6078. 'For there is no pasture for the flock which belongs to your servants' means that factual knowledge holding forms of the good of truth is wanting. This is clear from the meaning of 'pasture for the flock' as factual knowledge holding forms of the good of truth, so that 'no pasture' means factual knowledge that does not hold any forms of the good of truth. In the internal sense 'pasture' is that which supports spiritual life; in particular it is truth contained in factual knowledge, for the human soul desires such truth just as the body desires food. Nourishment is derived from it, and for that reason 'feeding' means receiving instruction, 5201. That factual knowledge and truths sustain the human soul is quite evident from a person's desire for knowledge, as well as from the correspondence of food with factual knowledge, 1480, 3114, 4792, 5147, 5193, 5340, 5342, 5576, 5579, 5915. This correspondence also manifests itself when a person is eating food. If he eats it while talking and listening the vessels that receive the chyle are opened, and he is nourished more fully than if he is alone. Spiritual truths and instruction in them would have the same kind of effect on people if they were to have an affection for what is good. The fact that truths nourish spiritual life is revealed primarily among good spirits and among angels in heaven. Those spirits and angels have a constant desire to acquire knowledge and wisdom; and when they lack this spiritual food they feel desolate, listless, and famished. Nor are they refreshed and raised into the bliss of their life until their desires are satisfied. But if that factual knowledge is to yield the soul wholesome nourishment, that knowledge must contain life received from forms of the good of truth. If it does not contain life received from them factual knowledge still sustains a person's inner life, but his natural life, not his spiritual life.

[2] The meaning of 'pasture' in the internal sense as that which sustains a person's spiritual life is also evident from other places in the Word, as in Isaiah,

I have given you as a covenant to the people, to restore the land; to say to the bound, Go out, to those who are in darkness, Reveal yourselves. They will feed along the ways, and on all slopes will their pasture be. Isaiah 49:8-9.

'Feeding along the ways' stands for receiving instruction in truths, 'the ways' being truths, see 627, 2333, and 'feeding' receiving instruction, 5201. 'On all slopes will their pasture be' stands for being sustained with good, for 'slopes', like 'mountains' are forms of the good of love, 795, 796, 1430, 2722, 4210.

[3] In Jeremiah,

Woe to the shepherds destroying and scattering the flock of My pasture. Jeremiah 23:1.

'Pasture' stands for the kinds of things that sustain spiritual life. In the same prophet,

The princes of Zion have become like deer, they have not found pasture. Lamentations 1:6.

'They have not found pasture' stands for no truth of good.

[4] In Ezekiel,

I, even I will look for My sheep. I will feed them in a good pasture, and their fold will be on the mountains of the loftiness of Israel; there ¹ they will lie down in a good fold, and on fat pasture they will feed upon the mountains of Israel. Ezekiel 34:11, 14.

'A good and fat pasture upon the mountains of Israel' stands for forms of the good of truth. In the same prophet,

Is it a small thing to you? You feed off the good pasture but tread down with your feet the rest of your pastures. Ezekiel 34:18.

Here the meaning is similar. In Hosea,

I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought. When [they had] their pasture, they were filled; they were filled and their heart was exalted. Hosea 13:5-6.

In Joel,

The beasts groan, the herds of cattle are perplexed because they have no pasture, even the flocks of sheep ² are made desolate. Joel 1:18.

In David,

Jehovah is my Shepherd; He will make me lie down in green pasture; ³ He will lead me away to still waters; He will restore My soul. Psalms 23:1-3.

In the same author,

Jehovah made us and not we ourselves, His people and the flock of His pasture; therefore we are His, His people, and the flock of His pasture. ⁴ Psalms 100:3.

[5] 'Pasture' in these quotations stands for the truths in which a person receives instruction, here the kinds of things which have regard to spiritual life. For the nature of spiritual life is such that if it lacks that pasture it languishes and so to speak fades away, like the body when it lacks food. The fact that 'pasture' is the goodness and truth that refresh and sustain a person's soul or spirit is plain from the Lord's words in John,

I am the door. If anyone enters through Me he will be saved, and will go in and out, and find pasture. John 10:9.

'Pasture' stands for the forms of good and the truths which those people have who acknowledge the Lord and seek life from Him alone.

脚注:

1802. 'Saying, This man will not be your heir' means that that which is external will not be the heir of His kingdom. This is clear from the meaning of 'becoming the heir' or 'inheriting', dealt with already just above. The heir to the Lord's kingdom is not that which is external but that which is internal. Yet that which is external is heir as well, but only through that which is internal, for the two in that case act as one. To understand what is implied by this, one needs to keep in mind the thought that all who are in the heavens, including those in the first and in the second heavens as well as those in the third, that is, including those who are external and those who are more interior as well as those who are internal angels, are the heirs of the Lord's kingdom; for they all constitute one heaven. In the Lord's heavens internal things stand in relation to external exactly as they do with man. Angels in the first heaven are subordinate to angels in the second; and these in turn are subordinate to angels in the third. That subordination however is not one of command, but, as in man, is an influx of internal things into more external; that is to say, the Lord's life is flowing through the third heaven into the second, and through this into the first - through all the heavens in their ordered sequence, as well as into every individual heaven directly. The lower angels, or those in a subordinate position, are not aware that this is so unless they are given to reflect on it by the Lord; thus their subordination is not one involving command.

[2] Insofar as that which is internal resides in an angel of the third heaven he is an heir of the Lord's kingdom; also, insofar as that which is internal resides in an angel of the second heaven he too is an heir; and in a like manner, insofar as that which is internal resides in an angel of the first heaven he is an heir as well. It is the internal that makes each of them an heir. With angels who are more internal that which is internal exists in greater measure than with those who are more external, and therefore they are nearer to the Lord and the more His heirs. That which is internal is love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour. In the measure that they have love and charity therefore they are sons and heirs, for in the same measure they inherit the Lord's life.

[3] But no one can possibly be brought from the first or external heaven into the second or more interior heaven until he has been taught the goods of love and the truths of faith. Insofar as he is taught these he is able to be brought to and to enter the company of angelic spirits. Something similar must occur before these angelic spirits are able to be brought to or to enter into the third heaven, that is, into the company of angels. By means of such teaching, more interior and then internal things are formed, and are made suitable to receive the goods of love and truths of faith, and so to receive the perception of what is good and true. No one is able to see with perception what he does not know and believe. Thus no one can be granted an ability to see perceptively any good of love or truth of faith except through cognitions, which enable him to know what good or truth is and the nature of it. This is so with all people, even with young children, all of whom receive teaching in the Lord's kingdom. But these are taught without difficulty because they have not been imbued with false ideas. Yet they are taught general truths only, and when they receive them, there is no limit to the things they can perceive.

[4] It is the same as when a person has been persuaded of some truth in its general or overall presentation of itself. He then sees easily and so to speak from himself, or spontaneously, the particular facets that make up the general aspects, and the individual details that make up the particular facets, which are confirmatory. For stirred by an affection for a truth in its general presentation, he is also as a consequence stirred by the confirmatory facets and details of the same truth. Those particular facets and details, accompanied by delight and pleasantness, enter into the general affection and thereby perfect it constantly. Such facets and details are the internal things by virtue of which people are called heirs, that is, by which they are able to inherit the Lord's kingdom. But those people first begin to be heirs or to receive the inheritance when an affection for what is good, that is, when mutual love, exists in them, into which they have been introduced by means of cognitions of good and truth and by means of affections for these. And insofar as an affection for good, that is, insofar as mutual love, is present in these people, they are heirs or recipients of the inheritance; for mutual love is that very life itself which they receive from the Lord's essence, as from their Father. These considerations may also become clear from what follows next in verse 5.