FOOD
Address 7th June 1954
I would like to speak about Christ, first as He is presented as a type in the manna and then as the living bread come down from heaven. He must be appreciated as the manna as well as the living bread. The thought of being nourished by Christ involves that we are occupied with Himself in the different light in which He is presented. When our mind is engaged with Him it sets our affection in movement, because He secures a place in our heart. In this way we are formed by what we feed upon. There are two great things God has in mind: first Christ must have a place in our hearts, and then we must be formed in measure in our appreciation of Him. The manna presents Christ in type as One that has come near to us in our common human circumstances through grace, to become food for the saints in these circumstances. Each one of us knows well what it is to live in these ordinary circumstances, and we know from time to time how testing this is. They are ordered by God that we should find Christ as our food, which we need in these circumstances to maintain all for God's will. It is a great matter that believers are left down here for the will of God, whatever might take place. Satan has brought in the thought of independence from God’s will, and by nature each of us would be opposed to the will of God. Christ has washed us from our sins through His blood, so that we are no longer marked by what we were marked by before. What is before us now is to be redeemed, in view of being here for the will of God. God works in order that this should be attractive to us, in presenting Christ to us in circumstances like our own. That is why He is presented in Luke as a little child, and then at the age of twelve, and then reaching the age of about thirty. The whole time He spent in Nazareth, apart from the time we read about in Matthew’s gospel. As He escaped the persecution of Herod, He was brought down to Egypt and then brought out again in order that the scripture should be fulfilled: “out of Egypt I called my son”, Hos 11: 1. Before this He was born in Bethlehem, and as He came back from Egypt, He was brought to Nazareth, where we read that He grew up. In this way we understand He was in normal conditions for thirty years, sin apart, conditions in which we ourselves are found. He lived together with those who in God’s ordering were His parents. He was known as the son of the carpenter, and probably He had Himself worked as a carpenter, because He is referred to in Mark’s gospel as the carpenter, chap 6: 3. In these outward circumstances there was nothing attractive, as His parents were obviously poor, and His work was not desired by people with ambition. But in these conditions, He rendered pleasure to God day by day. So at the time when He was baptised by John, the Father’s voice from heaven was heard: “This is my beloved Son in whom I have found my delight”.
The Psalms and other scriptures give great detail of these thirty years. For example, in Psalm 22: 10 we read, “I was cast upon thee from the womb; thou art my God from my mother’s belly”. We read in Psalm 16 that He spoke in His heart: “Preserve me, O God; for I trust in thee”. This took place in order that this great feature of dependence on God which came out in the beginning of His life down here should be a pattern for us. I need not say that He is in His Person God, “over all, God blessed for ever” (Rom 9: 5); He came out of eternity as we read in Micah 5: 2. But I speak now of how He became Man, and He began His life in manhood as a little child, and in this way as the prophet of Isaiah says, “he shall grow up … as a tender sapling, and as a root out of dry ground”, chap 53: 2. The ground around Him was dry, He could not derive anything from it. But nonetheless He was a root, which means fruit should come out such as takes character from Him. In this way He is presented as the manna that we see with the children of Israel when God brought them out of Egypt. They were in a wilderness, in surroundings that did not suit their life. That is the position of the believer in this world. There is nothing here in the world that awakens us spiritually.
God took up the question how the children of Israel would be fed. God said He would give them food from heaven. It would be found on the surface of the ground in the wilderness. They had to gather it fresh every day. God never gave them more than what was needed for one day, apart from the sixth day of the week, when He gave them enough for two days, in order to maintain the sabbath. Through this God brought in the principle of “from day to day”; that was a principle that the people should live by. Thus the manna presents the word of God; it had to be gathered daily. The Lord Himself as Man moved according to this principle. In the prophet of Isaiah, it says prophetically of Him: “morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear”, chap 50: 4. The manna was given as the Lord Himself said: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which goes out through God’s mouth”, Matt 4: 4. This principle of daily dependence on God has a great moral impact in the eyes of God. It is man’s glory to be dependent on God. It is really a shame when you are independent from God. The influence of Satan leads to this, that you are independent from God. But the intention of God is that man should be dependent on Him, that we would find in Him all we need. By nature, we want to have great resources at our disposal. But it is greater to know God as the great visible source of help. As the children of Israel murmured about the food, God said through Moses that they would see in the evening as He brought them out of Egypt. But in the morning they would see the glory of God. What God did in the evening was that He prepared a multitude of quails. This shows there was nothing that was not in His own power to accomplish. It was not His intention that they should feed on quails; later on He gave them quails in answer to their lust. But it was not pleasing to Him that they asked for it. But in the beginning He granted this experience, that there were no limitations in connection with what He could accomplish in His power. This was not really the glory of God which He had in mind that the people should learn to know. “In the morning, then ye shall see the glory of Jehovah”, Exod 16: 7. And in the morning, what they saw was something fine, granular, on the surface of the wilderness. Then they asked, what is it? The meaning of manna is, “what is it?” It was something completely new that was not known before. We have thought of God becoming Man and He did become Man. He lived here by principles which were fully pleasing to Him. It was on the principle of obedience, dependence, submission under the will of God, lowliness of mind, as He lived by every word that came out of the mouth of God. These were the principles by which Jesus lived. He glorified God and made His heart rejoice. As we value Christ in this light, then we learn to move on in our circumstances in this light. That is the only way to spiritual substance, the way on which we never will be overcome. That is why it says in Deuteronomy 8: 16: “who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee”. We are humbled when we see how independent we are. We are humbled when we see how much we strive against the will of God. Everything we find in ourselves humbles us. That is why the answer is in Christ. In all these exercises God intends that we should turn to Christ in our hearts and feed on Him and learn from Him. With this comes a double result. Firstly we are indeed maintained in the wilderness. A believer that feeds on Christ goes through life down here and is not overcome. But he is not only maintained in life down here, but it says also, “to do thee good at thy latter end”. As we feed on the manna, this not only results in being maintained, but also works that in our inwards something definite is developed: “to do thee good at thy latter end”. That is the elimination of “myself” and the formation of Christ in us. That is according to God, to do thee good. In this light we can fill out our usual daily life, pleasing to God when we serve Him and accepting His will in all things in the spirit of obedience and in dependence on God, and trusting in Him, which glorifies Him.
The bread from heaven in John 6 is another kind of food. In verse 49 the Lord says: “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, that one may eat of it and not die”. That is why the bread coming down from heaven is in contrast to the manna. It is a kind of food that is meant to build us up in the enjoyment of eternal life according to the mind of God. It is not only the thought that we will enjoy blessedness in the day to come, it involves rather that we can enjoy life that will never more be touched by death. Our ordinary circumstances here, if it be our family or in our business or in any other circumstances, are all under the shadow of death and death brings all to an end. Our life is a precious education but the circumstances in themselves end in death. And yet God has in mind that we should have part in a life which is never touched by death. That life consists of certain interests and relationships, and God intends us to be in the enjoyment of these things now. But they are really linked with Christ beyond death, although known by the saints already in the power of the Spirit. In John 6 the Lord presents Himself as the living bread that has come down out of heaven. We all know in our natural life, if we are to survive, we must eat. Likewise, it is also so with the spiritual things. If we are to survive in spiritual things, we must feed on food that is given to us. That is a reason why certain believers do not prosper in a spiritual way, as they have not laid hold of the food to appropriate it, food that is within their range. But the food is Christ, the One who has truly come down from heaven, in view of dying and then as Man again returning to heaven, to establish in Himself a new order of life, of interests and of relationships in which we now can find our part through the Holy Spirit. And so the Lord presents Himself first of all as the living bread to underline that He Himself is the food for our souls. When it comes to the point of how we can make this food our own, then He changes the picture. He says then that we must eat His flesh and drink His blood, make His death our own. And we are not believers at all if we did not make the death of Christ our own. It is on account of this our sins are taken away; it is thus that the love of God and the love of Christ are brought to us. We have no life in ourselves if we have not made the death of Christ our own. But when we have made the death of Christ our own and life is in us, then the question arises how this life can be maintained in us. It comes back to eating His flesh and drinking His blood as we read in verse 54: “He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood has life eternal”. That is a characteristic thought. Do we appropriate this food characteristically day by day? Why did Christ die? It was not only to take our sins away, but rather to remove us in His death before God judicially and to remove the state of flesh and blood that we are in naturally, and in rising as Man from among the dead He manifested a new order of life for man. It is a spiritual kind of life in which we have been given part by the Holy Spirit. The Lord has left this world behind; He is not engaged in making the world better. He has left it behind as being judged as He says: “Now is the judgment of this world … and I, if I be lifted up … will draw all to me”, John 12: 31, 32. Thus He who was removed and crucified by the world becomes the point of attraction. In the light of this we need to make a judgment of the world for ourselves. But we can apprehend Christ as the beginning of a new world. It says in Colossians 1: 18: “he … is the beginning, firstborn from among the dead”. Then you see all that God has brought in, in Christ risen. It is connected with the world He has introduced into which we have been called by God through the gospel. The question is now in which world do we find our life? Are we held back through earthly matters or do we find ourselves in spiritual matters? We rejoice in the fellowship we have with one another. With the saints of God spiritual things are known and enjoyed. It is a great thing when we devote ourselves to these things, as they are things that remain. The way to this is to eat His flesh and drink His blood. Then He says further on: “He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood dwells in me”. It means you will be drawn to Him in your heart. Just contemplate how much we owe to the Lord. How could there be another way out given to us from the life we normally live, apart from the death and resurrection of Christ? Our affections must be constantly nourished by Him. The result is that we are closely linked with Christ in our affections. That is why it says: “He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood dwells in me and I in him”. Thus, Christ becomes a necessity for us, and we also become indispensable for Christ. I believe this chapter shows us the way of our personal development in these mutual conditions between Christ and ourselves that are peculiar to the assembly. He loved the assembly and gave Himself for her, and the assembly will always be with Him. But here we have individual development of features in the consciousness of the love of Christ for us, and being conscious of what we are for Him.
This brings us in full measure to what the assembly properly is. He says further on: “As the living Father has sent me and I live on account of the Father, he also who eats me shall live also on account of me”. He lived in connection with His Father. His Father was not down here on earth. His Father remains in His own glorious environment outside of the present world. The Lord lived in relationship with His Father. Then He says: “he also who eats me shall live also on account of me”. There were those saying: “This word is hard”. But the Lord says: “Does this offend you? If then ye see the Son of man ascending up where he was before?” We must respect the movements of Christ. He speaks of Himself as the Son of man. That is the One who came down to manifest and bring into expression all that God had in mind for man. The mind of God is that He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies. Our blessings are spiritual, and their place is in the heavenlies, and that is in Christ. Our blessings are linked with Christ, that is why He says: “If then ye see the Son of man ascending up where he was before”. He came down from heaven and died and ascended again, where He was before. We must contemplate this in our thoughts, and we must reach out for this and lay hold of what this means to us. Maybe we say, how do we do this? The answer is the Spirit. “It is the Spirit which quickens, the flesh profits nothing”, v 63. Our natural mind will never lay hold of these things, but the Spirit will teach us the meaning of them, as long as we are minded to be taught. The Lord says: “the words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life”. That is why the words of Christ must be nourished in our thoughts and also get a place in our hearts. When we come to this and also ask the Spirit for help, then we will understand the importance of its bearing. The main thought is that we find our life in the things that are above, where Christ is. All our blessings are connected with Christ. It says in Colossians 3: 4, “When the Christ is manifested who is our life, then shall ye also be manifested with him in glory”.
From that time many of his disciples went away and walked no more with Him. He says now to the twelve: “Will ye also go away?” v 67. Peter answers: “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast words of life eternal”. You can understand how much the Lord would have spoken to the twelve about this. The Lord did not want them to be occupied with matters in Jerusalem. He did not want them to be occupied with the daily conversation. He did not want them to be occupied with the general things in this world. The words they heard from Jesus were words of life eternal. The Lord would have said: My Father has His own world. It lies on the other side of death and we are invited to have part in it. And the Spirit, the Comforter who will come to you, will give you full current understanding of these things. To a certain extent Peter understood this. He says: “thou hast words of life eternal, and we have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God”. He appreciated Christ so much that he understood He was the embodiment of all that God desired to have in man. All that are drawn to Christ must be brought into accordance with Him. The present time forms us morally like Christ, and when the Lord comes, we will be transformed to His image. It is a matter of power and it only requires a twinkling of an eye. But to become morally conformed to Christ is a process which the Holy Spirit is engaged with in the present time. The approach and way in which He reaches His object with us is to present Christ as food to us in these different characters of light we have seen. The passages we have considered present two of these aspects. They are most important that we should understand them.
May the Lord bless the word to us.
___________________