A Sermon by Robert S. Junge

“And it was in the evening that the quail came up, and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a deposit of dew round about the camp. And the deposit of dew went up, and behold upon the faces of the wilderness a small round thing, small as the hoar frost upon the earth. And the sons of Israel saw, and they said a man to his brother, What is this? For they knew not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which Jehovah hath given you to eat.” (Exodus 16:13-15).

From common perception, many of us think of Israel’s journey to the Promised Land as being like our journey to heaven. In the story of the Lord’s miraculously delivering Israel from bondage in Egypt, perhaps we also glimpse the Lord’s answer to our own prayer: “Deliver us from evil.” We sense that in our journey through the confusing wilderness of life, we must somehow cooperate with the Lord if we are to reach our land of promise. Somehow we have to learn how to respond to our spouse, our children, our friends, our country, the Lord’s church, and even the Lord Himself!

We know that the Word teaches us how to live – how to respond. We get the general points: shun evil, love others, do good. But the specific answers elude us. The Writings explain that the specific answers are within the details of the literal stories in the Word. The Word has an internal or spiritual sense, which answers that recurring and nagging question, “What shall I do?” Yet the Writings also say, “He who does not look beyond external things cannot possibly apprehend this; for he knows not what that which is internal is, scarcely that there is anything internal, and still less that this internal can be opened, and that when it is opened, heaven is therein” (Arcana Coelestia 8513).

It's so easy to get caught up in simply coping with daily challenges. We can get enslaved by first one and then another external pressure and anxiety. Yet who and what we love, what we think, and what we will are the real internals of life. If we do not acknowledge and care about these internal things we will never see the internal of the Lord’s Word. We will never see the revealed internal meaning of life.

Today, with the help of what is revealed by the Lord in the Writings, we will try to see some of those details in the story of the Lord’s feeding Israel in the wilderness. Perhaps seeing a few of these things will help us begin to think beyond external things and begin to acknowledge the internal meaning of the Word and the internal reason for why we are here.

The Israelites had seen the miraculous plagues inflicted upon the Egyptians. Their faith, stimulated by those miracles, led them to follow Moses. In these stories, Moses represents the Word. He spoke whatever the Lord told Him, and the Word is the Lord speaking to us. In the beginning of our journey most of us see something different and wonderful about the Word. On the basis of that sense of wonder, and as part of the crowd of believers, we’re willing to follow, but only up to a point - only up to the time when we face difficult decisions, where the answers aren’t clear.

When we find ourselves bewildered in the wilderness of life, doubts creep in. We thirst for answers but, like Israel confronted with bitter water in the wilderness, we find that the few answers we do see in the Word are bitter and hard to take. It’s not so easy to follow some of those simple direct commands. Don’t lie, don’t steal, don’t commit adultery! Yet we must try to live by whatever we do see. If we do the Lord will sweeten those few truths and give us delight in them, even as He showed Moses a piece of wood that would sweeten the water for Israel. The water of truth will not only begin to quench our thirst for answers, but it will also begin to clean up our lives.

But the story regarding manna comes later. This time Israel murmured for food. It is one thing to feel delight in having some of the answers. But life is not all about head stuff. By itself knowing answers won’t solve our relationships with our spouse, our children, or our friends and neighbors. Knowing is one thing, but living by what we know is another. Just as our bodies need food as well as water., we need affection and delight as well as truth to keep our spirits alive. We thirst for truth, but we hunger, even STARVE for delight, affection, and love. Most of us, at one time or another, have known such yearning and hunger. Life is a terrifying wilderness when love for others, and from others seems to be absent or is tested. Only the Lord can feed such internal hunger.

But the Lord cannot give us that delight unless we as if of ourselves live by what we see in His Word. He can provide for us, only as He could provide for Israel, when they were willing to follow Moses, who represents His Word. And following the Word involves a struggle, because the truth confronts not only our hereditary tendencies towards evil, but also the actual evils we have confirmed in our lives. We really enjoy those evils. In that state it looks like much more fun to turn back and pursue our own likes and dislikes. The past, the fleshpots of Egypt, can look mighty attractive in comparison to compelling ourselves to do what is right. We did evil in the past because it seemed delightful and sweet. And it still looks pretty delightful and sweet when we compare it to doing what the Lord asks.

In this context and thinking a little more deeply about the Word we can relate to the words of the story, “And all the assemblage of the sons of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness. And the sons of Israel said unto them, Oh, that we had died by the hand of Jehovah in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots, when we did eat to satiety! For ye have brought us forth unto this wilderness, to kill this whole congregation with hunger.” (Exodus16:2-3). Sometimes it seems as if the Lord asks too much.

But when we see the contrasts and cry out, the Lord is there, even as He was there for Israel. Then Jehovah told Moses, how He would feed Israel – how He would satisfy their hunger. “And it was in the evening that quail came up, and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a deposit of dew round about the camp. And the deposit of dew went up and behold upon the faces of the wilderness a small round thing, small as the hoar frost upon the earth. And the sons of Israel saw. And they said a man to his brother. What is this? Because they knew not what it was” (Exodus 16:13-14).

We talk about love. We say we love this or that person or thing. Love moves us. It is our very life, for if you were take away our loves what would we be? But we really do not grasp what love is. Love is that hidden manna that feeds us and lifts us up forever. Yet as we ponder it, like Israel, we may well say, “What is this?” When He was on earth the Lord helped us to understand. “Jesus said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, Moses gave you not the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the Bread of God is He who comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world. Then said they to Him, Lord always give us this bread. And Jesus said to them, I am the Bread of Life; he who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:32-35). Our challenge is to learn to say, “Lord always give us this bread.”

The Lord came into the world to restore love to Him and towards each other. He is the Source of all love. His love is there like manna every morning to sustain us. But we have to cooperate. Moses told Israel, “Gather ye of it every man according to the mouth of his eating” (Exodus 16:16). We have to do our part. The Lord’s love is there all the time, but we must as it were gather it, and take it into our lives. We have to do our part.

But love is given every man “according to his eating,” (Exodus 16:17). We will be fed. The Lord will inspire our hearts with love, but in the measure of our spiritual need. No more and no less than we can apply to our lives. And we truly apply His love to our lives, when we acknowledge it as a gift from Him -- when we take it into our hearts – in a sense when we “eat it up.” “Lord, always give us this bread!”

But if we forget the Lord’s care and let our own anxiety and fear control, then we will not truly receive his love. In fact it will repel us. If we turn His love to our own selfish concerns, it will not nurture our spiritual life. We will find no delight in the Lord’s love. Those were not content with the Lord’s measure, neglected the words of Moses, and saved some until the morning, found that the manna bred worms and stank.

So we cooperate with the Lord. We receive His love and make it a part of our life even as we receive Him as He that comes down from heaven and gives life into the world. Gathering, measuring, and eating, all according to His Word, we act as if everything depended upon us. Yet it is not truly so. Love is reciprocal. It is true that we must respond AS IF everything depended upon us – with all our hearts. Yet in doing so we must also acknowledge the Lord as the Source of all human love.

To remind us of His side of the covenant, on the sixth day the Lord provided double the manna. What is left over does not stink and breed worms on the seventh day. Those who cooperate with the Lord and yet truly acknowledge Him as the Source of their love and their life will know the peace of His day of rest – the Sabbath of the Lord. Love and wisdom will be united in their hearts, and they will walk confidently. They will be in the order of life – the Lord’s order.

That order prescribes that we receive love as if it were our own. To achieve this sense we must go through alternating states. Life has its evening and its morning states – its ups and downs. In evening states we know external or natural delights. But in the morning we recognize that there is more to life than pleasure. We have uses to perform for our fellow man – uses towards others that express the love that the Lord provides – uses that will bring us true and internal delight and happiness. Yet “this good cannot arise except through the delights that are of the natural man” (Arcana Coelestia 8522). We need both external and internal delights, but in their proper relation to each other.

There is an expression that charity begins at home. We need to take care of food, clothing, shelter, and a host of natural things, in order to go out each day inspired to serve our neighbors. But these needs and their accompanying delights are servants; they are means to the true uses of life. The Lord also provides quail in the evening, which signify these natural delights. For example, we have times when we work with and instruct our children from a deep love to prepare them for heaven, and we also have times when we simply play with them. All human relationships have their internal and external delights. We need both. But if natural delights rule, they turn to lust and they bring spiritual death (Numbers 11).

Life is indeed a journey. We will face many trials in the wilderness. But the Lord has an inheritance prepared for each of us in His promised land. Everything that happens to us looks to this end. No matter how it appears on the dark days, if we are faithful, there will be times when the taste of the manna will be like that of a cake of honey. The Lord will be there, and He will provide as He provided for the sons of Israel. “And the sons of Israel did eat the manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat the manna until they came unto the border of the land of Canaan” (Exodus 16:35).

Additional Reference: Divine Love and Wisdom 1.

10283. 'It shall not be poured onto the flesh of a person' means no imparting [of what is the Lord's] to a person's proprium or self. This is clear from the meaning of 'the flesh of a person' as his proprium, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'pouring onto' as imparting to. For 'pouring' has a similar meaning to 'touching'; but 'pouring' is used in connection with liquids, namely oil, wine, and water, and 'pouring out' in connection with Divine, heavenly, and spiritual realities, whereas 'touching' is used in connection with dry substances and with bodily things. For the meaning of 'touching' as imparting, see 10130. From this it follows that 'the anointing oil shall not be poured onto the flesh of a person' means that there is no imparting of the Divine Good of the Lord's Divine Love to a person's proprium or self, because a person's proprium is nothing but evil and the Lord's Divine Good cannot be imparted to what is evil.

A person's proprium or self is nothing but evil, see 210, 215, 694, 731, 874-876, 987, 1023, 1024, 1047, 5660, 5786, 8480.

[2] One part of the human proprium belongs to the will and the other part to the understanding; the will part consists of evil, and the understanding part of falsity arising from this. The former - the will part of the proprium - is meant by human flesh, and the understanding part by the blood of that flesh. The truth of this is clear from the following places: In Matthew,

Jesus said, Blessed are you, Simon, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. Matthew 16:17.

It is plainly evident that 'flesh' here, and also 'blood', means the human proprium or self.

[3] In John,

As many as received Him, to them He gave power to be sons of God, who were born, not of blood ¹ , nor of the will of the flesh, but of God. John 1:12-13.

'Blood' here means falsities that come out of the understanding part of the human proprium, and 'the will of the flesh' evils that spring from the will part of it. For the meaning of 'blood' as falsity arising from evil, thus what is in the understanding part of the proprium as a result of what is in the will part, see 4735, 9127.

[4] In Isaiah,

I will feed your oppressors with their flesh and they will be drunk with their blood as with new wine. Isaiah 49:26.

'Feeding them with their flesh' and 'making them drunk with their blood' stands for filling them up with evil and the falsity of evil, thus with what is of the proprium or what is one's own; for both the evil and the falsity come out of the proprium.

[5] In Jeremiah,

Cursed is the man (homo) who trusts in man (homo) and makes flesh his arm. Jeremiah 17:5.

'Trusting in man and making flesh his arm' means trusting in oneself and one's proprium.

[6] In Isaiah,

The people have become as fuel for the fire. If any of them cuts down on the right he will be hungry, and if any eats on the left they will not be satisfied. Each will eat the flesh of his own arm ² ; Manasseh [will eat] Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh. Isaiah 9:19-21.

'Fuel for the fire' means making the evils or desires of self-love and love of the world one's own, 'being hungry' and 'not being satisfied' mean not accepting the good or the truth of faith, and 'the flesh of his arm' means both parts of the human proprium, 'Manasseh' meaning evil in the will, 'Ephraim' falsity in the understanding, and 'eating' making one's own.

'Fire' means the evils or desires of self-love and love of the world, see 5071, 5215, 6314, 6832, 7324, 7575, 9141.

The reason why 'being hungry' and 'not being satisfied' mean not accepting the good or the truth of faith is that 'hunger' or famine and 'thirst' mean desolation with regard to goodness and truth, 5360, 5376, 6110, 7102, 8568(end).

'The right' means good from which truth emanates, and 'the left' truth through which good comes, 10061; consequently 'being hungry if any of them cuts down on the right, and not being satisfied if any eats on the left' means that no matter how much instruction they may receive about goodness and truth they will not accept them.

[7] 'Manasseh' means good in the will, 5351, 5353, 5354(end), 6222, 6234, 6238, 6267, and 'Ephraim' truth in the understanding, 3969, 5354, 6222, 6234, 6238, 6267, so that in the contrary sense 'Manasseh' means evil in the will and 'Ephraim' falsity in the understanding, since almost everything in the Word also has a contrary meaning.

'Eating' means making one's own, 3168, 3513(end), 3596, 4745, from which it is evident what 'eating the flesh of his own arm' means, namely making evil and falsity originating in the proprium one's own.

The expression 'flesh of the arm' is used because 'the arm', like 'the hand', means the powers present in a person, in which he puts his trust, see in the places referred to in 10019.

[8] In Zechariah,

I said, I will not feed you. Let the one that is dying die; [the sheep] that are left will eat, every one the flesh of another. Zechariah 11:9.

'Not feeding' stands for not teaching and reforming, 'dying' for loss of spiritual life, and 'eating the flesh of another' for making evils originating in the proprium of another one's own.

[9] In Ezekiel,

Jerusalem committed whoredom with the sons of Egypt, her neighbours, the great in flesh. Ezekiel 16:26.

'Jerusalem' stands for the perverted Church, 'committing whoredom with the sons of Egypt, the great in flesh' for falsifying the Church's truths by means of factual knowledge which begins in the natural man alone, thus by means of factual knowledge based on sensory evidence.

'Jerusalem' means the Church, see 402, 2117, 3654, in this instance the Church when it has been perverted.

'Committing whoredom' means falsifying truths, 2466, 2729, 8904.

'Sons' means truths, or else falsities, 1147, 3373, 4257, 9807.

'Egypt' means factual knowledge, in either [a good or a bad] sense, see in the places referred to in 9340, and also the natural, in the places referred to in 9391.

Consequently the words 'the great in flesh' describe people who, relying on sensory evidence, reason and draw conclusions about the Church's truths. Those who do this lay hold of falsities as truths, for to rely on sensory evidence to reason and draw conclusions about anything is to rely on the illusions of the bodily senses. People therefore who are ruled by their senses are meant by 'the great in flesh'; for their own bodily perceptions govern their thinking.

[10] In Isaiah,

Egypt is man (homo) and not God, and his horses are flesh, but not spirit. Isaiah 31:3.

Here also 'Egypt' stands for factual knowledge, 'his horses' for a power of understanding consisting of this. That power is called 'flesh, not spirit' when people use what is their own and not God's to draw conclusions.

By 'horses' is meant the power of understanding, see 2761, 2762, 3217, 5321, 6534, and by 'the horses of Egypt' factual knowledge supplied from a perverted understanding, 6125, 8146, 8148.

[11] The fact that 'flesh' means a person's proprium or selfhood, or what amounts to the same thing, his own evil will, is clear in Moses, where the subject is the Israelite people's desire for flesh to eat, described as follows,

The rabble who were in the midst of the people had a strong craving and said, Who will feed us with flesh? Jehovah said, Tomorrow you will eat flesh. Not for one day will you eat it, nor for two days, nor for five days, nor for ten days, nor for twenty days, [but] for a whole month. And a wind set out from Jehovah, and it cut off the quails from the sea and sent them down ³ over the camp, about two cubits above the surface of the land. The people rose up that whole day, and the whole night, and the whole of the next day, and gathered them and spread them out all around the camp. The flesh was still between their teeth, before it could be swallowed, and Jehovah's anger flared up against the people, and He struck the people with an extremely great plague. So he called the name of the place The Graves of Craving. Numbers 11:4, 18-20, 31-34.

[12] The fact that 'flesh' meant that nation's proprium becomes clear from every detail in these verses; for unless this had been meant what evil could there have been in their desire for flesh, especially as flesh had been promised them on a previous occasion, Exodus 16:12? But since it meant the proprium, thus an evil will, which that nation possessed in greater measure than other nations, it says - when they desired flesh - that they 'had a strong craving', on account of which they were struck with a great plague, and on account of which the place where they were buried was called The Graves of Craving. Whether you speak of an evil will or of craving, it amounts to the same thing, for an evil will consists in craving. The human proprium has no desire for anything apart from what belongs to itself; it has no desire for anything that concerns the neighbour or anything that concerns God, unless this is beneficial to itself. Since that nation was like this it says that they would eat flesh not for one day, not for two, not for five, nor for ten, nor for twenty, but for a whole month, meaning that this nation would be like that forever (for 'a whole month' means forever); and for the same reason it says that while the flesh was still between their teeth, before it could be swallowed, they were struck with a great plague. For by 'teeth' the bodily level of the proprium, the lowest of a person's mind, is meant, 4424(end), 5565-5568, 9062. The fact that this nation was like this may be seen in the places referred to in 9380, and in the Song of Moses, at Deuteronomy 32:20, 22-26, 28, 32-34.

[13] In the Word spirit is set in contrast to flesh, for 'spirit' means life from the Lord and 'flesh' life from man, as in John,

It is the Spirit which bestows life, the flesh does not profit anything. The words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life. John 6:63.

From this it is clear that 'spirit' means life from the Lord, which is the life of love to Him and faith in Him, received from Him, and that 'flesh' means life from man, thus his selfhood. This is why it says 'the flesh does not profit anything'. Something similar is meant elsewhere in John,

That which has been born from the flesh is flesh, but that which has been born from the spirit is spirit. John 3:6.

In David,

God remembered that they were flesh; a spirit which would pass away would not come back. Psalms 78:39.

[14] Since 'flesh' in reference to man means his proprium, which consists of the evil of self-love and love of the world, it is evident what 'flesh' means when used in reference to the Lord, namely His Proprium, which consists of the Divine Good of Divine Love. This is what 'the Lord's flesh' means in John,

The bread which I will give you is My flesh. Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you will have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life; for My flesh is truly food and My blood is truly drink. John 6:51, 53-55.

'The flesh' of the Lord means the Divine Good of His Divine Love, and 'the blood' the Divine Truth emanating from that Divine Good, so that they are similar in meaning to the bread and wine in the Holy Supper; and those Divine Realities are His own, present within His Divine Human, see 1001, 3813, 4735, 6978, 7317, 7326, 7850, 9127, 9393, 10026, 10033, 10152. Also, the sacrifices represented forms of good that originate in the Lord, and therefore the flesh of those sacrifices meant forms of good, 10040, 10079. Furthermore, various places in the Word use the expression 'all flesh', by which every human being should be understood, 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.

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