8352. 'Saying, What shall we drink?' means that they cannot tolerate truths because, as a result of their lack of affection [for good], they find them unpleasant. This is clear from the meaning of 'drinking' as being taught truths and receiving them, and also as having an affection for them and consequently making them one's own, dealt with in 3069, 3168, 3772, 4017, 4018, but here as not being able to tolerate them because - as a result of the lack of affection for good, meant by 'the waters were bitter', according to the explanation above in 8349 - they are found to be unpleasant. This temptation consists in their complaining and their grief, because the truths which previously they have found pleasant, and which have thus constituted their spiritual life or the life of heaven for them, now seem unpleasant to them, so unpleasant that they can scarcely tolerate them.

[2] A merely natural person cannot believe that anything such as this could be a cause of grief. For he thinks, 'What difference does it make to me whether truths are pleasant or unpleasant? If they are unpleasant, let them be cast aside.' But a spiritual person has an entirely different feeling. Learning truths and being enlightened in the kinds of matters that belong to his soul and so to spiritual life is the delight of his life. Therefore when those truths are lacking, his spiritual life becomes a trial and burden to him; and this gives rise to grief and anguish. The reason is that the affection for good flows in unceasingly from the Lord by way of the internal man, arousing accordant things in the external man which have previously been the cause of delight belonging to an affection for truth; and when these things are under attack from the evils of self-love and love of the world, in which too the person has previously taken delight, a conflict of delights or affections results, which gives rise to anguish, and this in turn to grief and complaint.

[3] A brief statement needs to be made about the situation when temptation arises through lack of truth. Nourishment for spiritual life consists in goodness and truth, just as nourishment for natural life consists in food and drink. If good is lacking it is as if food is lacking; and when truth is lacking it is as if drink is lacking. The grief this causes is like the grief caused by hunger and thirst. This comparison arises from correspondence, for food corresponds to goodness, and drink to truth. This correspondence is also the reason why food and drink nourish the body better and more suitably if, during a dinner or a luncheon, the person has at the same time as he eats the pleasure of discussing with others the kinds of things he loves than if he sits at table alone without company. In the second situation the person's vessels for receiving food are narrowed, but in the first the same vessels are opened. These things are brought about by the correspondence of spiritual food and natural food. The reason for saying the pleasure of discussing with others the kinds of things he loves is that all that pleasure is related to goodness and truth; for there does not exist anything in the world that is unrelated to them both. What the person loves is related to the good present with him, and that which informs about good and so links itself to that good, is related to truth.

3069. 'And I will drink' means instruction from them in truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'drinking' as receiving instruction. References to 'drinking' occur in various places in the Word, and whenever the subject is the goods and truths of faith, instruction in these and reception of them is meant, as in Isaiah,

The new wine will mourn, the vine will languish, all the merry-hearted will sigh; they will not drink wine with singing, strong drink will be bitter to those drinking it. Isaiah 24:7, 9.

'Not drinking wine with singing' stands for not receiving instruction from the affection for truth and not receiving any consequent delight. 'Strong drink being bitter to those drinking it' stands for repugnance. In the same prophet,

It will be as when a thirsting man dreams, and behold, he is drinking; and he awakes, and behold, he is faint, and the soul is craving. Isaiah 29:8.

'Thirsting' stands for desiring instruction, 'drinking' for receiving it, but in things that are valueless.

[2] In Jeremiah,

Our waters we drink for silver, our timbers come for a price. Lamentations 5:4.

'Drinking waters for silver' stands for receiving instruction but not for nothing, and also attributing truth to oneself. Truth is a free gift and so does not come from oneself but from the Lord, as these words in Isaiah declare,

Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come, buy! Isaiah 55:1.

And in John,

Jesus said, If anyone thirsts let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water. John 7:37-38.

Here 'drinking' means being given instruction and accepting it. In Luke,

They will say, We ate in Your presence and we drank, and You taught in our streets. But the Lord will say, I do not know where you come from; depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity! Luke 13:26-27.

Here 'eating and drinking in the Lord's presence' stands for giving instruction in, and proclaiming, the good and truth of faith, doing so from cognitions drawn from the Word, which is meant by 'You taught in our streets'. But because they did it for selfish reasons - for the sake of personal honour and gain, thus not out of any affection for good and truth, and so possessed cognitions of truth and yet led evil lives - it is said, 'I do not know where you come from; depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity!'

[3] In the same gospel, where Jesus was talking to the disciples,

That you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom. Luke 22:30.

It is evident to anyone that in the Lord's kingdom they do not eat and drink, and that no table is there, thus that something different is meant by 'eating and drinking at the Lord's table in His kingdom', that is to say, enjoying a perception of good and truth. So also with what the Lord says in Matthew,

I tell you that I shall not drink from now on of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it [new] with you in My Father's kingdom. Matthew 26:28, 29.

'Drinking' stands for giving living instruction in truths and imparting a perception of good and truth. That which the Lord said -

Do not be anxious for your soul, what you are going to eat or what you are going to drink, nor for your body, what you are going to put on. Matthew 6:25, 31; Luke 12:29 - is indicative of spiritual things, that so far as all things of faith are concerned, goodness and truth are imparted by the Lord. In John,

Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but he who drinks from the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water leaping up into eternal life. John 4:7-14. 'Drinking' clearly stands for being given instruction in goods and truths, and the acceptance of them.