6065. 'Their flocks and their herds' means forms of the good of truth, interior and exterior ones. This is clear from the meaning of 'flocks' as interior forms of good, and of 'herds' as exterior forms of good, both dealt with in 5913, 6048. The reason forms of the good of truth are what is meant is that spiritual good, which is represented by 'Israel', is the good of truth, 4598. Forms of good as they exist in heaven or with man have two different origins; that is to say, they originate in the will or in the understanding. Good that originated in the will existed among the most ancient people who belonged to the celestial Church, whereas good that originated in the understanding existed among the ancients who belonged to the spiritual Church. The first kind of good exists with those in the inmost or third heaven, the second kind with those in the middle or second heaven. What the difference is between them, and the nature of that difference, has been stated many times in explanations. Good that has its origin in the will is good from which truth is derived, whereas good that has its origin in the understanding is good which is a product of truth, that is, it is the good of truth. Essentially this good is nothing else than truth put into practice.

4939. Once when I had been raised up to heaven it seemed to me as though my head was there, but that my body was below it, and my feet even further below. From this I had a perception of how the higher and lower things present in the human being correspond to the same in the Grand Man, and how one flows into another; that is to say, how the celestial, which is the good of love and the first degree of order, flows into the spiritual, which is truth springing from that good and the second degree of order, and then into the natural, which is the third degree of order. From this it is evident that natural things are like the feet on which the higher things support themselves. What is more, things in the spiritual world and those in heaven are ringed about by the natural world. Consequently the whole natural system is a theatre representative of the Lord's kingdom, every individual part of it being representative, 2758, 3483. The natural system is kept in being by an influx conforming to that order, and without this influx it could not remain in being for even a single moment.