FOOD - CLEAN AND UNCLEAN
FOOD - CLEAN AND UNCLEAN
WJH God desires His people to reach maturity; it says, “Till we all come... unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ”, and “May grow up into him in all things”, Ephesians 4: 13, 15. The expression “all things” is important for us to recognise, for not one thing that is not in keeping with Him is to be allowed to remain unjudged.
We may be helped to look at the food we may eat in view of growth, that being largely dependent on food. One had in mind the great range of food available in God’s land. In Egypt the variety of food for the people of God is very restricted, in general it may be said to be confined to the passover lamb, the unleavened bread, and bitter herbs. In the wilderness the variety of food is also limited and, in the main, is confined to manna, but in God’s land there is a range of food available to the saints, so that they may reach maturity. We cannot look much at this range now, but if we look a little at what is in our chapter, the Lord might stimulate our desires and give us a sense of what is available. There is no shortage of the many kinds of food available in God’s land.
JW Is what you have said enriched by the first verse, “Ye are sons of Jehovah your God”?
WJH That bears on what has been said. God’s people were His sons, which involves maturity, not only are they His children; they are His sons, and as such they are to eat food in keeping with such dignified and mature relationship. It says in Joshua that, having crossed the Jordan, they ate that year of the produce of the land. What a thought that is: what that land produces! It includes wheat and barley, the vine, and the fig and the olive, the pomegranate, honey and milk, in addition to those there is animal food available through death. The thought of death does not enter so much, if at all, into the other foods, but the clean animals that we may eat are available only through death.
GHMcK It would remind us that our life is sustained by that which required the death of another.
WJH I think the matter of not eating a carcase is of the greatest importance. A carcase refers to what dies of itself and is therefore not good food. Only what is made available through the beast being slain is good food. The carcase may be sold to the stranger, but the people of God are not to eat it.
FWU Is there any thought of dying of itself being connected with corruption?
WJH That would follow rapidly, but I think dying of itself would involve that there is no application of the Spirit of God in the matter. “If, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body”, Romans 8: 13. There are things that may die out in people’s lives and in the world, of themselves; things that just work themselves out and disappear. Such are not food for a Christian. Take the temperance movement as an example. It is all right for the stranger, but we are not to find food in such movements. There is no application of the meaning of the death of Christ in it. It is right enough for the world, but it is not suitable for the Christian; we must get our food by the direct application of death.
We might dwell together on what we may eat so that all should have a sense of the great range of food available, and feed upon it.
JH Would the food spoken of in John 6 be food to bring about maturity?
WJH Yes. It would maintain life, “He also who eats me shall live also on account of me”, John 6: 57. The Lord’s supper too, is very good food, of the best but, while the Lord’s supper is available weekly, I suppose we may have the food spoken of in this chapter just as often as we have appetite.
EAK Does the range of food you have referred to and its excellent quality, come out in the one day provision of Solomon’s table, where some of the food that is before us in this scripture is enumerated?
WJH That is helpful. I think it gives a list of what was provided each day, and when the queen of Sheba came to Solomon and saw “the food of his table” in such great variety, “ ... there was no more spirit in her”. Men and women of this world are turning to the sink of corruption for food today, and often doing what they did in the siege of Samaria figuratively, eating asses’ heads and doves’ dung, and paying a fabulous price for such unclean food. The Lord would help us to appreciate the variety and excellence of what is available in God’s land.
The first referred to are “the ox, the sheep, and the goat”. These are in one class by themselves; each of these represent excellent food. The ox in Scripture is connected with untiring service to others, a feature seen so perfectly in Christ. He took indeed “a bondman’s form”, which is service in the extreme, and said to His own “I am in the midst of you as the one that serves”, Luke 22: 27. What excellent food, and the more we eat it the more we will be ready to consistently, patiently, and laboriously if needs be, serve the precious interests of Christ and one another.
GHMcK “The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister”, Matthew 20: 28.
WJH Quite so. The Lord came to minister, a wonderful word, and I believe that thought is represented by the ox, and is available for us as food.
VD In Mark 1: 32, “And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased...” That would show an untiring service.
WJH Quite so. When the sun was set an ordinary servant might have said it is time to stop, but the ox character goes on.
Ques What form does this eating take? Is it in the contemplation of Christ?
WJH In a spiritual sense we eat with our minds, and with our affections. Scripture speaks of food for the mind, “the pure mental milk of the word”, 1 Peter 2: 2, showing that the mind is fed. “Bread which strengtheneth man’s heart”, Psalm 104: 15, shows that the affections are fed. I believe the Lord would help us to think of this feature of the ox, and allow it to feed our affections.
WAP Is patience a feature seen in the ox?
WJH Yes. I have no doubt the ox represents patient service, year in and year out.
CG “The Lord direct your hearts... into the patience of the Christ”, 2 Thessalonians 3: 5. Is that your thought?
WJH That is right. The patience of the Lord, in continuing to serve under all conditions, is food, and the Lord would help us to eat it, so that we take character from what we eat. I am quite sure we all express by our ways, spirits, deportment, and manner of life, the kind of food we eat. It is so physically, but more so spiritually.
EAK Would Jeremiah help us as to the matter of the mind and the affections in eating? He said, “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart”, Jeremiah 15: 16.
WJH Quite so. These two faculties are in operation to rightly eat. The thought comes into our minds and we think about it. The apostle says, “Think on these things”, Philippians 4: 8. I think the Lord wants us to take greater care of our minds. Our poverty largely lies in our minds not being taken up with what is of God but, having thought about these things, food is intended to strengthen the affections for Christ.
GF Why do you confine this food to Canaan?
WJH Deuteronomy contains instructions for the land. What Moses says in this book largely has in view what they would enjoy in the land. The bread for their daily life in the wilderness was the manna; the precious grace of Christ that came here in humble conditions to do the will of God, but the building up of a constitution in view of maturity has in mind this range of spiritual food.
Another animal of this group is the sheep. The sheep represents the submissiveness and readiness to suffer seen perfectly in Christ. Paul says “We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter”, Romans 8: 36.
GHMcK Isaiah 53: 7, “He was led as a lamb to the slaughter”.
WJH Quite so, “as a sheep dumb before her shearers”. What excellent food to build up what is of God are the features of Christ represented in the sheep.
GHMcK Do you think the many of our younger brethren especially called on to suffer find that food supports them in it?
WJH I think so. Think of being shorn! “As a sheep dumb before her shearers”. Naturally we resent this; our spirits get on fire if we are shorn of anything, but the sheep stands before her shearers dumb.
JH That came out in a marked way when the Lord Jesus was accused.
WJH Perfectly; and later in Paul in a wonderful way, as a man who fed on this food.
CG This food being the food for the land, where and how practically do we appropriate it? Is it in a sphere outside the wilderness setting that we appropriate Christ, and thus are formed in our minds and hearts?
WJH I think the people of God may be looked at as in three positions. In a certain sense they are in the world, and there they need constantly unleavened bread, constant refusal of evil in the light of the death of Christ. Then they are also passing through the wilderness on the way to God’s purpose, and in that wilderness need the manna to keep them white and even and strong to do God’s will. But in another sense they may touch the great thoughts of God which will be entered into in their fulness in eternity, and in that connection they need the food that is found in the land.
JW Would you agree with what was said long ago that as to our bodies we are in Egypt, as to our experience in the wilderness, but in our spirits we may be in the land?
WJH I think that is right. We may know in our spirits the blessedness of God’s land and enjoy now the food that is there.
JW Do you think it would be illustrated in Caleb and Joshua having gone that wonderful excursion into the land and bringing back the fruits of it? While their daily experiences would be of a wilderness character yet in the spirit of their mind they would be enjoying the rich fruits of that land?
WJH Quite so. The Spirit of God, having been given as “earnest of our inheritance”, gives us power to enjoy what is the purpose of God for His own.
FWU Do you suggest, in this threefold character, that the first two are on the line of what is preservative, the unleavened bread and manna, while the third is positive development?
WJH The first is specially preservative, the manna builds up a constitution that will do God’s will, “Man did eat angels’ food”, Psalm 78: 25. But the various foods available in Canaan bring before us excellent features of Christ; the ox is one, the sheep is another, and the goat another. The goat, no doubt, speaks especially of the marvellous dignity of the walk of Christ; His holy and separate walk. What food they provide!
JNG Do you connect each of these features specially with the way the Lord faced death?
WJH The Lord’s death brings them into perfect expression; His untiring service, His absolute submissiveness, and the stateliness of His going.
VTS Is it interesting that these three mentioned are specially used for the sacrifices?
WJH Showing what delight God has in them. These are brought to God, the sheep and the goat and the bullock, a different thought in the last from the ox, but the same creature.
GHMcK Would you enlarge on the thought of dignity connected with the goat?
WJH “There are three things which have a stately step”, Proverbs 30: 29, and one is “the he-goat”; the tread of kingly dignity that marked Jesus here, separate from all else, but walking in dignity.
EAK Would Joseph bring out the features of the goat, in the dignity that marked him in nearly every situation, as typical of Christ; also in the blessing of Jacob his father “on the crown of the head of him that was separated from his brethren”?
WJH I think that is right. No doubt the goat would bring in the thought of separateness, but also a dignified tread.
GF When you spoke of these animals being available only by death, did you mean that, not only must Christ die, but all must pass through death to enjoy them?
WJH I was thinking that the element of sacrifice is required for us to appropriate them, sacrifice as to ourselves. We do not take on these features easily, it requires the element of sacrifice in us. Food is not to be just a carcase. That is the way I was viewing sacrifice at the moment. We know very well it is not natural to us to say “ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake”, 2 Corinthians 4: 5. It is not natural for us to be submissive and to tread a dignified walk in separation from all that is unsuitable to God.
JW Of the animals ending with “the wild sheep” it says, “These are the beasts which ye shall eat”, and then, “every beast that hath cloven hoofs”, and so on, “ye shall eat”, but later there is the thought of discrimination being necessary.
WJH The Spirit of God does not necessarily give the name of every creature, but just general instruction that such must have divided hoofs; there must be a discriminating walk. Then clean animals are those that chew the cud; there must be the feature of rumination marking them.
Before we proceed, there is another group, “the hart, and the gazelle, and the stag, and the wild goat, ...and the wild sheep”, which are not domesticated or under control, they are creatures that are free in the mountains, in the valleys, and in the fields; they go where they will, whereas the ox is yoked in service to men, the sheep and the goats are in flocks under man’s control. These animals are clean and they can be eaten, even the wild sheep and the wild goat. The Lord Jesus alone on the mountain top is as pure and holy as when serving with His own.
Ques Why do you think there are three and then seven? I was wondering if the three first suggest definitely the Lord Himself.
WJH The Lord has also features of the seven, I think the reference to the sheep as wild is in the sense, of not being controlled by men. It is not the wildness of the ass; we cannot eat a wild ass, but you can eat a wild sheep or a wild goat. They live away from human control but they are still sheep and still goats.
EAK Are there not features of beauty and attractiveness in these animals: the stateliness of the stag being outstanding, and the gentleness and grace of the gazelle.
WJH Holy liberty may be suggested in all of them. “I charge you... the gazelles, or by the hinds of the field”, Song of Songs 2: 7. Liberty of movement in elevated laces is something to feed on.
GF Would you suggest anything in Christ that answers to these animals?
WJH I think this thought of agility as being able to move in difficult places with such sure-footedness would be a feature of Christ. The hart is spoken of as panting after the water-brooks, what a feature that is!
GHMcK He went as He was wont to the mount of Olives, away from the conventions of men.
WJH Quite so. These creatures are found outside the haunts of men but nevertheless are pure and available as food. We can think of the Lord in that way as often alone, but inherently pure, and we need to feed on that, so that when we are alone we are still marked by purity. The Lord was with His own in the features of the ox and the sheep and the goat, then He retired to the mountains and what agility marked Him moving from height to height; what good food is thus afforded us!
Rem He could say, “Come with me, from Lebanon”, Song of Songs 4: 8.
WJH “I will get me to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense”, Song of Songs 4: 6, what liberty of movement in the upper regions. The Song of Songs no doubt, would give us many a clue as to the gazelle, the hind, and the roe.
ABJ The disciples accompanied the Lord and were used to His coming in and going out, but there were occasions when none could follow Him. He went out alone and spent the night with God in prayer.
WJH The contemplation of His movements affords food for our minds and our affections and would help us to take character from Him. We are often tested after the supper as to what agility we have to get to the mountains, and it really depends on how far we have been feeding on Christ in this setting.
EAK The Lord spent whole nights in prayer and rose a great while before day. How much we have had of late in connection with getting up a little earlier to make room for these exercises, feeding on this food would help us.
WJH I am sure it would. It was His custom to retire to the mount of Olives. I wish it were more a custom with us to retire to the spiritual realm. We need food for that.
CG Does John describe a man thus formed, as he says, “I became in the Spirit on the Lord’s day”, Revelation 1: 10, a man formed by this particular kind of food?
WJH Very good. Then it says, “Come up here”, Revelation 4: 4, he could have access to heaven. He is called up through the door that is opened in heaven.
FWU Do you suggest, from the Song of Songs, that the Lord would move first as giving us an example, “Behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills”, Song of Songs 2: 8, and that would produce similar movement with us?
WJH At the Lord’s supper we need to wait in the first instance until the Lord’s voice is heard, and then to be agile when He is moving upward. Sometimes we are rapid at the beginning and very slow when we should be agile. “I charge you... that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please”, Song of Songs 3: 5. Everything is passive until He is pleased to wake love. At the beginning of the meeting we come together and sit down quietly and let the Lord wake love, and nobody should stir until He does. But later He would move to the mountains and He wants His own with Him, and therefore we need the agility of the roe, the gazelle, the hind, and those other creatures that live in the mountains.
CG These animals suggest great spiritual agility and spiritual sensitivity in relation to the service of God.
WJH That is it. I think the Lord is helping us as to the bearing of these things. We are to take account of these holy features and delight in them in Christ and allow them to operate in our souls.
GHMcK Sensitivity is a very apt word: these animals are extremely sensitive.
WJH In a remarkable way, and they enter much into the Lord’s description of His bride in the Song of Songs.
Perhaps we could refer briefly to the other species, namely what is in the waters, and the birds. There is a great range of food in the waters. There were waters in Canaan and there were fishermen there, and there will be in the world to come. There will be fishing along the banks of the river. So that there are great supplies of food in the waters, but we are to know what kind to eat. The kind that have fins and scales are to be eaten, all others to be rejected. There is great instruction in that: only those who have power to go against the general current and to shut out the element they are in, are clean. We see that perfectly in the Lord. He went exactly in the opposite direction to what was general around, and not one trace of the elements penetrated His moral being. We are to feed on that.
GD Does it help that the fish lives in an element that would be death to everything else?
WJH It is an element proper to the fish, but the scales shut out what they are in, so that they are not destroyed by it, and the fins provide them with propulsion against the current. We need these features and are formed according to them by feeding on this food. It is significant that the Lord fed people with fish over and over again. He ate fish after His resurrection, “they gave him part of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb”, Luke 24: 42, showing that fish is good food, but fish with these features.
Then in connection with the birds, all clean birds can be eaten, however small, as sparrows, leaving us to find out in detail what are clean. There are certain that we must not eat, namely the birds that feed on carrion, birds of prey, and those that operate at night, the owl and the bat and their kind. We are not to eat the male or female ostrich. It is remarkable the Spirit of God should refer to both thus.
GHMcK Would Job help us there?
WJH Yes. I think Scripture explains Scripture. We do not need to go outside of Scripture to understand Scripture. The ostrich has no intelligence and no maternal instincts, but the male specially makes a great show. Job speaking of its feathers, Job 39: 13. What makes a great show but lacks intelligence and also lacks maternal features is unclean. What operates in the darkness, especially in relation to spiritual influences, is unclean; anything that feeds on what is dead is unclean. Christian science and spiritualism are in this category. Christian science also makes a show like the ostrich, but the system is devoid of spiritual intelligence and without maternal feelings.
LGL Would what is suggested in the ostrich and the owl be indicated in regard to the end of Babylon as, suggested in Isaiah? It speaks about its glory and so on, and what will find a habitation there. These birds are found there.
WJH Indeed the spiritual Babylon is “a hold of every unclean and hated bird”, Revelation 18: 2. There are many clean birds that we may eat, the dove and the pigeon, and even the sparrow is clean. I do not know any bird that seems so clean as a seagull as to its outward appearance, but it is not clean by reason of what it eats, showing the importance of care and discrimination as to our food.
JNG You alluded to spiritualism; would you connect it with feeding on carrion?
WJH All these wicked systems ignore the ruin of man, and feed on what man is, instead of seeing that what man is morally has been judged. Practically everything that is false disowns, in some way or other, the fall and ruin of man, hence they feed on what is morally dead.
EAK Are not the birds that Abram scared away of that character, and do they not speak to us of the adverse spiritual influences that will rob us of impressions of Christ unless we are energetic in that way?
WJH A very good passage to show how urgent the matter is. “Abram scared them away”, Genesis 15: 12. He would not tolerate their influences in relation to that which spoke of Christ.