6078. 'For there is no pasture for the flock which belongs to your servants' means that factual knowledge holding forms of the good of truth is wanting. This is clear from the meaning of 'pasture for the flock' as factual knowledge holding forms of the good of truth, so that 'no pasture' means factual knowledge that does not hold any forms of the good of truth. In the internal sense 'pasture' is that which supports spiritual life; in particular it is truth contained in factual knowledge, for the human soul desires such truth just as the body desires food. Nourishment is derived from it, and for that reason 'feeding' means receiving instruction, 5201. That factual knowledge and truths sustain the human soul is quite evident from a person's desire for knowledge, as well as from the correspondence of food with factual knowledge, 1480, 3114, 4792, 5147, 5193, 5340, 5342, 5576, 5579, 5915. This correspondence also manifests itself when a person is eating food. If he eats it while talking and listening the vessels that receive the chyle are opened, and he is nourished more fully than if he is alone. Spiritual truths and instruction in them would have the same kind of effect on people if they were to have an affection for what is good. The fact that truths nourish spiritual life is revealed primarily among good spirits and among angels in heaven. Those spirits and angels have a constant desire to acquire knowledge and wisdom; and when they lack this spiritual food they feel desolate, listless, and famished. Nor are they refreshed and raised into the bliss of their life until their desires are satisfied. But if that factual knowledge is to yield the soul wholesome nourishment, that knowledge must contain life received from forms of the good of truth. If it does not contain life received from them factual knowledge still sustains a person's inner life, but his natural life, not his spiritual life.

[2] The meaning of 'pasture' in the internal sense as that which sustains a person's spiritual life is also evident from other places in the Word, as in Isaiah,

I have given you as a covenant to the people, to restore the land; to say to the bound, Go out, to those who are in darkness, Reveal yourselves. They will feed along the ways, and on all slopes will their pasture be. Isaiah 49:8-9.

'Feeding along the ways' stands for receiving instruction in truths, 'the ways' being truths, see 627, 2333, and 'feeding' receiving instruction, 5201. 'On all slopes will their pasture be' stands for being sustained with good, for 'slopes', like 'mountains' are forms of the good of love, 795, 796, 1430, 2722, 4210.

[3] In Jeremiah,

Woe to the shepherds destroying and scattering the flock of My pasture. Jeremiah 23:1.

'Pasture' stands for the kinds of things that sustain spiritual life. In the same prophet,

The princes of Zion have become like deer, they have not found pasture. Lamentations 1:6.

'They have not found pasture' stands for no truth of good.

[4] In Ezekiel,

I, even I will look for My sheep. I will feed them in a good pasture, and their fold will be on the mountains of the loftiness of Israel; there ¹ they will lie down in a good fold, and on fat pasture they will feed upon the mountains of Israel. Ezekiel 34:11, 14.

'A good and fat pasture upon the mountains of Israel' stands for forms of the good of truth. In the same prophet,

Is it a small thing to you? You feed off the good pasture but tread down with your feet the rest of your pastures. Ezekiel 34:18.

Here the meaning is similar. In Hosea,

I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought. When [they had] their pasture, they were filled; they were filled and their heart was exalted. Hosea 13:5-6.

In Joel,

The beasts groan, the herds of cattle are perplexed because they have no pasture, even the flocks of sheep ² are made desolate. Joel 1:18.

In David,

Jehovah is my Shepherd; He will make me lie down in green pasture; ³ He will lead me away to still waters; He will restore My soul. Psalms 23:1-3.

In the same author,

Jehovah made us and not we ourselves, His people and the flock of His pasture; therefore we are His, His people, and the flock of His pasture. ⁴ Psalms 100:3.

[5] 'Pasture' in these quotations stands for the truths in which a person receives instruction, here the kinds of things which have regard to spiritual life. For the nature of spiritual life is such that if it lacks that pasture it languishes and so to speak fades away, like the body when it lacks food. The fact that 'pasture' is the goodness and truth that refresh and sustain a person's soul or spirit is plain from the Lord's words in John,

I am the door. If anyone enters through Me he will be saved, and will go in and out, and find pasture. John 10:9.

'Pasture' stands for the forms of good and the truths which those people have who acknowledge the Lord and seek life from Him alone.

脚注:

4247. 'The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to your brother, to Esau, and he also is coming to meet you' means that good flows in constantly so as to make them, that is to say, truths, its own. This is clear from the meaning of 'brother', who in this case is Esau, as good - that is to say, the good of the Lord's Divine Natural, dealt with above; and from the meaning of 'coming to meet' as flowing in, dealt with below. And because flowing in is meant, making its own is meant also.

[2] From what has been stated several times already on these matters one may see what the situation is with regard to good and truth, and with the influx of good into truth, and in this connection with good making truth its own. That is to say, one may see that good flows constantly into truth, and truth receives good, since truths are the vessels for good. The only vessels into which Divine Good can be placed are genuine truths, for good and truth match each other. When a person is moved by the affection for truth, as everyone is at first prior to being regenerated, good is constantly flowing in even then, but as yet it has no vessels, that is, no truths in which to place itself or make its own; for nobody at the outset of regeneration possesses any cognitions as yet. But because good at that time is flowing in constantly it produces the affection for truth, for there is no origin to the affection for truth other than the constant endeavour of Divine good to flow in. This shows that even at that time good occupies the first position and plays the leading role, although it seems as though truth did so. When a person is being regenerated however, which takes place in adult years when he possesses cognitions, good reveals itself, for he is then moved not so much by the affection for knowing truth as for doing it. For previously truth had been in the understanding, but now it is in his will, and when in his will it is in the person's true self, since the will constitutes the person's true self. With man the recurrent cycle of events exists in which every fact and every bit of knowledge is introduced through sight or hearing into his thought-process, and from there into his will, then passing from the will through thought into action. A similar cycle also exists starting from the memory which is so to speak an inner eye or inner sight. Starting from that inner sight it passes through the thought-process into the will, and from the will through thought into action; or else if some obstacle stands in the way it passes into the endeavour to act, that endeavour being actualized the moment the obstacle is removed.

[3] All of this shows the way in which good flows into truth and makes it its own. That is to say, it shows that first of all truths which belong to faith are introduced through hearing or sight and are then stored away in the memory, from where they are raised up one after another into the person's thought-process and at length introduced into his will. Once in the will they pass from there through thought into action, or if they are not able to pass into action they remain in the endeavour. The very endeavour is internal action, for as often as the opportunity exists it is made an external action. It should be realized however that although there is this cycle of events it is nevertheless good which produces the cycle. For the life which comes from the Lord flows solely into good, and thus through good, doing so from things that are inmost. It may be seen by anyone that the life flowing in through the things that are inmost produces the cycle, for without life nothing is produced. And since the life which comes from the Lord flows only into good and through good, good is consequently that which produces and that which flows into truths and makes them its own, to the extent that a person possesses cognitions of truth and at the same time is a willing recipient.