8464. 'It is the bread which Jehovah has given you to eat' means that this is the good that will become their own and constitute their life, in the highest sense that this is the Lord within you. This is clear from the meaning of 'bread' as celestial and spiritual good, and in the highest sense as the Lord, dealt with in 276, 680, 2165, 2177, 3464, 3478, 3735, 3813, 4211, 4217, 4735, 4976, 5915, at this point spiritual good, that is, good as it exists with a member of the spiritual Church, which is the good of truth, dealt with just above in 8458. Since that bread was the manna it follows that this good is meant by 'the manna'. This is also made plain by the description of it in verse 31 of the present chapter, which says 'it was like coriander seed, white, and its taste was like that of a cake with honey', as well as from the description of it in Numbers 11,

The man[na] was like coriander seed, and its appearance like the appearance of bdellium. They ground it in mills or beat it in mortars, and cooked it in a pan, and made cakes out of it; and its taste was like the taste of fresh oil. ¹ Numbers 11:7-8.

From the details given here it is evident that 'manna' in the spiritual sense means the good of truth, that is, good as it exists with the spiritual Church. They also explain why it is called 'the grain of the heavens' in David,

He commanded the skies from above, and threw open the doors of the heavens. And He caused man[na] to rain down onto them, and gave them the grain of the heavens. Psalms 78:23-24.

'The grain' is the good of truth, see 5295, 5410. 'Manna' again stands for the good of truth, which is given to those who undergo temptations and overcome in them, in John,

He who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white pebble. Revelation 2:17.

The fact that 'manna' in the highest sense is the Lord within us is clear from actual words used by the Lord in John,

Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that anyone eating of it may not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. John 6:49-51, 58.

From these words it is clearly evident that 'the manna' in the highest sense means the Lord. The reason why is that 'manna' is the good of truth; but all good comes from the Lord, so that the Lord is within good and is Himself that good.

As regards that good, that this will become their own and constitute their life, this is meant by 'eating', 3168, 3513, 3596, 4745; for good which comes from the Lord brings the life of heaven to a person, and from then on nourishes and sustains it.

V:

3513. 'And I will eat' means in that way making it its own. This is clear from the meaning of 'eating' as being made one's own, dealt with in 2187, 2343, 3168, 3503. It is made its own when, by means of forms of pleasantness and delight, truths, that is, cognitions of good and truth, are instilled into the natural; and when these truths are allied to the good in the natural, communication is effected with the truth and good of the rational and so with the rational itself. It is this communication that the expression 'being made one's own' is used to describe, for those truths belong to the rational within the natural. Indeed truths in the rational are related to those in the natural in the way that individual parts are related to their general wholes. It is well known that a general whole is the product of its individual parts and that without the individual parts no general whole can be produced. It is the general whole produced from the individual parts belonging to the rational that is manifested in the natural. And being a general whole it takes a different form, doing so according to the order of the individual constituent parts, and so according to the form that results. If it is the more specific and the consequent individual parts of celestial good and spiritual truth that give form to the general whole within the natural, then it is a celestial and spiritual form that is presented, and something of heaven is represented as a kind of image in the specific parts constituting the general whole. But if the more specific and the individual parts which give form to the general whole within the natural do not consist of good and truth but of evil and falsity, something of hell is in that case represented as a kind of image in the specific parts constituting the general whole.

[2] Such are the things meant by eating and drinking in the Holy Supper, where again eating and drinking mean making one's own; that is to say, 'eating' means making good one's own and 'drinking' making truth one's own. If good, that is to say, love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour, gives form to the internal or rational man, and by way of this rational man gives form to a corresponding external or natural man, the person becomes in particular and in general an image of heaven, and therefore an image of the Lord. But if contempt for the Lord and for the good and truth of faith, and hatred towards the neighbour give form to the rational man, the person becomes in particular and in general an image of hell - the more so if at the same time he eats and drinks in a holy manner, for profanation then results. Consequently people who eat and drink worthily make eternal life their own, whereas those who do so unworthily make [eternal] death their own.