SPIRITUAL FOOD
Daniel 1:3-21; Exodus 16:11-18; Joshua 5:10-15;
The importance of spiritual food has been before us on several occasions recently, because it is very important. I felt encouraged by the first reading that we had today. I trust that you have enjoyed feeding on the features of Christ that have been brought before us. Our brother has spoken of food, that it gives life and produces growth, and also gives satisfaction. And another thing about food is that it forms us. That is the purpose of spiritual food, and how good God is in providing it.
I do not want to go into the detail of these scriptures, but just to show that at every stage of the pathway, God is faithful and He provides food for your soul. What a God; how blessed! The thought of food in Scripture is that it would build up a moral constitution. Now you might ask, ‘What does that mean?’ It simply means that what you partake of forms you, it creates habits, it affects the way that you think, and it affects the way that you look at things. I want to bring out this point in Daniel, because there is other food available. You can see in this scripture that the king desired to find the best of the children of Israel. And, dear young friend, the world is looking for the best in believers: a solemn thought. The world would like to give you a name. That is what the prince of the eunuchs did, he gave Daniel and his companions Babylonish names. The enemy would desire to give you a position in the world, give you something to be proud about. It is foreign to the food that God would provide you with. There is this delicate food, and the god of this world makes it very attractive. It is all there on the table; every feature of the world is there. What might appeal to you might not appeal to me, but it is there, “the king’s delicate food”.
I speak feelingly, beloved, because the world’s food is forced upon us. When I was young, when I wanted the world’s food, I had to go out and get it. I had to go into the world. I had to cross two thresholds. I had to cross the threshold of my parent’s home, and I also had to cross the threshold of the place in the world that was seeking to feed me. We live in a time when the world’s food is so easily available to us, and I speak feelingly to our younger brethren, because things have changed even since I was young. The enemy has sought to bring the world into our homes, but he was not satisfied with that. He has brought the world’s food right into the palms of our hands. You know it, do you not? It is the food that would lead to soul dearth, would fill your mind, would fill your thoughts with the world’s things. But here was a young man, and he had purpose of heart. If you have purpose of heart, you give God room to act. If you have purpose of heart, and you decide that the food of the world does not satisfy you, that you want something better and you want some nourishment for your soul, God has it available for you. Daniel recognised the food that would damage him, and he knew what he wanted. He said, “let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink”.
You can trace back to Genesis as to the herb of the field (Gen.1:11). The pulse speaks of God’s word and it is available to you. God’s word is in every scripture. Paul writes to Timothy that “Every scripture is divinely inspired, and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be complete, fully fitted to every good work”, 2 Tim.3:16,17. That is in principle what Daniel wanted, the word of God. The Bible that you have in your hand, dear young believer – treasure it! Every scripture is divinely inspired, and it is not there just to be admired. It is there to be read, and it is there to affect you and me. It has been said that we need to read that scripture as ‘every scripture is divinely inspired, and profitable for teaching me, for convicting me, for correcting me, for instructing me in righteousness’. The word of God must have a bearing on our lives, and it will affect us. It will affect the way that we think, and it will affect our pathway. It will affect everything in relation to this world. It will set everything in order.
There is not only the word of God, but the water. That speaks of the Spirit. The Spirit is available. How good God is; every resource is available. The Spirit of God is the One who desires to lead us into the truth. And what was the result? The result was that a change could be seen. It could be seen in these four young men that the food of this world was not suitable for them, but what they had, in type, was the word of God shown to them by the Holy Spirit. They were a different kind of person. Do you want it, friend? Do you want this kind of food? How blessed it is, the food that God would provide.
These two scriptures in relation to the manna and also the old corn of the land have been before us today, and I do not want to go over what has already been said, but God in His faithfulness provides for you. The children of Israel had come through the Red Sea, speaking to us of the Lord’s death and the way that the Lord has gone for me. Have you come that way? Have you come out of Egypt? Have you committed yourself to the Lord Jesus? Is Egypt behind you? The flesh is in us, and Egypt is always there. What will it be, beloved brethren, when the flesh is gone, when we are with Christ, when we have bodies of glory and the temptations of Egypt will be gone for ever. But these persons, the children of Israel, came out of Egypt and God took account of them. He took account of their discontent, He took account of their murmuring and He said, as it were, ‘I am going to provide for them’. How good God is. It is all from His side, and He says, “between the two evenings ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread”. Think of God, in His goodness, providing for you, providing for me, providing a blessed Man in Christ, the One who came here in likeness of flesh. That is what we have to feed on. And then, in the morning, God provided manna. That was seen in the Lord Jesus when He was here, and you find it in the word of God – every precious feature that was seen in the life here of the Lord Jesus. How could we fathom them? Have you pondered His obedience? Have you taken account of the Man that came here, subject to the will of the Father? The manna speaks of what Christ was down here for God. Think of God taking account of these blessed features – His obedience, His subjection, dependence, meekness, His love of righteousness, His hatred of lawlessness. What a Person! Feed your soul on Him, friend. This food is available to you, but you have to go and get it for yourself.
This platform at the last three-day meeting in this city looked quite different. We value the brothers that are here today, we value every one, but we have lost some older ones. The Lord has taken persons who fed on the manna, who fed on the old corn of the land. When we were younger, perhaps we thought that we could get persons to feed for us and that we would be all right, that we could hold on to these spiritual persons. But dear friend, that will not work; you need to get it for yourself. This was a daily exercise for Israel. They had to go out, the householder had to go out and collect the manna that had come down from heaven. Where does your food come from? The food industry makes great play of tracing things to its source. When you go into the supermarket and you look at the labels, particularly on fresh produce, it will tell you where it has come from, not only the country of origin but sometimes the farm. We need to test where our food comes from. I suggest that there are only two sources. It is either coming from the god of this world, or it is coming from heaven. How precious that this heavenly food is available, but you have to go and get it. Are you prepared for it? Am I prepared for it? The Bible that we have, and I am tested myself, how do you read it? If you pick up a worldly book, you would not just dip into one chapter here and another chapter there, would you? You would start at the beginning. Now, I test myself about that: the word of God – how precious is it to me? We are to feed on it, but we have to go and get this food, take time to get it. We are to feed on Jesus, the Man of God’s choice, the One who was here, the One who had God continually before Him, who pursued the will of God. But worldly food, Egypt’s food – we still hanker after it, if we are honest. The children of Israel spoke of the “cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic” (Num.11:5) that they remembered from Egypt. These are foods that would make something of men, but I speak simply, these are also foods that come back on you. Have you ever had that experience, beloved, that you taste some of the world’s food and then you are sitting in a meeting and all of a sudden you start thinking about what the world had given you, something you have seen, and you say to yourself, ‘What am I thinking about?’. Dear friend, there is food available that comes from heaven.
Our brother helped us on this scripture in Joshua recently in Glasgow and I do not want to go over what he brought before us. But in every exigency of the testimony, God provides food. How blessed that is. The background is that the children of Israel had come through the Jordan. They had come over on dry land, they had seen that the water had gone right back (Josh.3:16,17); it speaks of our death with Christ. That is easy to say, but what do I know about my death with Christ? They came out on to the shore, and the first thing that was done was circumcision (Josh.5:2). Before we can eat of the old corn of the land, dear brethren, we need to cut off the flesh – everything in relation to me, all the bad features of the world and the flesh, and all the good features as well. Our brother said there is only one Man before God, and that is Christ. He is the One on whom we need to feed, the One who was here for the will and pleasure of God but is now in glory. They were at Gilgal and if we are going to take up any military service, Gilgal has in principle to be our base. That was where circumcision was applied, and the cutting off the flesh speaks of self-judgment. The ‘sharp knives’ are spoken of here1, and it is a painful exercise, but how necessary. And then there is the passover. How blessed it is that God provides the passover; it is for God Himself, although we come into the blessing of it. It is to affect us, as we think of God taking account of the passover lamb and the unleavened bread being eaten. How much it means to God that there are persons feeding on Christ.
Then there is the old corn of the land. There is a Man in heaven, He belongs there, and He has fulfilled every purpose of God. Every feature of it, and every iota of the will of God, has been fulfilled completely by Jesus. He is at the right hand of God; He is there as food for our souls. The old corn of the land is feeding on that blessed Man who is now in heaven at the right hand of God. God’s delight is in Him. May we have an appetite for this heavenly food, dear brethren.
I just touch lightly on the scripture in Acts. There was conflict then. We see that in Joshua too, that if conflict was going to be entered into, there were certain requirements. Joshua saw a man standing with a sword, and he said, “Art thou for us, or for our enemies?”. Joshua needed a little adjustment, but he brings out an important principle. He was a soldier, and he brings out the principle that there was no question of neutrality – it was either one thing or another. The angel of Jehovah stood there, and Joshua, you might say, was brought into line. He had to take his sandals off, because if we do not have an appreciation of the land, if I have no appreciation of the inheritance and what God has brought us into, how can I fight for it? Think of a soldier going to war with no appreciation of the country that he is fighting for. May we have an appreciation of these things, that we may be equipped for the conflict.
In Acts, in what is referred to as Paul’s shipwreck, there are persons who have gone a long time without taking food, and what does that do? It brings in weakness. If we are not feeding on Christ, what are we feeding on? These persons were feeding, we might say, on their surroundings. They were feeding on what was around, they were occupied with the storm and they were trying to do their best in their own strength, but Paul had food available. We have spoken of the manna; that relates to the gospels, you find Christ in the gospels. But think of the food for the soul in the epistles, the light as to Christ and the assembly. How precious that these things are available to us, beloved brethren. There were those that sought to do what they could in their own strength, but they came to the point that they were seeking to get out of the ship. If we get out of the ship, what are we going to give up? It seems to suggest that it is the giving up of some aspect of the truth, particularly as to the truth of the assembly. If you follow your own will, where will your boat take you? Oh, beloved, let us stay with Paul; he has food available. He said, “Wherefore I exhort you to partake of food, for this has to do with your safety”. Is that not blessed? This food is safe food; it will bring us safe to land. Let us feed on it, beloved brethren, it is available to us. Do you want it, do you have an appetite for it? May we be encouraged to go in for this type of food.
I just want to read a verse in 2 Samuel chapter 19, verse 28. This is Mephibosheth speaking, and he says, “For all my father’s house were but dead men before my lord the king; and thou didst set thy servant among them that eat at thine own table”. What an appreciation Mephibosheth had of the brethren, those that sit at the king’s table. It is available for you, beloved; there is a place for you at the king’s table. What a sense of mercy Mephibosheth had. He appreciated the fellowship that we spoke of in the reading. He appreciated what it was to be gathered with those that had been shown mercy and those who the Lord can have at His table. We see that on Lord’s day morning, as we gather at the Supper. We gather with those who belong to the Lord Jesus, those who desire to be faithful to Him, gathered at the Lord’s supper. How precious it is, food for our souls, and we get it too in our reading meetings. Value them, come to the weeknight meetings; you will get food for your soul, you will find what it is to be round the King’s table and enjoying what is available.
May we be encouraged to have an appetite for this spiritual food, and may we all be preserved together in feeding on Christ. May the Lord bless the word.
Address at Edinburgh 3-day meeting
20 October 2017
T.R. Campbell