353. Let me address the symbolism of the fat as the actual quality of heaven, which also belongs to the Lord. Heaven's quality is made up of everything that belongs to love. Faith too is heavenly when it comes from love. Charity is a heavenly thing. All the good inspired by charity is heavenly. These things are all represented by the fat of the sacrifices, each separate aspect being represented by the fat over the liver (called the omentum), the fat over the kidneys, the fat sheathing the intestines, and the fat over the intestines. 1 These fat deposits were holy and were burned on the altar (Exodus 29:13, 22; Leviticus 3:3-4, 14; 2 4:8-9, 19, 26, 31, 35; 8:16, 25). So they are called the bread of the fire offering for Jehovah's repose (Leviticus 3:5, 16), and this is why the Jewish people were forbidden to eat any of the fat from the animals; these rules were called an "eternal statute throughout their generations" (Leviticus 3:17; 7:23, 25). The statute was given because that church was such that it would not acknowledge anything internal, much less anything heavenly.
[2] The symbolism of fat as the heavenly aspects of charity and the goodness that it inspires can be seen in the prophets, as in Isaiah:
Why do you weigh out silver for what is not bread and your labor for what does not satisfy? Pay wholehearted attention to me and eat what is good, so that your soul may revel in the fat. (Isaiah 55:2)
In Jeremiah:
I will fill the soul of the priests with fat, and my people will receive fully of my goodness. (Jeremiah 31:14)
It is obvious that this does not mean fat but a heavenly-spiritual kind of goodness. In David:
They are filled with the fat of your house, and you slake their thirst with a river of your pleasures, because yours is the wellspring of life. In your light we see light. (Psalms 36:8-9)
The fat and the wellspring of life stand for the heavenly quality that belongs to love. The river of pleasures and the light stand for the spiritual quality that belongs to a faith rising out of love. In the same author:
My soul will be filled with grease and fat, and my mouth will give praise with lips of song. (Psalms 63:5)
Here the fat again stands for a heavenly quality, lips of song for a spiritual one. Clearly something heavenly is meant, since the soul will be filled with it. First fruits themselves — the firstborn produce of the earth — are therefore called fat (Numbers 18:12).
[3] Because heavenly things come in an uncountable number of major categories and an even more uncountable number of specific types, the song Moses recited before the people depicts them generally:
... butter from the cow and the milk of the flock, together with the fat of lambs and of rams — the sons of Bashan — and of goats, together with the fat of the kidneys of wheat; 3 and the blood of the grape you will drink as unmixed wine. (Deuteronomy 32:14)
No one could ever see what these things mean except in light of their inner meaning. Without the inner meaning, no one could see what butter from the cow is, or the milk of the flock, the fat of lambs, the fat of rams and of goats, the sons of Bashan, the fat of the kidneys of wheat, or the blood of the grape. Without an inner meaning, they would be words and nothing more, when in reality as a whole and individually they symbolize general and specific kinds of heavenly qualities.
Footnotes:
1. Because of the bad press that fatty foods receive in current culture, the passages quoted in this section may be startling to modern readers. Among the active peoples of ancient times, however, the high caloric content of fat was particularly valued for its sustaining properties. A link between body fat and fertility, supported by modern research (see Frisch 2004), may also have been known to the ancients. Consequently, fat was often regarded as the most desirable part of the sacrifice, not only among the Hebrews but among other Mediterranean cultures. See, for example, the Greek myth in which Prometheus deceives Zeus by using the fat of a sacrificed ox as an enticement (Hesiod Theogony 533-553, in Evelyn-White 1914, 118-119). Furthermore, the parts of the sacrificial animal containing fat burned best and were thus seen as most suited for use in worship ceremonies. [RS, SS, LHC]
2. Leviticus 3:15 is also pertinent. [LHC]
3. "The fat of the kidneys of wheat" may mean either "the white of the kernels" by a color analogy, or "the best wheat" by an analogy with the most desirable part of an animal sacrifice, the fat (see note 1 in §353). Such a figure of speech is called a catachresis, or forced trope. Compare the modern mixed metaphor "the cream of the crop." However, other theories have been advanced to explain the phrase. [LHC, SS]
