59. The reason only edible and green plants are mentioned here as food for the natural man is this: While a person is being regenerated and becoming spiritual he is involved constantly in conflict, which is why the Lord's Church is called militant. For before regeneration started, evil desires were in control, since the whole person consisted entirely of evil desires and resulting falsities. During the process of regeneration his desires and falsities cannot be done away with instantly, since that would amount to destroying the whole person; indeed he has not acquired any other life for himself. So for a long time evil spirits are left with him to activate his desires, and so release them in countless ways. Indeed the spirits are left there to do this in order that those desires may be turned by the Lord towards something good, and in this way the person may be reformed. In the hour of conflict evil spirits are present who absolutely hate everything that is good and true, that is, every element of love and faith in the Lord - elements that alone are good and true because they contain eternal life. These evil spirits leave a person with no other food than that which is compared to edible and green plants. But the Lord gives him a food as well that is compared to the plant yielding seed and to the tree in which there is fruit. These are periods of peace and calm attended by their forms of delight and happiness. This cycle occurs repeatedly.

[2] If the Lord did not protect man moment by moment, and in every shortest instant, he would immediately perish, for there is such murderous hatred reigning in the world of spirits against all forms of love and faith in the Lord as to defy description. I can positively declare that this is so, because for several years now, although still in the [physical] body, I have also been in the next life in the company of spirits. I have been surrounded by evil spirits, even the worst of them, sometimes by thousands, who have been allowed to pour out their venom and molest me in every possible way, but who nevertheless could do no harm to the tiniest hair on my head, so well did the Lord protect me. From all these years of experience I have become thoroughly informed about the character of the world of spirits and also about the conflict which people who are being regenerated must inevitably undergo if they are to attain the happiness of eternal life. But because nobody from just a general description can be so well informed as to have a faith free from doubt, these matters in the Lord's Divine mercy will therefore be noted in greater detail later on.

3732. 'Jacob made a vow, saying' means a state of Providence. This is clear from the meaning of 'making a vow' in the internal sense as wishing the Lord to provide; and therefore in the highest sense, in which the Lord is the subject, a state of Providence is meant. The reason why in the internal sense 'making a vow' means wishing the Lord to provide is that present within vows there is a desire and affection that what is wished for may come about, thus that the Lord may provide it. Within them something of a bargain is present, and at the same time on man's part something of a bounden duty to keep his side of it, should he obtain his desire. This was the case with Jacob, in that Jehovah was to be his God, and the stone which he placed as a pillar was to be God's house, and he would devote a tenth of everything He had given him, if Jehovah guarded him on the road, gave him bread to eat and clothing to wear, and he went back in peace to his father's house. From this it is evident that the vows made in those times were particular agreements, involving primarily men's acknowledgement of God as their God if He provided them with what they desired, and involving also their repayment to Him with some gift if He did provide it.

[2] That state of affairs shows quite clearly what the fathers of the Jewish nation were like. They were like Jacob here, who did not as yet acknowledge Jehovah and was still at the stage of choosing whether to acknowledge Him or some other as his own God. It was a special feature of that nation, even of their fathers, that everyone wished to have his own God; and anyone who worshipped Jehovah worshipped Him merely as some god called Jehovah, the name which distinguished Him from the gods of other nations. Accordingly their worship even in this respect was idolatrous, for the worship of the name only, even of Jehovah's, is nothing but idolatrous, 1094. This is like people who call themselves Christians and say that they worship Christ, but do not live according to His commandments. They worship Him in an idolatrous way since they worship only His name, it being a false Christ whom they worship; reference to that false Christ is made in Matthew 24:23-24 - see 3010.