Pots" and other large vessels in the Bible represent facts and factual ideas, which serve as containers for truth the same way pots serve as containers for water or wine. Pots fill their function because they are hard, strong and impervious; facts are also absolute and unchanging, filling their function the same way. And pots must be filled to serve any use, just as facts must be filled with truth to serve any purpose. To some extent this meaning also applies to cups, bowls and other smaller vessels, though it is a little more immediate. Generally you don't fill a cup so you can store a liquid; you fill it to drink it. Smaller vessels then often take more of their meaning from the substance they contain, and in many cases ("cup" and "wine" especially) actually mean the same thing.

3815. 'And Laban said to Jacob, Because you are my brother' means, because they are kindred, by virtue of good. This is clear from the representation of 'Laban' as a parallel good that springs from a common stock, and from the representation of 'Jacob' as the good of the natural, both dealt with above; and from the meaning of 'brother' as good, dealt with in 3803, in this case that which is kindred since these words are spoken by Laban to Jacob, and therefore by good to good. Furthermore every kinship has its origin in good, for good is related to love. It is the nearest degree of love in the line of descent that is called kindred, and is meant in the proper sense by 'brother'. In the spiritual world or in heaven no other kinships or relationships by marriage exist except those of love to the Lord and of love towards the neighbour, or what amounts to the same, those of good. This has been made clear to me by the fact that all the communities that constitute heaven, and that are countless, are quite distinct and separate from one another according to degrees and differences of love and of faith deriving from this, see 685, 917, 2739, 3612.

[2] This has also been made clear to me by the fact that in heaven they do not acknowledge one another because of any family relationship that had been theirs during their lifetime but solely on the basis of good and attendant truth. A father does not acknowledge a son or daughter, a brother does not acknowledge a brother or sister, and even a husband does not acknowledge his wife, unless they have been governed by similar good. They do, it is true, meet when they first enter the next life, but they part company after that; for good itself - that is, love and charity - determines whichever community a person is sent to. Kinship begins in the community in which each person belongs and spreads from there into all places round about.