FOOD IN SEASON
[p. 357] FOOD IN SEASON
Luke 12:42 - 44; 1 Kings 4:7,8; 1 Kings 4:27; Revelation 22:2
My subject is food, food, as indicated in these scriptures, provided seasonally, covering the whole year; and when I say “the whole year”, I have in mind “the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:19), that is, this dispensation in which we are. It is about to end, but still, perhaps, a month or so remaining: at least, it has not yet expired, and hence the need of food. It is the acceptable year of the Lord, a year of unequalled importance, all the best fruits of the previous ones (or dispensations) coming into it. The psalmist says to God, “Thou crownest the year with thy goodness” (Psalm 65:11). It would appear, indeed, that the psalmist had in mind that the whole year would be full of goodness, but would be crowned. That is, if we may read it thus, as is said, “Thou crownest the year of thy goodness”, without specifying what the crown is. If, on the other hand, it be as in the ordinary translation, that He crowns it with His goodness we are to expect now a signal evidence of divine goodness in this period of the year, this wonderful year of grace.
So that we may understand the use of the word “year” in this connection; the Lord, in referring to Isaiah 61, undoubtedly confirms that this dispensation is so regarded divinely in His saying, “to preach the acceptable year of the Lord”. The year is the longest period of measured time, and with God, a year in itself is brief, for a thousand of them are said to be as one day with Him; on the other hand, one day is with Him as one thousand years (2 Peter 3:8). We must therefore learn to let God speak of things from His own point of view. He is pleased to speak of them from ours, for, in grace, He comes down to our side in instructing us; but the more we progress in the school of God the more we shall take His point of view. He begins indeed with a [p. 358] day, and works in it, too, so that He can come down to a day and an hour. One of the greatest transactions takes place in “the twinkling of an eye” (1 Corinthians 15:52). God takes the smallest measures of time and does great things in them. How many such things have been done in this year of grace, in the myriads of conversions — every one a miracle! So it is being filled out, from God’s side, with peculiar satisfaction, for He is occupied with the good in it, with what He is doing Himself, and with its results, and, in order that the results should yield, He has introduced the idea of food for every month of the year.
As I said, we have to understand what He has in mind. The year is spoken of in various ways in Scripture. We have the solar year, which may be regarded as the longest, regulated by the great lights in the heavens, by the sun and even by the moon. That is the first kind of year, and God committed Himself to that after the deluge. He reverts to it, and says it is to continue, but in measure of seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, etc. (Genesis 8:22). Seed-time is the first mentioned, and then harvest; corresponding with that we have later, the idea of a year reckoned according to its crops. God, as it were, passing over all the doings of man and reckoning the year according to its crop for Him, for in truth that is what the year is for, to bring out something for God.
Then again, He is pleased to regard the year, in a spiritual sense, as affording Him special opportunities with His people — the holy convocations covering seven months of the year. God reckons the year thus, and insists upon it too, that, in our calculations in the solar year, we must not forget what is due to God in our holy convocations. They are necessarily limited, for we cannot spend all our time together; but God certainly asserts His right to some of it, and to our best in these comings together. “All the males in Israel” is what God looks for. The principle in this reference [p. 359] to the males is that there is the intelligent side, in which, of course, sisters share with the brothers. It is a question of our state. In the provision in Deuteronomy 16, God has in mind what we may call special selections of persons; He is entitled to the best at any time, and He would say, I would like to have the year filled out with these occasions, taking full account of our limitations. He makes special provision for our affairs at home, whilst attending these holy convocations. They are for God; for us, of course, too. He reduces the convocations to three in Deuteronomy, although Leviticus provides for seven. God graciously accommodates Himself to us, as much as to intimate: I value these holy convocations, and if I cannot have seven, I want three, and it is a question of the males. God would say, That is a year, too. What one might call, not an agricultural year, though it is well-nigh commensurate with it, but a spiritual year. The agricultural year is a question of crops which would necessarily end before the last month.
Well now, I am defining the idea of the year briefly in that way so that we may all understand God’s mind as to these occasions, and fill out His year, as He would have us do. From the gospel point of view, He would use up every month of the year; He would have it preached “in season and out of season” (2 Timothy 4:2). The year is for a purpose, and has been extended, in a metaphorical sense, to the great “acceptable year of the Lord”. We can see how much enters into it, and how it is to be sustained on the principle of twelve, that is, the twelve months of the ordinary year; so that we come now to this seasonal provision which He has described. It involves cultivation of the land, not now only on God’s account, but also on ours, and so, as I said, referring to the psalm, we see how He makes it possible for cultivation to result in what is needed. The potential qualities of the earth make it possible, for the potential possibilities are creative; God has placed them there,
[p. 360] but then, not only has He placed them there, He also furnishes the rain to water the earth in its season: that is what the psalm says. I refer to Psalm 65. God is wonderfully bountiful in His creation. What I. am saying implies that God, in creating, provided for the administrative side; that is, that the “fulness” of what He created should be developed, including cultivation, so that suitable food should come round seasonally. God makes it possible, not only in what He has placed in the earth in creating it, but in the furnishing of rain, and rivers, so that there is plenty of water. It says indeed, in the psalm referred to, “the river of God ... is full of water”, but the river is not the only means that God has of watering; rain comes from the clouds in a more effective way, but the river seems to be a sort of reservoir that God can use too. In some parts of the earth, there is no rain, but there are rivers. It is God’s wonderful bounty, so that, in cultivation, there should be seasonal food for men, hence no one should starve.
So this verse in Luke begins with the thought of administration. The Lord had spoken a parable, bearing on His coming; the whole chapter is urgent in view of His coming. He urges watching, and other things, and Peter inquires as to whether He is speaking for others, or for the apostles, those near to Him. The Lord does not answer him directly, but says, “Who then is the faithful and prudent steward, whom his lord will set over his household, to give the measure of corn in season?” There seems to be here an allusion to the passage in 1 Kings. We may be sure that the Lord would have in mind the whole of Scripture. Of course, He was the One who gave the Scriptures, but He became Man and took the place of a servant, and used Scripture, knowing where to turn as He needed a scripture. As risen from among the dead, as you all remember, He began at Moses in expounding things about Himself to two people. One often thinks of the Lord in this respect, how ready He was to minister to [p. 361] one or two, or to five thousand or more; five thousand at once, besides women and children.
It is an example for us, and, in ministering to two straying saints, He began at Moses. What a rebuke that is to the modernist who would set Moses aside! We have heard of the mistakes of Moses, from blasphemous mouths; but the Lord spoke of his writings as Scripture, and said, “if ye do not believe his writings, how shall ye believe my words?” (John 5:47). Wonderful that the Lord should put Moses in front in that way, and he is in front, in that sense; the first Scripture writer, the great minister God provided for His people — mediator, prophet, and scribe, and as a servant, faithful in all God’s house. The Lord refers to his writings. He began there, and expounded the Scriptures to them. That is what they then needed. They were low down in their souls, but an exposition would be intelligible even to such, and that was what they had, the most wonderful exposition perhaps that had ever been given. “He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). I refer to that as an example for us, in this matter of food, for in the forty days after He rose, the Lord made it an important matter; on one occasion providing a first-class meal, as I might call it; not an ordinary meal, for His invitation to Peter and those who with him had gone away to fish was, Come and dine; not come and eat. The word suggests the chief meal of the day. Evidently He prepared it Himself. Think of the grace of Christ in that! Let the word speak to every one of us. The Lord served thus seven of the straying brethren (John 21:12).
Is He not doing it today for such? There are many straying ones and He is ready to feed them. It may be that some here tonight are among them; not that you are straying in coming in here. Whatever motive actuates you, you have come where you may get a bit of food; I hope so. In calling attention to what the Lord did, I would point out how His remarks in this [p. 362] chapter in Luke have in mind to challenge us as to who is ready to be in this administrative position, to furnish “the measure of corn in season”. It is a seasonal matter, the whole year is in mind, and it is a question now of what is to be in the end; for God is crowning the year with His goodness; and who would elect himself out of that, or fail to take sides with God in the provision of His goodness, in the way of food, in these closing moments of the day? “The night cometh, when no man can work” (John 9:4). It is a time for doing. I am not ignoring what I have said about the night all around us, but, in another sense, it is a time of workmanship, “the night cometh when no man can work”. “Who then is the faithful and prudent steward?” the Lord says. He makes a great deal of it, He would set him over all that He has. That is what He thinks of food, for we shall die if we do not eat; there is no question about that. Divine love cannot suffer that, hence the great honour conferred on him who provides a measure of corn in season, meaning that he knows the season of the year.
So coming to Solomon, who is representative of all this, as following out the example of his father David, he appointed these officers, one for each month. Who is the servant that the Lord would appoint? Well, what kind of men were these whom Solomon appointed? I wish the brethren would just ponder this a little and listen carefully. I would refer to the peculiarity of this scripture. It is a question of food, and food produced by care, by the appointment of officers, not mere ordinary workmen, not mere farm hands, as we say, but men skilled in the art of agriculture, that is what they would be. How much need there is of instruction in this phase of divine service. These officers would represent men thus skilled as to the productive qualities of the different lands over which they were to superintend. There are twelve of them. The Authorised Version reads, “the son of Hur”, etc., the original is Ben-Hur, and most of the names here correspond. It is [p. 363] not simply a name of a certain person, the son of a certain man, although that does appear in one or two instances, but the name of each of the persons is designated by a combination of the word son with the name of his father. That is how he is designated: “Ben-Hur”, literally, “son of Hur”, but that is his name. What kind of a man is he? He is not an ordinary labourer filling out his day and going home to rest; he is a man of intelligence in agriculture; a man who gained something from his father whose name also meant something, which he would carry down. I can understand a brother saying, I would like to be like that. He is a son, but his father’s name added to the relation between them is his name. That man has feelings and outlook similar to his father, or the Spirit of God would not connect his father’s name with his name in this combined sense. I might say, it is a hyphenated name, but what does it mean? It carries on what the father was, in the son, so that he is known. If I know the father I know him, and he is to sustain the name of his father. He has it, it is already his, and he is to sustain that. How is he to sustain it? By his work, by the way he does things. He has poor land, may be. Some of these territories mentioned would doubtless not be equal to others, some parts of the land were extremely prolific, some not so; but the whole territory was farmed out in this way to these men, the qualities of whose fathers marked them. The name “Hur” — what does it mean? And so as to all the list. Their names imply that the fathers of these men are carried down to us in their sons.
How is it with the young men of today spiritually? No one should have it said of him derisively, “Who is his father?” as was said of Saul. If I am begotten of a religious system that is not of God, I shall be ashamed of my father, or my mother, but not so here. Who is our father? God raised up remarkable men in the days immediately preceding ours, but as here now, are we their sons? Can I, as it were, add any of them [p. 364] to my name? You will understand what I mean: I am speaking of the spirit of these things. Is the spirit of the recovery that God effected, carried down so as to be vividly before us? I am not advocating that the former days were better than these, for if the men used of God are carried down in their sons, their sons will surely add; that is the principle in Solomon, to add to what was effected. So that, it is not that we should be boastful, surely, but if the thing is carried down, it is added to, and if I am not adding to it, where am I? What am I, if I do not belong to this list, the Ben-Hurs and the rest?
I want to point out, dear brethren, that these men were up to the mark. In the last verse I read in the chapter it is said, they lacked nothing; they furnished what was needed at Solomon’s table, and we know something about Solomon’s table. In verse 27 it is said that those officers provided victuals for it. In no period of the year was there lack of food; food provided by skilled hands and brought to where it was needed. I wish presently to speak of our coming to where the food is, but here it is brought to where it was needed, the most august table there was — that of the king. Think of the persons at his table! In our chapter, we are told exactly how much he needed every day. There is not a hint that he did not have enough, and may I not suggest that, at times like the present, we feel ourselves at Solomon’s table? I do; and the Lord would encourage us to go on. In David’s case, for instance, there was no slackening on great occasions. In the bringing back of the ark, you remember how he dealt out of his bounty, to every man and woman in Israel. At the close of such seasons as these, there should be no slackening of energy. If there is slackening in the ministry, it is in the poor weak vessels the Lord has to use: but from His side there is no slackening at all. As to the saints generally, it is a question of measure on our side, as in the case of Ruth — the cloak was her measure. You get your measure full, and that, of [p. 365] course, is enough. I do not suppose the Lord can trust any of us with much more than we can take in and make use of; so here they lacked nothing. It is a question of the skill the Lord gives, and bounty in this administrative way.
I was speaking of the creative side, how God, as seen in the psalm referred to, provided not only the earth, but the rain and all that was needed so that man should have food. One always finds liberty in giving thanks to God as the Creator. It is done little now in the world, but it is done amongst those who love God; and the psalm says, He crowns the year with His goodness; there is no slackening at all. I am speaking thus to stimulate us, because we are coming to the end of this wonderful year, and each would aspire, normally, I am sure, to have part in this administrative matter, not only to partake of the food at Solomon’s table, but to have part in providing it; bringing into it as a son the qualities of a father used of God.
Paul says, “Ye have not many fathers” (1 Corinthians 4:15). He claimed that relation with the saints. We have the children of Paul; his aim was to make them like himself. You will understand that I am not putting Paul instead of God. What I am speaking of is God’s way, for Paul addresses Timothy as his child, he addresses the Corinthians as his children, and we have it with John, too. The apostles have a moral right to do that; but then it attaches more or less to anyone whom God uses in a formative way. Why should there not be children, sons characteristically of those who have gone before? If there are, the spirit and quality of earlier ministry is carried down, and the former days are not any better; they are carried down to us in the power of the Spirit, and we want to add to them. “Thou shalt add” (1 Chronicles 22:14), says David to Solomon, and he is doing it according to the chapter before us; he is adding to what David had. According to 1 Chronicles, his father had twenty-four thousand men working for him in each month. Solomon brings it down to one [p. 366] superintendent for each month. How many workers under each is not stated, but there must have been a good many to till all the land. Jacob was said to be a field blessed of Jehovah, that is what he was potentially; and so Canaan had to be tilled so as to support the population that God had brought in, “a great people that cannot be numbered” (1 Kings 3:8), Solomon said. I am speaking of Solomon’s table, it is a question of privilege, and the food must be the very best. If you look at the list given, you will see how bountiful it was. There are many who elect themselves out of all that, therefore I am speaking to enlist interest, that we may be at Solomon’s table; it is laden with the very best.
The next thing is to appropriate it and make use of it so that it becomes formative, and as I eat alongside of Solomon, I become like him. The Lord’s table is linked up with all this, but I only wish to suggest what enters into each celebration of the Lord’s supper; what food and drink is, in the bread and the cup — the principle is eating and drinking. Psalm 104:15 tells us that, “with bread he strengtheneth man’s heart”, and that “wine ... gladdeneth the heart of man”. You will understand that I am not saying that in Scripture wine is formally connected with the Lord’s supper; I am only using the word as in the psalm referred to.
I want to close by commenting on the passage in Revelation, to show how the months of the year are maintained, but not by tillage. Tillage is most important, as I have been saying. Solomon speaks of “the tillage of the poor”, in which there is “much food” (Proverbs 13:23). I have been speaking of skilled men, but then, there is the tillage of the poor. There are many poor in a spiritual sense. It is because of no tillage. Tillage is in myself; I am the field. I am not saying that the Lord does not enter into this; the food is really Christ, also what He provides, but then tillage does not refer to Christ, it refers to each of us. It referred to Jacob; he was the field which the Lord had blessed; so that God [p. 367] would put us to work in the sense of tillage, making the most of what I have. I shall not lack, but it is a question of exercise. There are many small meetings; one sees them and feels for the brethren in such circumstances; the tendency is to die, as the widow of Zarephath had in mind (1 Kings 17). Thank God, there are many vigorous large meetings, where there is food; but in these smaller places there is a tendency to let our hands hang down. ‘We have no gift’, and other such remarks are heard; but then, the tillage of the poor meets this position, it is making the most of what we have. There will be something; you will not die of hunger. God would awaken us as to this, because there is a great tendency to weakness and death in the smaller gatherings. Tillage, as I said, would prevent that. There is the gracious bounty of God constantly coming down, and the river of God, full of water; all available to faith, so that there should be no letting of the hands hang down, but rather doing whatsoever our hands find to do. We shall thus find the meetings will become living.
I was referring to the tree of life; it is one of the most precious subjects. In speaking to the overcomer at Ephesus, the Lord Himself speaks of it: “the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God” (Revelation 2:7). The overcomer partakes of that. It is a living man, an energetic man, the Lord is alluding to, an overcomer in Ephesus. He is stirring up energy, He is offering this great advantage to one who overcomes, one maintaining His rights in the midst of declension. He says, “I will give to him to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God”. That is in chapter 2; what I have read is in chapter 22, and it presents the Tree of Life in a very special way. In the midst of the street, and of the river, on this side and on that side, the Tree of Life, producing twelve fruits, in each month yielding its fruit. Referring to ourselves, the Tree of Life has been available since Pentecost: it is Christ in heaven. Here it is seen in relation to the coming period of blessing.
[p. 368] It is in the midst of the street of the city, and on either side of the river. Today it is available to faith. The river involves the Spirit. It is the river of grace, clear as crystal, but the river of energy and of fruitfulness. The power in which I appropriate the Tree of Life is the Spirit. The Ephesian saint understands. If he is an overcomer at Ephesus, he understands the epistle to the Ephesians, and that epistle teaches that we are raised up together and made to sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. This wonderful passage implies that christians have access there, that we can say: And see, the Spirit’s power Has ope’d the heavenly door. (74:5) Think of that! It is a question of intelligence and energy, energy to acquire what is in the paradise of God.
Paul had this opportunity, as we know; he could tell us about the paradise of God. I do not suppose any saint knows as much of it as he did. He was caught up as far as the third heaven, but into paradise — what joy! In our passage we read of the twelve months of the year. Paul, we may say, partook of the January fruit; ours is the December fruit of the Tree of Life. The month of December affords the fruit of the Tree of Life, as does the month of January, June, or any month of the year. The Tree of Life bears twelve fruits, that is, it is seasonal, each month has its fruit. Whatever month I am in I get its fruit. Whatever there is today, I want it. The Tree of Life is always blooming, always bearing fruit, and available on either side of the river for us, so that we may be maintained seasonally. Whatever our month, we understand the whole dispensation; it is a question of the twelve months, and I am in one of them, and that one is as favourable as the others. That is all, dear brethren; may God bless the word.