THE FOOD SUPPLY (SUMMARY OF A READING)
THE FOOD SUPPLY (SUMMARY OF A READING)
The question is raised here of the food supply in a time of famine. At such a time it is the concern of Christ that there should be food, but there was a lack of discernment in one who went out to gather herbs and brought what was wild, it was unwittingly shred into the pot. This was not an enemy’s work but a mistake by one who intended to help; such mistakes have been a frequent source of trouble in the church. I think it sets forth the working of the human mind in the things of God. There may be a good intention without spiritual discernment. There has been an immense amount of teaching which was meant to do good but which has been really harmful to the people of God. But we see here how the Lord would use such an occasion to bring out His own resources in neutralising what is of the enemy, though introduced by friends.
I believe the ministry of the Spirit during the last century has been largely a casting of meal into the pot. I have no doubt that the Lord is by the Spirit bringing in what will counteract the working of what is wrong. I believe the meal is the truth as ministered by the Spirit in contrast with what has been ministered by the mind of man. There is divine substance in it which is corrective. It is not exactly emptying the pot and starting afresh, but the Spirit giving a divine setting forth of the truth to correct a merely [p. 173] natural apprehension of it. All that we know of divine things we have either taken up by the Spirit or in our natural minds; there is no vital power in the latter. One can understand that in connection with all that is spiritual the natural mind can only grasp the shell. Ministry in the Spirit is the only thing that will really feed the saints but it must be spiritually received if it is to profit us. A thought that is not of the Spirit may be a lifelong hindrance to the apprehension of the truth. The action of the Spirit seen here in type is a most important one in a day of departure and particularly in relation to the ministry of divine things.
But then we must not think that this corrective action of the Spirit is all that He does. There is something positive and satisfying that comes from the heavenly land. The man from Baal-shalishah represents one who in a time of famine can bring the very best. This man has been reaping his fields while others have been in famine; he has been gathering in a fresh harvest. He brought bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of corn in his sack. It is not here the old corn of the land, or stored corn, but firstfruits; he has just reaped it in a fresh harvest.