6088. About food in the spiritual world

They eat and drink there just as in the natural world, but all the food there is from a spiritual origin, so it is not prepared but simply given daily. When it is lunchtime and also dinnertime, a table with food appears for the time, and disappears when lunch or dinner has been eaten.

[2] All spirits, however many, are fed in keeping with their positions: the governors sumptuously, with table settings that are indescribable as regards their high quality, the rest less richly, in keeping with their status.

[3] N.B. Everyone is given food depending on to the work they do. Those who do not have some governmental office, business or trade get no food but beg. I have seen men of high standing begging for this reason, because they have not wanted to do any work, and even distinguished women.

؉ have seen high-standing individuals who had lived magnificently in the world given only milk and bread, and when they complained that they were not given more, it was said that they had done no work, and no food is given to those who are slothful and idly passing time. As a result they were reduced to performing some menial task so they could eat. Besides this they go to such as actually work, and as a favor get to eat with them, but this does not last long. They can buy bread in their own places, but no other foodstuffs. The reason is that certain ones want to be paid for the work they do, and because they work under these conditions, they can be paid money for buying bread, but the purchase [of other foodstuffs] is not possible except for those who are good In such positions bread comes gratis. Besides other like things.

[4] In the hells all are driven to performing useful services, and those who do not work receive no food, or clothing, or bed, so they are driven to laborious tasks. The reason is because idleness is the root of all wickedness, for in idleness the mind spreads out to various evil acts and false thoughts, but is restricted to one while on a task.

[5] Food cannot be kept to the next day: worms breed as in the manna [Ex. 16:20]. This is meant in the Lord's prayer: "Give us our daily bread" [Matt. 6:11]; and also as regards the paschal lamb that nothing was to be stored for the next day [Deut. 16:4],and that as regards the sacrifices [nothing was to be kept beyond the third day (Lev. 7:16; 19:6)].

[6] Because food is from a spiritual origin, and consequently in itself spiritual, and because spirits and angels are human beings and fitted with a spiritual body, therefore such spiritual food serves them. Therefore the spiritual person is nourished spiritually and the material person naturally. As all things that appear in the spiritual world correspond to affections and so to the thoughts of the understanding, from these they have houses, palaces, clothing, fields, gardens, pleasure gardens, which are also all from a spiritual origin. And because good affection together with the understanding's thought of truth cannot exist in idleness, but is dissipated, therefore food is not given otherwise than according to correspondences; and besides this, the works of those who are in hell have correspondences with the heavens, but not with infernal spirits themselves, just as happened with the Israelite and Judaic nation. Although it was evil, their representative worship nevertheless still corresponded [to heavenly things]. What their correspondences were may be seen in the doctrine of the new Jerusalem, number [Heavenly Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 248].

[7] Their food was seen very clearly to be similar to food in our world, to foods of every kind, even accompanied by various delicacies. There are also table decorations that cannot be described in natural language.

248. The Jewish church and Jews. ¹ The statutes, judgments, and laws that were commanded in the Jewish church were somewhat like those of the ancient church: 4449, 4834. How the symbolic rites of the Jewish church differed from the symbolic rites of the ancient church: 4288, 10149. A symbolic church was established for the people of that nation, but there was no real church among them: 4899, 4912, 6304. So they had something that symbolized a church but not an actual church: 4281, 4288, 4311, 4500, 6304, 7048, 9320, 10396, 10526, 10531, 10698. Because of the stubborn insistence of their ancestors and Moses, the Israelite and Jewish people were accepted as a church, not because they actually were a chosen people but rather so that they would symbolize a church: 4290, 4293, 7051, 7439, 10430, 10535, 10632. Their worship was solely external, without any inner worship: 1200, 3147, 3479, 8871. They knew absolutely nothing about inner worship and did not want to know: 301, 302, 303, 3479, 4429, 4433, 4680, 4844, 4847, 10396, 10401, 10407, 10694, 10701, 10707. What they thought of the inner aspects of worship, the church, and the Word: 4865. Their inner natures were foul, full of their love for themselves and the world and of avarice: 3480, 9962, 10454-10457, 10462-10466, 10575. Therefore the inner teachings of the church were not disclosed to them, because otherwise they would have defiled them: 2520, 3398, 3480, 4289. The Word was completely closed to them: 3769. They saw the Word from the outside and not from the inside (10549, 10550, 10551), so their inner self was closed when they were engaged in worship (8788, 8806, 9320, 9377, 9380, 9962, 10396, 10401, 10407, 10492, 10498, 10500, 10575, 10629, 10692). All the same, this people was more capable than any other of being outwardly holy despite the fact that their inner self was closed: 4293, 4311, 4903, 9373, 9377, 9380. Their state at such times: 4311. That is also why they have been preserved to this day: 3479. Their holy outward behavior was miraculously raised up and exhibited to heaven by the Lord, and as a result deeper levels of worship, the church, and the Word were perceived there: 3480, 4307, 4311, 6304, 8588, 10499, 10500, 10602. So that this could happen, they were driven by external pressures to a strict observance of their rituals in outward form: 3147, 4281, 8006. Because they could be outwardly holy without inner holiness, they were able to represent what is truly holy in the church and heaven: 3479, 3881, 4208, 6304, 8588, 9377, 10430, 10500, 10570. Nevertheless, they were not interested in what is truly holy: 3479. It does not matter what a person who symbolizes something is like, because symbolism focuses on the issue and not on the person: 665, 1097, 1361, 3147, 3881, 4208, 4281, 4288, 4292, 4500, 6304, 7048, 7439, 8588, 8788, 8806.

[2] Those people were worse than other peoples; a description of what they were like, including material from the Word of both Testaments: 4314, 4316, 4317, 4444, 4503, 4750, 4751, 4815, 4820, 4832, 5057, 5998, 7248, 8819, 9320, 10454-10457, 10462-10466. The tribe of Judah strayed more than the other tribes: 4815. How they took pleasure in cruelly treating other peoples: 5057, 7248, 9320. That people was idolatrous at heart and worshiped other gods more than other peoples did: 3732, 4208, 4281, 4825, 5998, 6877, 7401, 8301, 8871, 8882. Even their worship, seen in the context of that people, was idolatrous, since it was superficial, with no inner substance: 4281, 4825, 8871, 8882. They worshiped Jehovah in name only (6877, 10559, 10560, 10561, 10566), and only because of the miracles he did (4299). It is incorrect to think that the Jews are going to be converted at the end of the church ² and brought back into the land of Canaan: 4847, 7051, 8301. A copious selection of passages from the Word on this subject-passages that are, however, to be understood in their inner meaning and therefore not taken literally: 7051. The Word was changed in its outer meaning because of that people, but not in its inner meaning: 10453, 10461, 10603, 10604. The way Jehovah appeared to them on Mount Sinai was shaped by their own nature, so he appeared in devouring fire, thick cloud, and smoke like that of a furnace: 1861, 6832, 8814, 8819, 9434. The way the Lord appears to each of us depends on what we ourselves are really like-as a life-giving and creative fire if we are devoted to doing good, but as a devouring fire if we are bent on doing evil: 934, 1861, 6832, 8814, 8819, 9434, 10551. One lineage of that people was of Canaanite ancestry and two others were the result of fornication with a daughter-in-law: 1167, 4818, 4820, 4874, 4899, 4913. Those stories represent the nature of their relationship with the inner truth of the church, namely, that it was like that of union with a Canaanite or fornication with a daughter-in-law: 4868, 4874, 4899, 4913. Their state in the other life: 939, 940, 5057.

[3] Because despite all this that people symbolized the church, and because the Word was composed among and about them, their names-for example, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Ephraim, Joseph, and the rest-have divine and heavenly meanings. In its inner meaning, "Judah" means the Lord in respect to his heavenly love and his heavenly kingdom: 3654, 3881, 5583, 5603, 5782, 6363. An explanation of Israel's prophecy concerning Judah in Genesis 49:8-12, which is about the Lord: 6362-6381. Both the tribe of Judah and Judea mean the heavenly church: 3654, 6364. The twelve tribes represented and meant all the aspects of love and faith taken together (3858, 3926, 4060, 6335), and therefore heaven and the church as well (6337, 6637, 7836, 7891). Their meanings depend on the order in which they are named: 3862, 3926, 3939, 4603 and following, 6337, 6640. The twelve tribes were divided into two kingdoms so that the Judeans could represent the heavenly kingdom and the Israelites could represent the spiritual kingdom: 3654, 8770. The seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob means the goodness and truth that belong to the church: 3373, 10445.

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