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.

Footnotes:

4211. 'And called his brothers to eat bread' means [an invitation] to make the good from the Lord's Divine Natural their own. This is clear from the meaning of 'brothers' as those who were now to be joined together by the covenant, that is, by friendship, and in the internal sense as those who are governed by good and truth (for such people are called 'brothers', see 367, 2360, 3303, 3459, 3803, 3815, 4121, 4191); from the meaning of 'eating' as making one's own, dealt with in 3168, 3513 (end), 3832 (for meals taken together and feasts among the ancients meant making things their own and being joined together by means of love and charity, 3596); and from the meaning of 'bread' as good that stems from love, dealt with in 276, 680, 1798, 3478, 3735, and in the highest sense means the Lord, 2165, 2177, 3478, 3813. Since 'bread' in the highest sense means the Lord it therefore means everything holy which comes from Him, that is, it means everything good and true. And since no other good exists which is good except the good of love and charity, 'bread' therefore means love and charity. Sacrifices in former times had no other meaning, and for that reason were referred to by the single word 'bread', see 2165. And some of the flesh of the sacrifices was eaten so that the heavenly feast - that is, a joining together through good flowing from love and charity - might be represented. The same is meant today by the Holy Supper, for this has replaced sacrifices and feasts of consecrated things. The Holy Supper is in the Church an external practice that has an internal reality within it, and by means of this reality it joins one who is governed by love and charity to heaven, and by means of heaven to the Lord. For in the Holy Supper too 'eating' means making one's own - 'the bread' being celestial love and 'the wine' spiritual love - so much so that while it is being eaten by one in a state of holiness nothing else is perceived in heaven.

[2] The reason why the phrase 'making the good from the Lord's Divine Natural their own' is used is that the subject is the good that exists with the gentiles, for it is this good that 'Laban' represents now, 4189. When man is joined to the Lord he is not joined to His Supreme Divine itself but to His Divine Human, for man cannot have any idea at all of the Lord's Supreme Divine, because this lies so far beyond anything he can conceive of that it fades from view altogether and ceases to mean anything to him. But he is able to have an idea of His Divine Human. For everyone is joined through thought and affection to one of whom he can have some idea but not to one of whom he cannot have any idea. If, when a person thinks about the Lord's Human, holiness is present in his ideas he also thinks of the holiness which comes from the Lord and fills heaven, and at the same time he thinks of heaven, since heaven in its entirety corresponds to a complete human being, which correspondence has its origin in the Lord, 684, 1276, 2996, 2998, 3624-3649. This explains why it is not possible to be joined to the Lord's Supreme Divine, only to His Divine Human, and through that Divine Human to His Supreme Divine. Hence the statement in John 1:18 about nobody, except the only begotten Son, ever having seen God, also the statement about there being no way to the Father except through Him; as well as from the statement that He is the Mediator. The truth of all this can be plainly recognized from the fact that all within the Church who declare their belief in a Supreme Being and yet set the Lord at nought are people who have no belief in anything at all, not even in the existence of heaven or of hell, and who worship nature. And if such people are ready to learn from experience it will be clear to them that the wicked, even those who are extremely so, declare a like belief.

[3] But the way in which people think of the Lord's Human varies, one person's ideas being different from another's, and one person's more holy than another's. Those within the Church are able to think that His Human is Divine, and also that He is one with the Father, as He Himself says that the Father is in Him and He is in the Father. But those outside the Church are unable to do this, for one thing because they do not know anything about the Lord and for another because their idea of the Divine is gained solely from visible images and tangible idols. Nevertheless the Lord joins Himself to them by means of the good they do from the charity and obedience present within their crude notions of Him. And this is why mention is made here about them making the good from the Lord's Divine Natural their own. For when the Lord is joined to man the state of thought and consequent affection in him determines the exact nature of that conjunction. Those who have an entirely holy conception of the Lord and who at the same time have a true knowledge of and affections for what is good and true - as those within the Church are able to have - have been joined to the Lord as to His Divine Rational. Those however who do not have so holy a notion of Him and who do not have so interior a notion and affection, and yet the good of charity exists with them, have been joined to the Lord as regards His Divine Natural. And those whose holiness is cruder still are joined to the Lord as to His Divine Sensory Perception. This last type of joining is what is represented by 'the bronze serpent', in that those who looked at it recovered from serpent-bites, Numbers 21:9. This is the type of joining together which those among the gentiles have who worship idols and yet lead charitable lives in accordance with their own religion. From these considerations one may now see what is meant by making the good from the Lord's Divine Natural their own, meant by 'Jacob called his brothers to eat bread'.