish people were wholly forbidden to eat fat and blood, as is evident in Moses:

It shall be a statute of eternity in your generations, that ye shall eat no fat and no blood (Leviticus 3:17).

Ye shall eat no fat, whether of ox, or sheep, or goat; everyone who shall eat the fat of the beast of which an offering is made by fire unto Jehovah, the soul that eateth it shall be cut off from his peoples (Leviticus 7:23, 25).

Whosoever shall eat any blood, I will set My faces against the soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from the midst of his people (Leviticus 17:10-14; also Deuteronomy 12:23-25).

[6] The reason why to eat fat and blood was so severely forbidden, was because by it was represented the profanation of Divine truth and Divine good; for the Israelitish and Jewish nation was in external things separate from internal, thus in no Divine truth and in no Divine good in respect to faith and love; but was in external worship without these; for they were in the love of self and of the world more than other nations, consequently in the evils that spring from this love, which are contempt for others, enmity, hatred, revenge, ferocity, and cruelty. Hence also it was that internal truths were not revealed to them, for if they had been revealed, they could not but have profaned them. (That such was the character of that nation, see the places cited in n. 9320, 9380.) Therefore they would have represented profanation if they had eaten blood and fat, for whatever was instituted among them was representative of the interior things of the church and of heaven.

[7] From this again it is plain what is signified by “eating fat to satiety,” and by “drinking blood, the blood of the princes of the earth, even to drunkenness,” in Ezekiel 39:17-22 (of which above); namely, that when interior things were opened, then to those who were in them, that is, in faith and in love to the Lord, would be appropriated Divine truth and Divine good, which was done among the nations when the Lord came into the world; wherefore also it is there said, “Thus will I put My glory among the nations” (Ezekiel 39:21). By “glory” is signified Divine truth proceeding from the Lord, such as it is in heaven (n. 9429); and by “nations” are signified all who are in good (n. 1259, 1260, 1416, 1849, 4574, 6005, 8771, 9256).

[8] This the Lord Himself confirms when He says that “His flesh is food indeed, and His blood is drink indeed,” and that “whoso eateth His flesh, and drinketh His blood, abideth in Him, and He in him” (John 6:55-56); and also in His instituting the Holy Supper, in which they were to “eat His flesh and drink His blood” (Matthew 26:27-28); by which is signified the appropriation of Divine good and Divine truth from Him; and the appropriation of Divine good and Divine truth from the Lord is possible with those only who acknowledge the Lord’s Divine, for this is the first and essential thing itself of all things of faith in the church. For heaven cannot be unclosed to others, because the whole heaven is in this faith; thus the Divine truth that proceeds from the Lord’s Divine good, which is there meant by “blood,” cannot be communicated to others. Therefore let everyone within the church take heed to himself lest he deny the Lord, and also lest he deny His Divine, for heaven is closed to this denial, and hell is opened to it, all such being separated from heaven, where the Divine of the Lord is all in all, because it makes heaven. And when heaven has been closed, a memory-knowledge of the truths of faith from the Word and the doctrine of the church is indeed possible; but not any faith which is faith, for faith which is faith comes from above; that is, through heaven from the Lord.

[9] That the Lord so spoke, namely, that He called the Divine good that proceeds from Him His “flesh,” and the Divine truth that proceeds from His Divine good His “blood,” was because the Word, which is from Him, was the Divine that fills the universal heaven. Such a Word must exist by means of correspondences, consequently must be representative and significative in each and all things, for thus and no otherwise it conjoins the men of the church with the angels in the heavens. For when men perceive the Word according to the letter, the angels perceive it according to the internal sense; thus instead of the Lord’s “flesh” they perceive Divine good, and instead of His “blood,” Divine truth, both from the Lord. From this what is holy flows in through the Word.

4527. I have spoken with some a few days after their decease, and who being recently arrived were in a light which to them differed but little from the light of this world, which caused them to doubt whether they had the light from any other source. They were therefore taken up into the entrance of heaven, where there was a light still clearer; and speaking with me from there, they said that they had never seen such a light; and yet this occurred after our sunset. They then wondered that spirits have eyes wherewith to see, and yet during their bodily life they had believed that the life of spirits is mere thought, abstracted from any subject, for they had not been able to think of any subject of thought because they had not seen it. And this being the case, they had imagined that as the spirit is mere thought it must be dissipated, like some breath of air or some fire, together with the body that had contained it, unless it were miraculously held together and kept in existence by the Lord. And they then saw how easily the learned fall into error regarding the life after death, and that above all others they believe nothing but what they see. They wondered therefore, not merely that they can think, but also that they can see, and enjoy all the other senses, and still more that they appear to themselves exactly like men, and see, hear, and converse with one another, and feel their own members by touch, and this more exquisitely than in the life of the body. At this they fell into amazement, that men living in this world know nothing of this, and they pitied the human race for their ignorance of such things consequent on their unbelief in them, and especially did they pity those who have more light than others, namely, those who are within the church and have the Word.

[2] Some of them had believed that after death men would be like ghosts, in which opinion they had confirmed themselves from the specters of which they had heard, but in regard to which they had imagined that such a specter must be some gross principle of life, which first exhales from the body’s life, but afterwards sinks back again into the corpse, and is thus extinguished. Some however had believed that they would not rise again until the time of the last judgment when the world would be destroyed, and they would then rise again with the body, which, though fallen into dust, would then be gathered together, and they would thus rise again with their bones and flesh. And as that last judgment or destruction of the world had been waited for in vain for many centuries, they had fallen into the error that they would never rise again; never thinking of what they had learned from the Word, and from which they had also sometimes spoken, saying that when a man dies his soul is in the hand of God, among the happy or the unhappy according to the life which he had made habitual to himself; nor thinking of what the Lord said about the rich man and Lazarus. But they were instructed that the last judgment of everyone is when he dies; and that he then appears to himself endowed with a body as in the world, and enjoys as here every sense, only more pure and exquisite because bodily things no longer stand in the way, and the things of the light of the world no longer darken those of the light of heaven; thus that they are as it were in a purified body, and that in the other life one could not possibly carry about a body of bones and flesh such as he had in the world, because this would be to be again encompassed with the dust of the earth.

[3] I have spoken on this subject with some on the very day their bodies were being entombed, who saw through my eyes their own corpse, the bier, and the funeral ceremony; and they said that they reject that body, which had served them for uses in the world in which they had been, and that they are now living in a body which serves them for uses in the world in which they are now. They also desired me to tell these things to their relatives who were mourning; but it was given me to reply, that if I should do so they would scoff, because that which they could not see with their own eyes they would believe to be nothing, and would set down as delusive visions. For men cannot be brought to believe that just as they see one another with their eyes, so spirits see one another with theirs; and that a man can only see spirits with the eyes of his own spirit, and that he sees them when the Lord opens his internal sight, as was done to the prophets, who saw spirits and angels, and also many things in heaven; and there is room for doubt whether those now living would have believed these things if they had lived at that time.