SPIRITUAL FOOD

SPIRITUAL FOOD

Exodus 12: 5 - 11; Exodus 16: 14 - 19; Deuteronomy 8: 3, 16; John 6: 54 - 57; John 14: 19, 20

In reading these scriptures I have in mind the matter of eating in a spiritual sense. For just as natural life is supported on the principle of eating, so spiritual life is also supported on that principle, and we shall suffer greatly as regards our spiritual life and enjoyment if we neglect the matter of eating spiritual food. Hence Scripture is full of the thought of eating. Eating in a spiritual sense is a matter of feeding our minds and our hearts; that is, the mind is to be occupied with what is worthy of its occupation and then the affections will follow suit.

I commenced with the passover because the passover lamb as eaten represents an apprehension and appropriation by us of Christ in His death, in His suffering love. Indeed, we may say, it is intended to mark us all through our Christian pathway. The passover comes in normally at the beginning of our pathway but it is also to characterise us all through. It was eaten in the land of Egypt and became the power by which the people moved out of Egypt, it became strength for them, but the passover had also to be celebrated in the wilderness and in the land. It is therefore not so much an elementary thought as a fundamental thought which goes right through.

As we know, the passover lamb was taken on the tenth day of the first month. The word was, “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months... In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb,” Exodus 12: 2, 3. The passover lamb was taken on the tenth day of the month and was kept until the fourteenth day and was then slain before their eyes, and the blood of the lamb was put on the doorposts and lintels and that became their salvation from judgment. “When I see the blood, I will pass over you,” verse 13. It represents the value of the blood of Christ as that by means of which we, as Christians, have been redeemed, so that we have been saved from the judgment that otherwise must have fallen upon us, by means of the value in the sight of God of the blood of Christ. “Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold... But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God,” 1 Peter 1: 18 - 21. But then what is also to be noticed is that the flesh of the lamb, whose blood provided them with safety from judgment, was to be eaten by those who were thus saved from judgment. This is a matter that is sometimes neglected. The object in eating the flesh roast with fire is that we should soberly consider the fact that, if we were to be redeemed, it necessitated that Christ Himself should bear the judgment of God in a most unsparing form. The flesh was to be eaten roast with fire. There was to be no modification of the action of the fire. Christ is to be before our minds and hearts as having had to endure and exhaust the judgment of God against sin in a most absolute way if we were to be redeemed for the pleasure of God. As feeding our minds on Christ in that way we get a right sense in our souls of the seriousness of sin. It is not a matter to be treated lightly. If the only way that we could be saved was that Christ had to bear the judgment, then as we feed upon it, it gives us an increasing sense of the seriousness of sin. We come to it in our minds and our affections that by the grace of God we will not any longer go on with sin; that is, we will not live to ourselves.

We will not do our own wills; our own wills are exposed in the light of the death of Christ. It has in view our being delivered practically from the world and secured here for the present time as bondmen to God.

In the wilderness they still had to celebrate the passover and also when they were in the land. It is not that we need to be always dwelling on it, but that our affections are to be maintained by the love of Christ thus expressed so that we repudiate every working of our own will. “Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head and his legs, and with the purtenance thereof” (or inwards), Exodus 12: 9. His head refers to the glory of His Person, and the legs to the perfection of His walk, and the inwards to the perfection of His motives and inner feelings. We are to be impressed with the seriousness of sin and the greatness of the love of Christ, and as feeding upon it thus to be energised to refuse every working of sin in ourselves. They were to let nothing of it remain until the morning. “Thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste,” verse 11. The feeding on the passover is intended to promote diligence with us to leave the world and its features behind. The world is just a system in which man lives to himself and pleases himself. The more we are characterised by feeding on the passover lamb, the more we will be exercised to leave that system behind. It was the power in their souls to move out of Egypt as a people redeemed for the pleasure of God, and it goes right through. Clearly we must be maintained in it, whether it is a question of being in the wilderness for the pleasure of God, or whether it is a question of entering into our greatest privileges. In whatever position we are viewed, there must be maintained with us the judgment of sin; there can be no allowance of sin.

So one had the thought just a few moments ago of king Uzziah, king of Judah (2 Chronicles 26). We read of how marvellously he was helped; he sought God and God made him to prosper. The chapter enlarges on his prosperity and the increase of power that marked him, and how successful he was in war against God’s enemies. In that chapter there is no mention of any keeping of the passover. Then it says that his heart was lifted up and he transgressed and went into the house of God to burn incense. You see how it is possible for us to go on a long while and apparently prosper spiritually, and yet if the passover is neglected we shall find ourselves transgressing. He became a leper and remained so to the day of his death. We need the passover as food right through our spiritual history.

Exodus 16 brings us to the thought of the manna. That is another type of Christ as food. The food provided for us in a spiritual sense is nearly always Christ in one form or another. I do not say it is invariably Christ, for I think there is a sense in which we may feed on the work of God in the saints. David fed on the shewbread, which would refer to the saints as God views them, and it is important to feed our affections on the people of God thus. David no doubt would be greatly strengthened in meeting the persecutions which he endured for so long by having fed on the shewbread, having fed his mind and affections on the saints as God can take account of them. But as a general rule, spiritual food would be Christ in some aspect or another. The manna is found in the wilderness, and when I speak of the wilderness that is simply what the world has become to the Christian in the absence of Christ. It is the scene where Christ is not, and such a scene becomes a wilderness to the one who loves Christ. There is nothing in the scene which can minister to me spiritually. There is nothing in the world, or that is of the world that will contribute to the spiritual well-being of the saints. But we have to go through the world, and we have to go through it as redeemed, redeemed to God so as to be for the pleasure of God and governed by the will of God, and it is a question as to how we are sustained in that. It is a daily matter. It is a great help to recognise that the principle of a believer’s life is day by day. We are to cultivate the idea of keeping short reckonings with God. Do not let a day go by without that day, so to speak, coming under review with God, and any matter not wholly suitable to God being judged and disposed of. It is a great matter to live day by day. If it is a question of food, it is a matter of day by day. Alas, when in their unbelief and lust the people asked for flesh, God gave enough quails to last a month, and they had to eat flesh for a month until it came out at their nostrils (Numbers 11: 19, 20). God’s hand is not shortened. If it were His way to provide us with food to last us for a month, He could easily do so, but that is not His mind. He intends to deliver us from every form of independence, and develop in us the spirit of dependence which has been seen in Christ. The wilderness is intended to develop in the people of God the attitude of dependence on God every day.

“When the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing as small as the hoar frost on the ground,” Exodus 16: 14. The smallness of it is emphasised. We all naturally like bigness in some form. The smallness refers to the lowly grace in which the Lord Jesus has been found here, in the same circumstances of daily life as we ourselves have to go through. That is, we start as babes, and the Lord Jesus, who in wonderful grace became a Man, was found as a Babe. We have to go through the period of being children, placed in relation to parents, and our responsibility before God is to be obedient to our parents, and the Lord Jesus is brought before us as One who was placed in His boyhood in relation to parents and we are told that He was subject to them. As we grow up we have to submit ourselves to whatever may be the line of occupation that God has for us. In the case of the Lord Jesus it was that of a carpenter, nothing very attractive to the natural man. It was certainly nothing that would make Him appear great in the eyes of men. “Is not this the carpenter?” Mark 6: 3. He lived in Nazareth, not a very desirable place to live in, and in Capernaum, another undesirable place to live in. We are reminded that in wonderful grace the Lord Jesus has been down here in this world in similar circumstances to those in which the people of God find themselves in the ordering of God. And He filled out those circumstances in dependence on God, having His ear wakened morning by morning to hear what God would say to Him. He moved through on that principle, rejoicing in God’s will and moving dependently. Psalm 16 gives us by the Spirit a delineation of the features of the Lord Jesus Christ as Man here, beginning with dependence and then lowliness, contentment and many other features which you can discern in that Psalm in which is set out the moral excellence which characterised the Lord Jesus in His path down here. I need not say that He was entirely without sin, but He moved through on a line which we ourselves can take up. We can take up the principle of obedience and dependence on God. The Lord Jesus took it up in order that He might set out the way in which God intends His people to move through this world, and as moving through on this principle, to be completely victorious over the world.

So the manna is a small thing. It will fit into anything. There is no circumstance in which we can find ourselves in our path here into which obedience to God’s will does not fit. The principle of obedience as set out so gloriously in the Lord Jesus here is the governing principle of the believer’s life, and as taken up and answered to by us we shall find we can go through this world, not overcome by it. Indeed the feeding upon the manna develops what is typified in the acacia wood. The acacia wood represents the incorruptible order of manhood according to Jesus Christ, in which the saints are formed by the Spirit, which enables us to stand here in the wilderness as identified with the testimony of God. And as thus standing up, we are set together, in order to move together to provide a dwelling place for God and to serve Him in it. For that we need the power of endurance and the power of overcoming, and that is developed as we feed upon the manna. “A small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground”. The word manna means ‘What is it?’ It is something that is entirely new. It is morally glorious. It says “Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, At even, then ye shall know that the Lord hath brought you out from the land of Egypt: And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the Lord,” Exodus 16: 6, 7. In the evening what did they see? They saw quails brought up, covering the camp. Here quails were brought up in the evening just to show what God could do if He pleased. There was no limit to the power of God. The Lord could quite easily take us out of testing conditions. He could alter things in our favour any time He pleased, but that is not God’s way. His way is to develop in us features of dependence and obedience which were found perfectly in the Lord Jesus. Wilderness circumstances and testings have that in mind and the manna is provided accordingly. In the morning they saw the manna - the glory of the Lord, and what a glory it is! He Who is Creator of heaven and earth came down in grace into the humble circumstances of human life and adorned them! What a glory it is that He should have come so low in circumstances similar to our own in order to be food for us! So a child may understand that Jesus has been a child and has been subject to parents. The Spirit of God will remind that child that Jesus was subject to His parents. The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews says that in the ark was the manna in a golden pot (Hebrews 9: 4). You can understand how he would speak of it as a glorious matter.

The manna was to be gathered every morning, “every man according to his eating”. That is, we are tested as to how much we can eat. Then it says that they were not to leave of it, “Let no man leave of it till the morning,” that is, the idea of freshness in our appropriation of it is emphasized. “On the sixth day they gathered twice as much,” in view of the rest, the holy sabbath on the following day. I am sure that will be found verified in the experience of the brethren; as we give ourselves to feeding on the manna it leads to restfulness of spirit. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” Matthew 11: 28. He gives it on certain lines - “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls,” verse 29. He is prepared to give us rest, but He gives it as the result of our taking His yoke upon us and learning from Him. It corresponds morally to feeding on the manna day by day and we find that it leads to a sabbath.

In Deuteronomy the Spirit of God, through Moses, commenting on the way they had been led, says, “who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end,” chapter 8: 16. It is well for us to understand that, beloved brethren, that the manna is intended to prove us as to whether we are obedient or not, and as we are obedient, we shall find that God will do good to us in our latter end.

Now in John 6 we have another kind of food. We have spoken of the passover which is to characterise us all through our Christian course. There is also the manna which is food for the wilderness and the wilderness only; that is in our ordinary responsible life here in the world where Christ is not. This food spoken of in John 6 is living bread come down from heaven. When it comes to eating it we find that the Lord changes the figure and it is not spoken of as bread, but as His flesh and His blood; eating His flesh and drinking His blood. That is another aspect in which we should feed our minds and our hearts on Christ, on Christ as having died, for His flesh and His blood obviously allude to His death. It is the death of Christ as that by means of which He has vicariously brought to an end the condition of flesh and blood in which we are at the moment involved, with a view to bringing to light in Himself as Man beyond death, a new order of life in which we partake by the Spirit. The condition of flesh and blood is not the final thought of God, but that which is now set out in Christ as risen from the dead. As having received the Spirit of God we have the power to move in our thoughts and affections into another order of life where Christ is. We must bear in mind that Christian blessings are spiritual blessings in heavenly places. They are not natural things; they are not earthly things. The blessings that God in His grace has given us are spiritual blessings and in heavenly places, and God has given us the Holy Spirit, linking us with Christ who is in heaven, in order that in the Spirit we may find our life and satisfaction in the things that are above. We have to go through the world and in it we may glorify God and serve Him. There is the thought of our moving together in the wilderness as carrying the testimony of God. There is also this important matter of finding our life in the things that are above.

So Christ is presented to us as food, as having come down from heaven for the express purpose of dying and taking life again beyond death, a spiritual order of life in which we may have part already by the Holy Spirit whom we have received. Naturally we all tend to live in natural things, and hence the lever by which we can be helped to move in our thoughts and affections away from what is natural to what is spiritual, is the death of Christ. Though we have to continue for the moment in a flesh and blood condition we may move in the power of the Spirit in relation to Christ in another condition. “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life,” verse 54. That is life that cannot be touched by death. If I am living in natural affections, however right they may be according to God, however happy they may be, they can be touched by death. And if I live in natural affections and death comes, it is most solemn. My life, so to speak, is gone, and I am desolate. “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” The more we feed upon Christ in this light, the more our souls are sustained in appreciation of Christ where He is, and of all that stands in connection with Him, including the assembly. That is a character of life that is eternal. I am not despising natural affections,

but it is a question of what we find our life in. The Lord would encourage us to eat His flesh and drink His blood, in order to find our life in the circle of which He is the centre. It means that, more and more, we find our life in something that cannot be touched by death. If death invades our circle, it does not rob us of what is our life. That is indeed what the saints prove, they truly have part in eternal life; they have their life and joy in Christ and in the circle of the saints. They find when times of sorrow come they are supported above their sorrow. I do not say they do not feel it, but keen though the sorrow is, they have not been robbed of that in which they find their life. “He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him,” verse 56. The more we feed upon Christ in His death in this way, the greater the place Christ has in our hearts’ affections and we become more conscious of having a place in Him. “He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.” The result is that Christ Himself where He is becomes, in the Spirit’s power, more and more the occupation and satisfying portion of our hearts. This is presented in John 6 on individual lines, for after all we must feed individually, but it has in view what is collective. It may be that neglect of individual feeding on these lines, may explain in some measure any lack of substance and power that appears when we come together in assembly.

There is the collective feeding which, I suppose, is typified in the old corn of the land. When the people of God passed over Jordan they found the old corn there before them. They found that which belonged to the land: it was there before them and they were able to feed upon it. That is what is suggested in these words in John 14. The Lord speaks of going into the Father’s presence before His disciples. He was speaking of what they would enjoy when He had gone to the Father, by reason of the Holy Spirit being with them down here, “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.” What comes to pass is that, though the world sees Christ no longer, we see Him. The Spirit engages the hearts’ affections of the saints with Christ where He is; the Spirit gives us the consciousness of our part as bound up with Christ where He is. Although for the moment we are down here and He is with the Father, our part is bound up with Him there. “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me,” John 17: 24. The Spirit gives us the consciousness that our portion is with Christ where He is. “Because I live ye live also,” I believe that corresponds to our feeding on the old corn of the land. We feed our hearts’ affections on Christ where He is as the One with whom the assembly is bound up in life, and we learn in Him our portion in the favour of the blessed God.

So the Lord goes on to say, “At that day,” that is, the Spirit’s day, “ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you,” verse 20. It is what the Spirit’s service results in, that we are made conscious of the place Christ has in the Father’s affections, and that we have a place in His affections, and that He has a place in our affections. The assembly is bound up with Christ. We are in the full light that He is in His Father. It is opened up by the Spirit, and because He lives we live also. We come to enjoy it on the principle of feeding on the old corn of the land. The One who has gone there before us belongs to the scene, and we feed upon Him in our minds and affections,

and it sustains us together in what is heavenly.

I trust this will impress us with the importance of spiritual food. I have not attempted to touch on another feature of food and that is the tree of life. You remember the promise to the overcomer in Ephesus, “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God,” Revelation 2: 7. May the Lord help us to appropriate the food that is available to us.