6789. 'And where is he? Why is it that you left the man?' means, In what way without that truth could they be joined to the good of the Church? This is clear from the meaning of an Egyptian man, to whom 'the man they left' refers here, as true factual knowledge, dealt with above in 6784; and from the meaning of 'Why is it that you left the man?' as, In what way without that truth could they be joined to good? For 'leaving the man' here is not being able to be joined.

[2] But the nature of all this needs to be explained. True factual knowledge, represented here by 'Moses', is truth as the external Church knows it. This truth depends for its existence on the truth which the law from God possesses, which too 'Moses' represents, 6771, 6780; and the truth that the law from God possesses is truth as the internal Church knows it. Unless external truth springs from internal truth it cannot be joined to good. Let the Word serve to illustrate this. But for the influence of the inner spirit of the Word received by those who read the Word and yet confine themselves to the literal sense, truth from the Word does not become joined to good. The inner spirit of the Word influences a person and becomes joined to good when he considers the Word to be holy; and he considers it to be holy when he is governed by good.

[3] Let the Holy Supper also serve to illustrate the matter. Scarcely any know that the bread there means the Lord's love towards the entire human race and man's reciprocation of that love, and that the wine means charity. Even so, those who receive the bread and wine in a holy manner are joined by means of them to heaven and the Lord; and through the angels - who do not think at that time about bread and wine, only about love and charity, 3464, 3735, 5915 - different forms of the good of love and charity flow in. From this one may see that when a person is governed by good external truth is joined to internal truth, without his knowing it.

5915. 'And I will sustain you there' means a constant influx of spiritual life from the internal celestial. This is clear from the meaning of 'sustaining', when spoken by Joseph, who represents the internal celestial, as an influx of spiritual life from the internal celestial. In the internal sense 'sustainment' is nothing else than the influx of goodness and truth from the Lord by way of heaven. This is how angels are sustained, and it is how a person's soul, that is, his internal man, is sustained. This sustainment is what the sustaining of the external man by means of food and drink corresponds to; and for this reason good is meant by 'food' and truth by 'drink'. The nature of this correspondence is also such that when a person is eating food the angels present with him think of goodness and truth; and, what is amazing, their ideas vary according to the different kinds of food that he eats. When therefore in the Holy Supper a person receives bread and wine the angels present with him think about the good of love and the good of faith, 3464, 3735, for the reason that 'bread' corresponds to the good of love and 'wine' to the good of faith. And because they correspond to them they also carry the same meanings in the Word.

[2] The fact that a person's soul, that is, his internal man, is sustained by spiritual food and drink, which are goodness and truth, is clear from the Lord's words in Moses,

Man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every utterance of the mouth of Jehovah. Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4.

'Utterance of the mouth of Jehovah' is goodness and truth that go forth from Him. In John,

Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. John 6:27.

In the same gospel,

The disciples asked Jesus, saying, Master, eat. He said to them, I have food to eat of which you do not know. John 4:31-32.

And regarding drink, in the same gospel,

Jesus said, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow out from within him. ¹ John 7:37-38.

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