And it shall come to pass, that whoso and is baptized in my shall be filled (3 Nephi 27:16)The puzzling part is that "filled" is not followed by "with" as is usually the case in the Book of Mormon. But there are other verses similar to this one. We will have a look at those
And it came to pass that Alma ate bread and was filled (Alma 8:22)That was pretty straight forward since in this instance it is physical food filling Alma. Moving on...
And because of your and your faith and your patience with the word in nourishing it, that it may take root in you, behold, by and by ye shall pluck the thereof, which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet, and which is white above all that is white, yea, and pure above all that is pure; and ye shall feast upon this fruit even until ye are filled, that ye hunger not, neither shall ye thirst. (Alma 32:42)Alma is talking about the fruit of the tree of life. Again, it is about eating but in a more metaphorical sense. Another one:
This is when Christ administers the sacrament among the Nephites. The next day, he tells the multitude4 And when they had eaten and were filled, he commanded that they should give unto the multitude.5 And when the multitude had eaten and were filled, he said unto the disciples… (3 Nephi 18:4-5)
He that eateth this bread eateth of to his soul; and he that drinketh of this wine drinketh of my blood to his soul; and his soul shall never hunger nor thirst, but shall be filled. (3 Nephi 20:8)In the very next verse it does say "filled with the Spirit" so we don't have to wonder. Also, regarding Alma 32, in another account of the tree of life, Lehi's soul is filled "with exceedingly great joy" (1 Nephi 8:12). But in the shared quotes it is interesting to see the same expression as in Alma 8, when Amulek gave Alma bread to eat. To me, it indicates that the way your soul is filled with joy or the Holy Ghost when you feast on something spiritual is comparable to the way your body is filled when you eat food.
I really don't understand the metaphysics of it all, I just know that we have a spirit inside of us somehow and that spirit is matter. I also notice some scriptures about the "place" inside of us, in addition to the "filled" scriptures. For instance, a scripture I recently shared in another post
For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death, behold, ye have become to the spirit of the devil, and he doth you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over you; and this is the final state of the wicked. (Alma 34:35)There are several similar scriptures and I will not quote all of them, but here is another example
But behold, there are many that their against the , that it hath no place in them (2 Nephi 33:2)Another interesting verse indicates that the Spirit of he Lord has no place in us because that space is filled with something else
And then shall it come to pass, that the of the wicked, yea, who are evil—for behold, they have no part nor portion of the Spirit of the Lord; for behold, they chose evil works rather than good; therefore the spirit of the did enter into them, and take possession of their house (Alma 40:13)I guess when this happens, you are filled too in a way, but it is not expressed that way. Possibly because it doesn't really satisfy their soul like food does to the body, it just occupies space to prevent the Spirit of the Lord from entering. Keep in mind from yesterday's post that the Hebrew root for filled, "male", also can be translated into "complete", "accomplish" or "endow".
There is another aspect I have found and my research, but I think I will make a third part to share that.