9323. 'And He will bless your bread and your water' means the increase of the good of love and of the truth of faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'being blessed by Jehovah' as being made fruitful in forms of good and being multiplied in truths, dealt with in 2846, 3406, 4981, 6091, 6099, 8939, thus an increase in the kinds of things that belong to love and faith; from the meaning of 'bread' as the good of love, dealt with in 276, 680, 2165, 2177, 3478, 3735, 3813, 4211, 4217, 4735, 4976, 6118, 8410; and from the meaning of 'water' as the truth of faith, dealt with in 680, 739, 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668, 6346, 7307, 8568. Since 'bread' meant all the good of love and 'water' all the truth of faith in their entirety, and since 'being blessed by Jehovah' means every increase in them, people in the ancient Churches were accustomed to express the wish, May Jehovah bless [your] bread and water. It was also common to speak of 'bread and water' when all natural food and drink were to be expressed and all spiritual goodness and truth to be understood; for the latter are what nourish spiritual life, just as the former nourish natural life, 4976.

[2] Such goodness and truth are meant by 'bread and water' in the following places: In Isaiah,

Behold, Jehovah Zebaoth is taking away from Jerusalem and Judah the whole staff of bread, and the whole staff of water. Isaiah 3:1.

'The staff of bread' stands for power and life provided by good, 'the staff of water' for power and life provided by truth. In Ezekiel,

Behold, I am breaking the staff of bread in Jerusalem, so that they may eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and drink water by measure and with dismay; that they may be in want of bread and water, and will be dismayed with one another, ¹ and waste away on account of their iniquity. Ezekiel 4:16-17.

'Being in want of bread and water' means being deprived of the good of love and of the truth of faith, as is plainly evident since it says 'that they will be dismayed with one with another, and waste away on account of iniquity'.

[3] The like occurs again in the same prophet,

They will eat their bread with anxiety, and drink their water with dismay, so that her land may be devastated of its fullness, on account of the violence of all who dwell in it. Ezekiel 12:19.

In Amos,

Behold, the days are going to come, in which I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but for hearing the words of Jehovah. Amos 8:11.

In the first Book of Kings,

The man of God said to Jeroboam, If you were to give me half your house, I would not go in with you; nor would I eat bread nor drink water in this place. For Jehovah had so commanded, saying, You shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the way you came. But a prophet from Bethel said to him that he had been told by Jehovah that he was to eat bread and drink water with him (he was lying). ² And he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water. For that reason he was torn to pieces by a lion. 1 Kings 13:8-9, 16-19, 24.

His refusal to eat bread or drink water with Jeroboam was a sign of his abhorrence of the good there and also of the truth, because they had been rendered profane. For Jeroboam had profaned the altar and all the holy things of worship, as is evident from the historical descriptions at this point in the Word.

[4] A lack of spiritual goodness and truth was meant by the absence of rain for three and a half years when Ahab was king, resulting in a lack of bread and of water, during which time Elijah went to a widow in Zarephath and asked her for a little water in a vessel so that he might drink, and a piece of bread so that he might eat, 1 Kings 17, 18. For 'bread' meant all the good of the Church, and 'water' all the truth of the Church, as stated above. Since such things in those times were representative for the reason that only something representative of the Church existed among those people, and since things of a representative nature were used therefore in the composition of the Word, including the historical section, goodness and truth laid waste was accordingly represented by the lack of bread and water. And because 'bread' meant all the good of love in its entirety, therefore also the sacrifices were referred to as 'bread', 2165, and therefore also the Lord calls Himself 'the bread which comes down from heaven', John 6:48, 50-51; for the Lord is the Good itself of Love.

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2184. That 'butter' is the celestial part of the rational, 'milk' the spiritual deriving from this, and 'the young bull' the corresponding natural part, is clear from the meaning of 'butter', and of 'milk', and also of 'a young bull'. As regards 'butter', this in the Word means that which is celestial, and this because of the fat present in butter; for 'fat' means that which is celestial, as shown in Volume One, in 353, and 'oil', being fat, means the celestial itself, in 886. That 'butter' has the same meaning becomes clear in Isaiah,

Behold, a virgin is bearing a son, and will call His name Immanuel. Butter and honey will he eat that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. Isaiah 7:14-15.

This refers to the Lord, who is Immanuel; and anyone may see that butter is not meant by 'butter', nor honey by 'honey'. But by 'butter' is meant His celestial, and by 'honey' that which is derived from that celestial.

[2] In the same chapter,

And it will be, because of the abundance of milk which they give, that he will eat butter, for butter and honey will everyone eat that is left in the midst of the land. Isaiah 7:22.

This refers to the Lord's kingdom, and to those on earth who are members of the Lord's kingdom. 'Milk' here stands for spiritual good, 'butter' for celestial good, and 'honey' for the happiness derived from this.

[3] In Moses,

Jehovah alone leads him, and there is no foreign god with him. He causes him to ride on the heights of the land, and He feeds [him] with the produce of the fields, and He causes him to suck honey out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock - butter from the herd, and milk from the flock, with the fat of lambs and of rams, the breed ¹ of Bashan, and of goats, with the kidney-fat of wheat; and of the blood of the grape you will drink unmixed wine. Deuteronomy 32:12-14.

No one is able to understand what all these things mean unless he knows the internal sense of each one. It seems like a pile of expressions such as belong to the oratory employed by the wise men of the world. But yet each expression means that which is celestial and that which is spiritual going with it, and also the blessing and happiness which flow from these, and all of them in a co-ordinated sequence. 'Butter from the herd' is the celestial-natural, 'milk from the flock' the celestial-spiritual of the rational.

[4] As regards 'milk' however, this means, as has been stated, that which is spiritual derived from that which is celestial, that is, the celestial-spiritual. What the celestial-spiritual is, see Volume One, in 1577, 1824, and in various other places. The reason 'milk' means that which is spiritual derived from that which is celestial is that 'water' means that which is spiritual, 680, 739, while milk, because of the fat in it, means the celestial-spiritual; or (what amounts to the same) truth rooted in good; or (also amounting to the same) faith grounded in love or charity; or (yet the same) the understanding part of the good present in the will; or (likewise amounting to the same) the affection for truth that has the affection for good within it; or (still yet the same) the affection for cognitions and facts that springs from the affection that belongs to charity towards the neighbour, such as exists with those who love the neighbour and confirm themselves in this love from the cognitions of faith and also from factual knowledge, which they love because they love the neighbour. All these are the same as the celestial-spiritual, and may be used in reference to any particular matter under discussion.

[5] That the celestial-spiritual is meant is also evident from the Word, as in Isaiah,

Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money on that which is not bread? Isaiah 55:1-2.

Here 'wine' stands for the spiritual element of faith, 'milk' for the spiritual element of love. In Moses,

He washes his garment in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes. His eyes are redder than wine, and his teeth are whiter than milk. Genesis 49:11-12.

This is the prophecy of Jacob, who by now was Israel, regarding Judah - 'Judah' being used here to describe the Lord. By 'teeth whiter than milk' is meant the celestial-spiritual which belonged to His Natural.

[6] In Joel,

It will be, on that day, that the mountains will drip new wine, and the hills will run with milk, and all the streams of Judah will run with water. Joel 3:18.

Here, where the subject is the Lord's kingdom, 'milk' stands for the celestial-spiritual. Also in the Word the land of Canaan, which represents and means the Lord's kingdom, is called 'a land flowing with milk and honey', as in Numbers 13:27; 14:8; Deuteronomy 26:9, 15; 27:3; Jeremiah 11:5; 32:22; Ezekiel 20:6, 15. In these places nothing else is meant by 'milk' than the abundance of celestial-spiritual things, and by 'honey' the abundant happiness derived from these. 'Land' is the celestial part itself of the kingdom from which they come.

[7] As regards 'a young bull' meaning the celestial-natural, this has been shown just above in 2180. The celestial-natural is the same as natural good, that is, good within the natural. Man's natural, like his rational, has its own good and its own truth, for then a marriage of good and truth exists everywhere, as stated above in 2173. The good that belongs to the natural is the delight which is perceived from charity, that is, from the friendship that is the product of charity; and from that delight springs the joy or satisfaction which belongs properly to the body. The truth of the natural consists in that factual knowledge which gives support to that delight. All this shows what the celestial-natural is.

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