9349. The subject in Chapters 20-23 has been the laws, judgements, and statutes that were declared from Mount Sinai. It has been shown what these hold within them in the internal sense, and so how they are understood in heaven, namely not according to their literal but according to their spiritual meaning, which though not evident in the letter is nevertheless present within them. But anyone who is unaware of how the matter stands may suppose that this makes the literal sense of the Word unimportant, for no attention is paid to it in heaven. But let it be known that it does not at all make the literal sense of the Word unimportant; rather, it adds strength to it. Indeed all its individual words carry weight and are holy by virtue of the spiritual sense within them; for the literal sense is the foundation and support on which the spiritual sense rests, and with which it is directly linked, so directly that not even a jot, nor a tittle, that is, small part of a letter in the literal sense of the Word fails to hold what is holy and Divine within it, according to the Lord's words in Matthew,

Truly I say to you, Even until heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one small part of a letter will not pass from the law till all things are done. Matthew 5:18.

And in Luke,

It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the Law to fall. Luke 16:17.

'The Law' is the Word, see 6752, 7463.

[2] Therefore also in the Lord's Divine Providence it has happened that every jot and tittle of the Word, especially in the Old Testament, has been preserved since it was written. I have been shown from heaven that in the Word not only each word but also each letter, indeed - incredibly so - each small part of a letter in the original language has an inner holiness, as angels of the inmost heaven are able to perceive. I can positively declare this to be so, but I realize that it surpasses belief. From this it is evident that outward religious observances of the Church, which represented the Lord and the inner realities of heaven and the Church which begin in the Lord, and about which one reads in the Old Testament Word, have indeed for the most part been abrogated. But it continues to be the Word with its Divine holiness, because all the details there, as has been stated, continue to hold within themselves holy and Divine things, which are perceived in heaven when that Word is read. For it has in all its details an inner, holy content, which is its internal sense , or heavenly and Divine sense. This sense is the soul of the Word; it is God's truth itself emanating from the Lord, and so it is the Lord Himself.

[3] All this makes clear what the situation is with the laws, judgements, and statutes which were declared by the Lord from Mount Sinai, and are contained in Chapters 20-23 which have now been dealt with. That is to say, it makes clear that every single regulation there is holy because its inward form is holy. Nevertheless some of them have been abrogated so far as practices by the Church at the present day, which is an internal Church, are concerned; some of them are such that the Church may practise them if it wishes to do so; and some of them must be altogether observed and carried out. Even so, those which have been abrogated so far as practices by the Church are concerned, those which it may practise if it so wishes, and those which must be altogether observed and carried out are all equally holy by virtue of their inner and holy content. For the whole of the Word internally is Divine. That inner and holy content is what the internal sense teaches, and it is identical with the inner virtues of the Christian Church, with which teachings about charity and faith are concerned.

[4] To make all this more intelligible let the laws, judgements, and statutes dealt with in the above-mentioned chapters serve as examples. Regulations which must be altogether observed and carried out are those contained in 20:3-5, 7-8, 12-17, 23; 21:12, 14-15, 20; 22:18-20, 28; 23:1-3, 6-8, 24-25, 32.

Regulations which [the Church] may practise if it so wishes are such as those contained in 20:10; 21:18-19, 22-25, 33-36; 22:1-14, 17, 21-23, 25-27, 31; 23:4-5, 9, 12-16, 33.

Regulations which have been abrogated so far as practices by the Church at the present day are concerned, in 20:24-26; 21:2-11, 16, 21, 26-29, 31-32; 22:15, 29-30; 23:10-11, 17-19.

But, as stated above, all these are equally holy, or equally the Divine Word.

782. 18:14 "The fruits that your soul longed for have gone from you, and all things rich and splendid have gone from you, and you shall find them no more at all." This symbolically means that all the blessings and felicities of heaven, including the external ones they wish for, will altogether fly away and be seen no longer, because these Roman Catholics do not have in them any celestial or spiritual affections for goodness and truth.

Fruits that the soul longs for symbolize nothing else than the blessings and felicities of heaven, because those are the fruits of everything having to do with the doctrine and worship that are the subject here, and because they are what people desire when they are dying, and also what they continue to desire when they first come into the spiritual world.

Things rich and splendid symbolize celestial and spiritual affections for goodness and truth - rich things affections for goodness, as we will show below, and splendid things affections for truth, which are called splendid because they develop in response to the light of heaven and its splendor in human minds, giving rise to an understanding of goodness and truth and so to wisdom.

To go and not be found anymore means symbolically that the blessings and felicities of heaven will fly away and be seen no longer, because the people here do not have any celestial or spiritual goodness and truth. Moreover, the blessings and felicities that they long for are called external, because the only blessings and felicities and affections that they long for are carnal and worldly ones, and consequently they are incapable of knowing the nature and character of the blessings and felicities that are called celestial and spiritual.

[2] But we will illustrate this by disclosing the lot of those people after death. When people impelled by a love of dominion from a love of self and so by a love of the world come from that religion into the spiritual world, as they do immediately after death, they all yearn for nothing else than dominion and the pleasures of the heart resulting from that dominion, and the pleasures of the body resulting from wealth. For a person's reigning love with its affections or lusts and desires awaits everyone after death. However, because a love of exercising dominion, springing from a love of self, over the sanctities of the church and heaven, all of which are Divine and the Lord's, is diabolical, therefore after a period of time these people are separated from their companions and cast down into various hells.

But even so, because in consequence of their religion they have participated in an external worship of God, they are first taught the nature and character of heaven, and the nature and character of the happiness of eternal life, that its blessings are pure blessings flowing in from the Lord into everyone in heaven in accordance with the character of the heavenly affection for goodness and truth in them. Yet because they have not turned to the Lord and so have not been conjoined with Him, and also lack any such affection for goodness and truth, they reject that instruction and turn away, and long for the pleasures of the love of self and the world then, which are merely natural and carnal. But because it is inherent in those pleasures to do evil, especially to people who worship the Lord, thus to angels in heaven, therefore they are deprived of those pleasures also and are thrust among their comrades in infernal workhouses in a contemptible and wretched state.

Still, these events befall them to the degree of their love of dominion over things that are Divine and the Lord's, which is the degree to which they rejected the Lord.

[3] It can now be seen from this that "the fruits that your soul longed for have gone from you, and all things rich and splendid have gone from you, and you shall find them no more at all," symbolically means that all the blessings and felicities of heaven, including the external ones they wish for, will altogether fly away and be seen no longer, because these Roman Catholics do not have in them any affections for goodness and truth.

That rich things ¹ symbolize heavenly goods, and also affections for those goods and the delights of those affections, can be seen from the following passages:

Listen... to Me, eat what is good, that your soul may delight itself in richness. (Isaiah 55:2)

I will fill the soul of the priests with richness, and My people shall be satisfied with... goodness... (Jeremiah 31:14)

My soul shall be satisfied... with fatness and richness, and my mouth shall praise with singing lips. (Psalms 63:5)

They are filled with the richness of Your house, and You give them drink from the river of Your delights. (Psalms 36:8)

On this mountain Jehovah... will make for all people a feast of rich food..., of rich food full of marrow... (Isaiah 25:6)

They shall still have produce in old age; they shall be rich and green, to declare that Jehovah is upright. (Psalms 92:14-15)

(In the feast that Jehovah will make) you shall eat rich food till you are full, and drink blood till you are drunk... (Ezekiel 39:19)

(Jehovah) will regard your burnt offering as rich. (Psalms 20:3)

Because richness of fat symbolizes heavenly goodness, it was therefore a statute in Israel that all the fat of sacrificial animals should be burnt on the altar (Exodus 29:13, 22; Leviticus 1:8; 3:3-16; 4:8-35; 7:3-4, 30-31; 17:6).

In an opposite sense, the richness of fat symbolizes people who are nauseated at goodness, and who, because it is just too much, scorn it and reject it (Deuteronomy 32:15; Jeremiah 5:28; 50:11; Psalms 17:10; 20:3; 78:31; 119:70; and elsewhere).

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