1082. And shall eat her flesh. That this signifies rejection of the evils thereof, which are adulterated goods, and then manifestation that they were destitute of all good, is evident from the signification of flesh, as denoting the good of the Word and of the church, and, in the opposite sense, the evil thereof. In the present case flesh denotes evils, which are adulterated goods. And from the signification of eating, as denoting to consume, but, in this case, to reject altogether, because the Reformed are treated of, who have rejected the works or goods of Babylon, which chiefly consist in gifts to the idols of their saints, to their sepulchres, also to monasteries, and to the monks themselves, for various expiations.
[2] That by the same words is also meant manifestation that they were destitute of all good follows; for when spurious and meritorious goods are rejected, signified by the flesh which they should eat, then it is made evident that they are destitute of all good. Flesh, in the Word, signifies various things. It signifies man's proprium, thus, either his good or evil, and thence it signifies the whole man. But in the highest sense, it signifies the Lord's Divine Human, specifically the Divine Good of Divine Love proceeding from Him.
That flesh signifies the Divine Human as to the good of love is evident in John:
"Jesus said, I am the living bread, which came down from heaven; if any one eat of this bread, he shall live for ever. The bread which I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews, therefore, strove amongst themselves, saying, How can this man give his flesh to eat? Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, unless ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in yourselves. 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 meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed; he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him. This is the bread, which came down from heaven" (6:51-58).
That by flesh is here meant the proprium of the Lord's Divine Human, which is the Divine Good of Divine Love, is manifestly evident; and it is that which in the Holy Supper is called His body. That the body there or the flesh is the Divine good, and the blood is Divine truth, may be seen above (n. 329). And because bread and wine signify the same as flesh and blood - bread, Divine Good, and wine, Divine truth - therefore these were commanded in their place.
[3] Divine Good from the Lord was also signified by the flesh of the sacrifices, which Aaron, his sons, and those who sacrificed might eat, and others who were clean.
And that it was holy may be seen in Exodus (12:7, 8, 9; 29:31-34; Leviticus 7:15-21; 8:31; Deuteronomy 12:27; 16:4).
Wherefore if an unclean person ate of that flesh, he was to be cut off from his people (Leviticus 7:21).
That these things were called bread (Leviticus 22:6, 7).
That that flesh was called "the flesh of holiness" (Jeremiah 11:15; Hag. 2:12);
And "the flesh of the offering," which was to be upon the table in the Lord's kingdom (Ezekiel 40:43).
[4] The Lord's Divine Human is also called flesh in John:
"The Word was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us; and we saw his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father" (1:14).
That flesh also signified good with man, is evident from the following passages:
In Ezekiel:
"I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit in the midst of you, and I will remove the heart of stone out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh" (11:19; 36:26).
The heart of flesh is the will and love of God. In David:
"O God, Thou art my God, in the morning I seek Thee, my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh desireth thee, in a land of drought, and I am weary without waters" (Psalms 63:1).
Again:
"My soul longeth towards the courts of Jehovah; my heart and my flesh crieth out towards the living God" (Psalms 84:2).
By the flesh which longeth for Jehovah, and which crieth out towards the living God is signified man as to the good of the will. For the flesh of man corresponds to the good or evil of his will, and the blood to the truth or the falsity of his understanding; in the present case flesh denotes the good of the will, because it longeth for Jehovah, and crieth out unto God.
[5] In Job:
"I have known my Redeemer, he liveth, and at the last shall rise upon the dust, and afterwards these things shall be encompassed with my skin, and from my flesh I shall see God" (19:25-27).
To see God from his flesh signifies from his voluntary proprium made new by the Lord, thus from good.
In Ezekiel:
"I will put upon the bones, which were seen in the midst of the valley, nerves, and I will cause flesh to come up, upon them, and I will cover them with skin, and I will put spirit into them, that they may live" (37:6, 8).
Where also by flesh is signified the proprium of the will made new from the Lord, consequently good. What is there signified by bones and the rest may be seen above (n. 418, 419, 665).
In the Apocalypse:
"Come, and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God, that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of the mighty, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit upon them, and the flesh of all, free and bond, small and great" (Apoc. 19:17, 18; Ezekiel 39:17, 18, 19).
That flesh here does not mean flesh, but goods of every kind is quite clear.
[6] But, on the other hand, that by flesh is signified man's voluntary proprium, which, strictly considered, is evil, is evident from the following passages. Thus in Isaiah:
"A man shall eat the flesh of his own arm" (Isaiah 9:20).
In the same:
"I will feed thine oppressors with their own flesh" (49:26).
In Jeremiah:
"I will feed you with the flesh of their sons, and with the flesh of their daughters; and they shall devour every man the flesh of his companion" (19:9).
In Zechariah:
"The rest shall eat every one the flesh of another" (11:9).
In Moses:
"I will chastise you seven times for your sins, and ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters" (Leviticus 26:28, 29).
[7] In Jeremiah:
"Cursed is the man who trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm" (17:5).
Here by flesh is signified a man's proprium, which in itself is evil, the appropriation of which is signified by eating and feeding upon it.
Similarly man's proprium is signified by flesh in Matthew:
"Jesus said, Blessed art thou, Simon, because flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee" (16:17).
In John:
"As many as received, to them gave he power to be the sons of God, who were born not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God" (1:12, 13).
In Ezekiel:
"Jerusalem hath committed whoredom with the sons of Egypt her neighbours, great in flesh" (16:26).
In Isaiah:
"Egypt is man and not God, and his horses are flesh and not Spirit" (31:3).
In John:
"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing" (6:63).
"That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the spirit is spirit" (3:6).
In David:
"God remembered that they were flesh, a breath that passeth away and returneth not again" (Psalms 78:39).
The evil of man's will, which is his proprium from birth is signified in these passages by flesh; also by:
"The flesh, which the sons of Israel lusted after in the wilderness, and on account of which they were smitten with a great plague, and from which the place was called the grave of lust" (Numbers 11:4-33).
Moreover, in the Word throughout, mention is made of "all flesh," by which is meant every man.
As in Genesis (6:12, 13, 17, 19 Isaiah 40:5, 6; 49:26; 66:16, 23, 24; Jeremiah 25:31; 32:27; 45:5; Ezekiel 20:48; 21:4, 5), and elsewhere.
Continuation concerning the Word:-
[8] The reason why the Spiritual by influx presents what is correspondent to itself in the natural is, in order that the end may become the cause, and the cause become the effect; and thus that the end, by means of the cause, in the effect, may make itself visibly and sensibly evident. This trine, namely, end, cause, and effect, exists from creation in every heaven. The end is the good of love, the cause is truth from that good, and the effect is use. Thus love is that which produces, whence the product is of love from good by means of truth. The ultimate products in our world are various; as many as the subjects in its three kingdoms of nature, the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral.
[9] All products are correspondences. Since a trine - end, cause, and effect - exists in every heaven, therefore also in every heaven there are products; and there are correspondences, which, as to form and appearance, are like the subjects in the three kingdoms of our earth. From this it is evident that each heaven, as to outward appearance, is similar to our earth, but differing in excellence and beauty, according to degrees.
Now because the Word cannot be in its fulness, that is to say, consist of effects, in which are the cause and the end, or of uses, in which truth is the cause, and good is the end, except from correspondences - and love is that which produces - it follows that the Word in each heaven is like the Word in our world, but differing in excellence and beauty according to degrees. The nature of this difference shall be explained elsewhere.
