8464. This is the bread which Jehovah hath given you to eat. That this signifies that this is the good which must be appropriated and make their life, in the supreme sense that this is the Lord in you, is evident from the signification of “bread,” as being good celestial and spiritual, and in the supreme sense, as being the Lord (see n. 276, 680, 2165, 2177, 3464, 3478, 3735, 3813, 4211, 4217, 4735, 4976, 5915), here spiritual good, that is, the good of the man of the spiritual church, which is the good of truth (of which just above, n. 8458). As this bread was the manna, it follows that by “the manna” is signified this good; which is also apparent from the description of it in the thirty-first verse:

It was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it like that of a cake in honey;

and likewise from the description of it in Numbers:

The manna was like coriander seed, and the appearance thereof as the appearance of bdellium; they ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and boiled it in a pot, and made cakes of it: the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil (11:7-8).

From these particulars it is plain that in the spiritual sense “the manna” denotes the good of truth, that is, the good of the spiritual church. Hence also it is called “the grain of the heavens,” in David:

He commanded the skies from above, and opened the doors of the heavens, and made manna to rain down upon them, and gave them the grain of the heavens (Psalms 78:23-24).

(That “grain” denotes the good of truth, see n. 5295, 5410.) “Manna” also denotes the good of truth which is given to those who undergo temptations and conquer, in John:

To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone (Revelation 2:17).

That in the supreme sense “the manna” denotes the Lord in us, is evident from the very words of the Lord in John:

Your fathers did eat the manna in the wilderness, and are dead: this is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that one may eat thereof and not die: I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eat of this bread he shall live eternally (6:49-51, 58).

From all this it is very plain that by “the manna” in the supreme sense is signified the Lord. The reason is that “the manna” denotes the good of truth, and all good is from the Lord, and consequently the Lord is in good, and is the good itself. That this good will be appropriated to them and make their life, is signified by “eating” (n. 3168, 3513, 3596, 4745); for the good which is from the Lord makes the life of heaven with man, and thereafter nourishes and sustains it.

3513. And I will eat. That this signifies appropriation thus, is evident from the signification of “eating,” as being to appropriate (see n. 2187, 2343, 3168, 3503). Appropriation is effected when truths, or the knowledges of good and truth, are insinuated into the natural by means of things that are pleasant and delightful; and when these truths are adjoined to good there, there is then effected a communication with the truth and good of the rational, thus with the rational; and this communication is what is called appropriation, inasmuch as the truth and good are of the rational in the natural; for the things in the rational relatively to those in the natural are as particulars relatively to generals. It is known that from particulars there comes forth what is general, and that without particulars no general could come into existence.

The general of the particulars of the rational is that which is exhibited in the natural; and because it is a general, it appears under another form, and this according to the order of the particulars which compose it, thus according to the form thence derived. If the singulars and derivative particulars of celestial good and spiritual truth are what form the general in the natural, there then comes forth a celestial and spiritual form, and in a certain image there is represented something of heaven in every single thing of the general; but if the singulars and particulars are not those of good and truth, but of evil and falsity, which form the generals in the natural, there is then represented in an image something of hell in every single thing of the general.

[2] Such are the things which are signified by the eating and drinking in the Holy Supper, where also by “eating and drinking” is signified appropriation-namely, by “eating” the appropriation of good, and by “drinking” the appropriation of truth. If good, that is, love to the Lord and charity toward the neighbor, form the internal or rational man, and through this the external or natural man corresponding to it, then the man becomes in particular and in general an image of heaven, consequently an image of the Lord; but if contempt for the Lord and for the good and truth of faith, and hatred toward the neighbor, form the internal man, then the man becomes in particular and in general an image of hell; and especially when at the same time this is done in what is holy, for thence comes profanation. Thus it is that to those who eat and drink worthily, eternal life is appropriated; while they who eat and drink unworthily, appropriate death unto themselves.