OUR SPIRITUAL FOOD
[p. 499] OUR SPIRITUAL FOOD
Matthew 14: 14 - 21; Psalm 132; John 21:5; John 21:9; John 21:13; Luke 24: 41 - 43
In Matthew 14 and Psalm 132 we get the thought of food, the source of it, and how it is introduced and distributed. In John 21 we get certain circumstances among God’s people which preclude the existence of spiritual food, and in Luke 24 such circumstances as ensure it. It is of food, spiritual food - that I desire to speak. The need of spiritual food is very great at the present time, and one would desire to know the conditions which would ensure the supply of such food to the saints. The dearth in many connections is apparent, and it is well for any who have food, whilst enjoying it themselves, to think of those who are in need today.
If one speaks of material food in the same way, we would connect it with God, who is concerned about His creatures. God designed that it should come through the earth in the way of fruit-bearing, whether as to the vegetable creation before the flood, or in the form of meat as after the flood, it came indirectly from the earth. It is how God designed that food should be supplied for man and beast. He could, as Creator, bring in a constant supply, but He forms the earth and causes the sun to shine and the rain to fall, so that there should be food in the way of fruit. It receives its blessing from God, and in Hebrews 6 that is applied spiritually, and suggests to us how God brings in spiritual food on the same principle on which He brings in material food.
It is well to think of that, otherwise we overlook the exercise that becomes us as those by whom God would bring in a supply. The supply is from Himself, as the Psalms and Matthew 14 show, but it comes in in certain conditions on the principle of fruit-bearing.
[p. 500] It is a question for every Christian to ask, What does one supply under divine culture? Each one of us should have something, for the divine thought is there should he a yield from every one. In John 21 we see conditions that preclude the yield of this fruit. The disciples were together, and amongst them Peter and Thomas were first. Peter was taking the lead in a false course. He said, “I go a fishing”, and the others say, “We also go with thee”. The others take it up, and under this circumstance the result is they have no food. They have to confess that they have no meat, they had nothing.
I give you a test, dear brethren. Do you find in your associations spiritual food, or spiritual supply? If not, I would say, take account of these associations; are they marked by human leadership in a false way? It says in the beginning of the chapter, that there were together, Simon Peter and Thomas and others, and Simon says, “I go a fishing”. Now one has no desire to disparage the apostles Peter and Thomas; these are men God would commend, but in this connection they would represent men who were not in communion, for Peter says I go, and the others go too. They said it in their own strength without the Lord, and they toiled all night and got nothing.
The Lord tests them by the question, “Children, have ye anything to eat?” Now if there is nothing to eat, examine your associations, and maybe in the examination you will discern the why and the wherefore of the poverty. The Lord comes in in His grace and shows them how to find the food, and then He has the fire of coals, and bread all ready for them. We need not despair whatever the circumstances. The Lord is near by to supply the food.
In Luke 24 you have different circumstances. The two who set out for Emmaus had been joined by the Lord on the way, and their hearts were caused [p. 501] to burn, and He turns in with them at their invitation. He knows how to test what is in our hearts. He knows the good as well as the bad; and where there is a tendency to stray, He would follow us up with the purpose of touching what is in our heart. He accomplishes His object in these two in the most striking manner; they have something to eat; and He seizes the opportunity to display His own functions as Head. He breaks the loaf, and as He breaks it, their eyes were opened and they knew Him.
It is a wonderful moment when we come to know the Lord as Head; it said, “They knew him”. He is the nourisher of the body, the One from whom all substance flows; and that thought is left in their hearts, and they returned to Jerusalem. They set out for the place where that is to be known. They returned back to the point they had left, that they might find Him in His own circle. He had been in theirs, now they would go back to His, as it were, that they might find Him as Head in that circle. They found those who recognise and own the authority of the Lord, talking about the Lord, and saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon”, and they say, He appeared to us also. Each of us should have something to supply. These two tell the others “how he was known of them in breaking of bread”. That is spiritual food.
What joy it would bring into the hearts of those present to hear the account of the event, how the Lord of glory had been in the house, as Head, and had broken the loaf, and so made Himself known to them as Head. That is a very real contribution, and then the Lord came in. What a spiritual time it was! Then He says, “Have you anything here to eat?” That was another test; and they had. They were not without food. It says, “while they believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto [p. 502] them, Have you here any meat? And they gave him a piece of broiled fish and of an honeycomb”. These things are written for our instruction; and there are conditions among the people of God which ensure the presence of food, and the Lord takes account of it. He puts them to the test by asking if they have got it, and they give Him a piece of a broiled fish and of an honeycomb.
I stop and ask, Have you here any meat? It is a question that may still be put; what are the saints here living on? Is there a supply? There can be no doubt as to the source of what is there. There is abundance of supply in Christ; and the Holy Spirit here unfolds that. What have we now in a spiritual way? The Lord says, “What have you here?” Have you it in this locality, or are you talking about what is in heaven? It is all right to speak of things in heaven; but if the Lord was to speak here, He would raise the question, “What have you here?” The answer is, they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and of an honeycomb. They not only had the fish, they had it broiled, it was ready for eating. The Lord looks, dear, brethren, for an answer to those things in a spiritual way among His people. They gave it Him, and He did eat before them. He would prove to them the reality of His blessed humanity. They saw Him, a Man risen from the dead, eat the fish. He was a real Man, divinely so. Having passed out of flesh and blood conditions, He was a real Man.
Having said so much about the conditions, I want to show from Psalm 132 and Matthew 14 how the Lord supplies things. We have Zion introduced and the anointed in Zion. It represents the sovereign mercy of God. In Psalm 87 it says, “The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob”. We can understand that, for it is the principle on which God has recovered everything [p. 503] for Himself. It does not represent His creatorial power or rights, it represents His sovereign rights in mercy.
One can understand how God loves the gates of Zion, for it is in these gates that all His bounty spiritually is administered. He loves a cheerful giver. Such a one belongs spiritually to the gates of Zion. He is dealing out divine bounty. As the Lord says elsewhere, “Freely have ye received, freely give”. (Matthew 10: 8) Whatever the form, whether spiritually or materially, we should be marked by giving. The Lord loves a cheerful giver, one who acts like Himself.
He says in Psalm 132, “This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell; for I have desired it”. The Lord has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His habitation. It answers to the nature of God, and thus He says, “This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell”. That is, God rests in that which is the product of His sovereign mercy. Would that we took that into our souls; not His rights as Creator, but His sovereign mercy. The position of the whole spiritual universe rests on the sovereign mercy of God. He dwells there, but when we come to the dwelling it is in those who are as living ones; we have the heavenly Jerusalem, the Jerusalem above, the assembly of the living God; so that He dwells in those who are living. Paul says to Titus, “According to his mercy he saved us ... and renewing of the Holy Spirit which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour”. (Titus 3: 5, 6) To the Ephesians he writes, “Ye also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit”. (Ephesians 2: 22) We are thus constituted the habitation of God. He loves it, and He rests in it. And then He says, “I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her poor with bread”. That is how God acts. The disciples according to Matthew 14 really represent this principle. He had selected them, as He says, “Ye have not chosen me,
but I have chosen you”. How each one of us would admit that had we been left to ourselves, to our own exercises, we would never have chosen Him. And now He has blessed us in the light of this sovereign choice, and it says, “I will abundantly bless her provision”. They had very little when the Lord asked, “How many loaves have ye?” They say, “But five loaves and two fishes” (Matthew 14: 17); but they had that much; and the Lord goes on the principle of taking up what there is; “to him that hath shall be given”. (Matthew 13: 12)
There is much said in the epistle to the Hebrews as to what we have in an objective way. We have the Apostle, High Priest, Great Priest, and we have boldness to enter the holiest, we are said to have many things, but the question is, What have we subjectively down here, what have we in the way of spiritual food amongst us? They say, we have just five loaves. The Lord says, I will abundantly bless that. “I will satisfy her poor with bread”. What encouragement there is, dear brethren, in these days to develop the exercises one with another, that we have it in however small a measure, and as having it, the Lord blesses it, abundantly blesses it, “I will satisfy her poor with bread”. And as speaking thus, I would turn aside to say a word as to all the saints. If we are in the light of Zion and the purposes of God, and if in any little measure we have anything spiritually, we think of all the saints, and we regard them as before God, not that we assume to be right. Every saint on earth belongs to God, and do you think God neglects any one of His people? Paul says, “The Lord knoweth them that are his”. (2 Timothy 2: 19) The more you take that in the more you include in your prayers every one that belongs to Zion. Does He not think of their poverty; is He not concerned that they should be ministered to; and if there is any food going it is for the whole assembly, and [p. 505] He takes up the little He finds, and blesses it abundantly, so that the poor may be fed. “I will satisfy her poor with bread”.
There is another thought, and that is, “He makes the horn of his anointed to bud”. He says in verse 16, “I will also clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints shall shout aloud for joy. There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed”. It is what God does, He clothes the priests, the priests of Zion. The point is to be a priest in Zion; that is, to be a priest in relation to the purpose of God, and the assembly. One who is clothed with salvation is not under the influence of this world; he is not held by it; he is not influenced by it; he is free of it. That is the principle of salvation. Now the psalmist asked the Lord to clothe her priests with righteousness. That is an important feature. If one is to perform the function of priest in connection with Zion, one must be righteous in every relation, and as there is righteousness, God clothes them with salvation; so that the priests are free from worldly influences. It is a very important word for us to see to it that we are clothed with salvation. Then He says, “I will make the horn of David to bud”. We may refer to that as the evidence of life. It is that which represents the power of Christ in His people. God brings that about, and one looks for it among the people of God; that the horn of David should bud, and then, “I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed”. These are the things God is doing; and the exercise one has is to be in accord, that there may be the evidence of life; and the horn of David budding, and then He says, “I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed”. If one sees one who is dignified by the anointing, the thing is to respect him. David respected Saul because he was anointed of the Lord, he says, “the shield of the mighty was [p. 506] vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as not anointed with oil”. (2 Samuel 1: 21) We are to have the greatest respect for the holy anointing oil. May we know how to give the Lord His place, who abundantly blesses Zion’s provision and knows how to satisfy the poor with bread.