Arcana Coelestia #3069
3069. 'And I will drink' means instruction from them in truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'drinking' as receiving instruction. References to 'drinking' occur in various places in the Word, and whenever the subject is the goods and truths of faith, instruction in these and reception of them is meant, as in Isaiah,
The new wine will mourn, the vine will languish, all the merry-hearted will sigh; they will not drink wine with singing, strong drink will be bitter to those drinking it. Isaiah 24:7, 9.
'Not drinking wine with singing' stands for not receiving instruction from the affection for truth and not receiving any consequent delight. 'Strong drink being bitter to those drinking it' stands for repugnance. In the same prophet,
It will be as when a thirsting man dreams, and behold, he is drinking; and he awakes, and behold, he is faint, and the soul is craving. Isaiah 29:8.
'Thirsting' stands for desiring instruction, 'drinking' for receiving it, but in things that are valueless.
[2] In Jeremiah,
Our waters we drink for silver, our timbers come for a price. Lamentations 5:4.
'Drinking waters for silver' stands for receiving instruction but not for nothing, and also attributing truth to oneself. Truth is a free gift and so does not come from oneself but from the Lord, as these words in Isaiah declare,
Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come, buy! Isaiah 55:1.
And in John,
Jesus said, If anyone thirsts let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water. John 7:37-38.
Here 'drinking' means being given instruction and accepting it. In Luke,
They will say, We ate in Your presence and we drank, and You taught in our streets. But the Lord will say, I do not know where you come from; depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity! Luke 13:26-27.
Here 'eating and drinking in the Lord's presence' stands for giving instruction in, and proclaiming, the good and truth of faith, doing so from cognitions drawn from the Word, which is meant by 'You taught in our streets'. But because they did it for selfish reasons - for the sake of personal honour and gain, thus not out of any affection for good and truth, and so possessed cognitions of truth and yet led evil lives - it is said, 'I do not know where you come from; depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity!'
[3] In the same gospel, where Jesus was talking to the disciples,
That you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom. Luke 22:30.
It is evident to anyone that in the Lord's kingdom they do not eat and drink, and that no table is there, thus that something different is meant by 'eating and drinking at the Lord's table in His kingdom', that is to say, enjoying a perception of good and truth. So also with what the Lord says in Matthew,
I tell you that I shall not drink from now on of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it [new] with you in My Father's kingdom. Matthew 26:28, 29.
'Drinking' stands for giving living instruction in truths and imparting a perception of good and truth. That which the Lord said -
Do not be anxious for your soul, what you are going to eat or what you are going to drink, nor for your body, what you are going to put on. Matthew 6:25, 31; Luke 12:29 - is indicative of spiritual things, that so far as all things of faith are concerned, goodness and truth are imparted by the Lord. In John,
Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but he who drinks from the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water leaping up into eternal life. John 4:7-14. 'Drinking' clearly stands for being given instruction in goods and truths, and the acceptance of them.
John 4
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Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John
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(although Jesus himself didn't baptize, but his disciples),
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he left Judea, and departed into Galilee.
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He needed to pass through Samaria.
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So he came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph.
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Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being tired from his journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
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A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink."
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For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
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The Samaritan woman therefore said to him, "How is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
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Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."
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The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From where then have you that living water?
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Are you greater than our father, Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself, as did his children, and his livestock?"
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Jesus answered her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again,
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but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."
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The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I don't get thirsty, neither come all the way here to draw."
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Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here."
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The woman answered, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You said well, 'I have no husband,'
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for you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly."
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The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
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Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship."
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Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, will you worship the Father.
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You worship that which you don't know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews.
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But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshippers.
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God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."
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The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah comes," (he who is called Christ). "When he has come, he will declare to us all things."
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Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who speaks to you."
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At this, his disciples came. They marveled that he was speaking with a woman; yet no one said, "What are you looking for?" or, "Why do you speak with her?"
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So the woman left her water pot, and went away into the city, and said to the people,
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"Come, see a man who told me everything that I did. Can this be the Christ?"
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They went out of the city, and were coming to him.
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In the meanwhile, the disciples urged him, saying, "Rabbi, eat."
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But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you don't know about."
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The disciples therefore said one to another, "Has anyone brought him something to eat?"
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Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work.
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Don't you say, 'There are yet four months until the harvest?' Behold, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and look at the fields, that they are white for harvest already.
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He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit to eternal life; that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
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For in this the saying is true, 'One sows, and another reaps.'
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I sent you to reap that for which you haven't labored. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor."
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From that city many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman, who testified, "He told me everything that I did."
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So when the Samaritans came to him, they begged him to stay with them. He stayed there two days.
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Many more believed because of his word.
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They said to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of your speaking; for we have heard for ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world."
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After the two days he went out from there and went into Galilee.
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For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.
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So when he came into Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things that he did in Jerusalem at the feast, for they also went to the feast.
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Jesus came therefore again to Cana of Galilee, where he made the water into wine. There was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum.
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When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to him, and begged him that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.
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Jesus therefore said to him, "Unless you see signs and wonders, you will in no way believe."
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The nobleman said to him, "Sir, come down before my child dies."
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Jesus said to him, "Go your way. Your son lives." The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way.
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As he was now going down, his servants met him and reported, saying "Your child lives!"
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So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. They said therefore to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him."
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So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, "Your son lives." He believed, as did his whole house.
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This is again the second sign that Jesus did, having come out of Judea into Galilee.
