8470. 'Take it, each for whoever is in his tent' means sharing with them, and therefore a common good. This is clear from the meaning of 'tent' as a community in respect of good. 'Tent' here is similar in meaning to house, for during their wanderings they lived in tents. The command that each should take for whoever was in his tent means sharing with them, and so also therefore a common good. Since all this has to do with the situation that comes about among communities in heaven, as stated immediately above in 8469, something further will be stated about it, in order that people may know what to understand by sharing with others in a community, and by a common good resulting from this - the things meant by the command that each should take for whoever was in his tent.
[2] Each member of a community in heaven shares his good with all in the community, and all there share theirs with each member. From this arises the good held in common by all, called a common good. This good links up with the common good in other communities, and from this arises an even more common good, and finally a most common. This kind of sharing goes on in heaven; and it makes them all a single whole. They are exactly like a person's organs and members, which - though various and dissimilar - nevertheless present themselves as a single whole by communicating with one another in similar ways. Love alone, which is spiritual togetherness, makes possible the linking of those varieties of good. The overall power forming and arranging into order every single one is the Divine Good of Divine Love emanating from the Lord.
This page is part of 
© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church