THE FOOD WHICH ABIDES
Robert Taylor
John 6: 27-29, 51, 53-58 (to “heaven”)
I count on the Lord’s help to speak a little about “the food which abides unto life eternal”. We are all very conscious of the need of food for life, but the Lord would bring it home to us in His word, “Work not for the food which perishes”.
It says of the people of old that they “all ate the same spiritual food” and then it says that “God was not pleased with the most of them”, 1 Cor 10: 3-5. There is the need for appropriating and making room for the heavenly food that there may be something formed in us that abides unto life eternal. There is a quite remarkable link in this section between food and life eternal. There has been an abundance - and there is an abundance of food - and yet there may be and is a lack of the enjoyment of eternal life. These things would exercise us; as it is recorded there was no lack of food, no lack of the waters; it says, “the rock” that followed them “was the Christ”. There was everything there to bring them quickly into the inheritance and yet they perished, perished in the wilderness. It says that these things are written for us, that we may learn to appreciate them and appropriate the food which abides; it has come to us as never before in this dispensation, in the Person of Christ. He says, “I am the living bread”. He would attract our hearts to the kind of food which would build us up to the enjoyment of this life eternal. It goes on in the passage to bring out that it comes down out of heaven; it comes from another area altogether, “the living bread which has come down out of heaven”. The Lord would freshly encourage us as to the substantiality of the food that there is available to us that He may attract our hearts to go in for it.
Peter asks if we have “tasted that the Lord is good”, 1 Pet 2: 3. He came in for you when you were lost: David says, “Taste and see that Jehovah is good”, Ps 34: 8. We would all have tasted that, the initial appreciation in our hearts of Christ as we came to appreciate Him as our Saviour, troubled about our sins and the condition that we were in that no other could help us; there was Someone! It says, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”, 1 Tim 1: 15. The world was lost, the world was going on, and is going, on to eternal judgment, and “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”. It means He came for you; He came for me! He came to where we were, He came and touched the condition in which we are, that He might bring us to an enjoyment of a life that is eternal. Well, that is tasting and seeing that the Lord is good.
You had no doubts then as to His goodness, His ability to save you from your sins, and to meet the judgment under which you lay. But now He would seek to wean your affections; He would not only save you to relieve you, but He would save you to build you up in view of coming into the enjoyment of this food that abides to life eternal. Food is meant to create some movement in us: food would produce exercise - that is food that is material; and too much food and not enough exercise we know what happens. But food is to create exercise, and you see that in the very beginning of the history of the children of Israel. The first food that they had was that lamb, in view of moving out of Egypt. The lamb was there in the house from the tenth day to the fourteenth day (Exod 12: 6); no doubt it endeared itself to their affections, but that lamb was to be appropriated and the eating of it was in view of moving out of Egypt. That is what this food would be meant for: it creates movement, stimulates exercise; otherwise they would become ensnared in Egypt. But that first food that they had in their history was the lamb that was slain. They saw there that that precious one was going to meet and end forever the bondage under which they lay, but they had to move, they had to eat it.
And so the Lord would create movement with us that this food would cause us to have less occupation with, and be less being drawn into, the system of things of which we are naturally part, which is going on to death. But it says, “the food which abides unto life eternal, which the Son of man shall give to you”; what grace! He would “give to you”! That involved Himself coming in; it involved Himself coming to touch our condition and the circumstances in which we were. It is like that lamb that they had in Egypt; it would lead them out, lead them out of the bondage that would hold them, and all the pressures that were coming upon them from the Egyptians: that lamb as dying, that blood as being shed, that lamb as eaten was going to give them a constitution to leave Egypt. They left it in their footsteps, although alas many not in their hearts! May we be attracted to leave it in our hearts! To leave the power of Egypt, to leave the circumstances of Egypt. “Which the Son of man shall give to you; for him has the Father sealed, even God”: what a beautiful touch that is! The One who has come here, the Son of man, come to those conditions, “him has the Father sealed”. It means very simply that the Father has put everything on Him. He has left it to Him to work out the great matter of redemption that these people had to face. He has left it to the Son of man to work out how persons can be extracted, extracted from the bondage and the power of the world; “him has the Father sealed, even God”. A Man has come to fill our affections.
This chapter is bringing in that there is a Man who has come in to win our hearts that we may be attached to Him. There as they journeyed the manna came in; it came into the wilderness, Exod 16. It is beautiful in Exodus how God met their murmuring. They were very slow to appreciate the food that abides! They longed for Egypt, showing that they had not really appropriated that lamb that was there in the house for those days. But God answered their murmurings time after time, and in that morning, they went out and there was that manna on the ground, v 14. You see that was Christ come down to those circumstances to sustain them. They did not get the good of it. Some did! There was no lack of the manna; it says, “Your fathers ate the manna … and died” (John 6: 49) because they did not really appropriate it. But there were some who did. I love to think of Caleb; he must have appreciated that manna, and it brought him into an inhabited land. That is one thing it says about the manna, they ate of it “until they came into an inhabited land”, Exod 16: 35. The psalmist speaks about it; he said it was “the corn of the heavens”, Ps 78: 24. It came down into those circumstances in which they were to attract them. They said, “What is it?”, Exod 16: 15. To begin with their hearts were filled with the sweetness of those cakes; it tasted “like cake with honey”, v 31. They could not encompass it, but they could not deny the sweetness and the blessedness of it; the Son of man who has come down, come down out of heaven, John 3: 13. He has come Himself; He came in His own Person. He came down to show us the kind of Man that is to be our food, “him has the Father sealed, even God”. Think of Him in those days of His flesh, the way that He moved, tempted of the devil, but not overcome. Whatever circumstances He was found in He was perfect in His humanity, eternally divine. He was the true Manna, the Bread of God, and much more. He was like those cakes in Leviticus, the cakes that were made and anointed with oil and mingled with oil, Lev 7: 12-13. There was a Man there of an entirely different character. He was there to be this food; He was the food for the disciples. We can see that in this chapter: at the end of it there was someone who said, “thou art the holy one of God”, v 69. There was somebody there who appreciated the Man who had come down, appreciated the One who had come in such grace into their circumstances that they may have food which abides to life eternal.
This whole chapter and the previous one are taken up with the food question. He fed five thousand; there was enough there to feed all that were there, but how few there would have been that would appropriate “the food which abides unto life eternal”. The Lord would encourage our hearts to have an appetite for it, to be attracted to this kind of food. The great feature of food is its presentation. It is made attractive to us, to give us an appetite for it so that we want it. As you read of the Man of the gospels, would we not want this kind of food? We would want to eat this kind of bread, the living Bread. It has power in itself to bring us into the enjoyment of this eternal life. Well, it has come down out of heaven; it is fine to see where it has come from! It is an important thing to see where the food has come from. It bears the mark of where it has come from, out of heaven. It says, “the living bread which has come down out of heaven: if any one shall have eaten of this bread he shall live for ever”: that is the power of it!
But then He says, “the bread withal which I shall give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world”. The food in this chapter is leading us on to death: that Man had to die. If He had remained alone, appreciated by heaven, if He had remained as He was in this condition, He would have remained alone, but He came down out of heaven to die. Marvellous statement, that He came to die! We come to live, but death lies upon us, but here was One upon whom death had no claim and He came into a condition that He might die. He took part in that condition and here He is giving that flesh and blood for the life of the world; “which I will give for the life of the world”. What atonement was made in the laying down of that life so precious! It made atonement to God, satisfied God; as John puts it, He is the propitiation for the sins of the world, 1 John 2: 2. That flesh and blood, He laid it down; He laid it down that the whole sin question may be met to God’s eternal satisfaction and to give peace to your conscience and mine. We can never eat if we are not at peace. We can never enjoy the food if we are not at rest. The Lord would do that in the way He has gone in shedding His blood and giving His life, He would make us at peace. Is the sin question settled for us all? Is it settled for us? There is a Man who came from heaven, came and touched these circumstances that we may be able to feed on Him, and He would lead us to where that food is eternally at home, and be built up. The scripture goes on to apprehend Him as “the holy one of God”. The Lord would graciously encourage our hearts to appropriate this kind of food. There is more given than we appropriate or assimilate.
I would like to speak of Moses for a moment. It says he was in that scene in Exodus 3, at the burning bush, but he turned aside to “see this great sight”, v 3. It is the way we get the good of this food; there is a need for turning aside. Moses saw a bush burning and it was not consumed. It might well have just been an incident in his life that he would historically refer to and be the subject of many conversations, but he says, “Let me now turn aside and see this great sight”. The bush was burning and yet it was not consumed. It says God “saw that he turned aside”. We need to make time for this kind of food; we need to make room to turn aside. It says God saw, and He gave Moses some beautiful disclosures. He says, ‘I know all about it’; He says, “I have seen assuredly the affliction” (v 7), and He says, “I am come down to deliver them”, v 8. Moses appreciated the bread, the One that had come down out of heaven. Bringing it to our scripture, he apprehended that One had come down and was going to give life to the world; the thorn-bush burning was not consumed. Let us make room for this kind of food. So many things harass us, press on our time and would demand our attention, but there was Moses; he turned aside to see this great sight. Here it is in John 6, a great sight, well worth turning aside to see. The people made light of it; some said they could not hear it (v 60), but God seeing Moses turn aside was ready to give him a further disclosure. It became very precious to him. He speaks later on in his life of “the good will of him that dwelt in the bush”, Deut 33: 16. That was the Man that came down here from heaven; “the good will of him that dwelt in the bush”. It says about Moses that he “was very meek”, Num 12: 3. That man was feeding on that scene; it says, “he persevered, as seeing him who is invisible”, Heb 11: 27. I call attention to that to show the importance of making room for this kind of food. It is not just something you eat and leave; it is a continuous thing. The Lord goes on in this section; it is not only “have eaten”, but He says, “He that eats”. It is a continuous matter, feeding on this Man; you will find it is inexhaustible. The food that has come within our reach, it “abides unto life eternal”.
The Lord would encourage us to eat this food; it attracts us and attaches us. You can see how Moses became attached to that One who had come down, speaking typically, to dwell in the bush. Through all the journeys and pressures and exercises of the wilderness he speaks about Him being our dwelling place: “Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations”, Ps 90: 1. You can see how he had been feeding on the One who had come down with all the resources of heaven into a weary scene beset by foes and snares, but He has come down into those circumstances to sustain us and to give us this bread that leads us into life eternal.
Well Moses enjoyed it; there are others who have enjoyed it; they came into power in the circumstances of life that we are in through feeding and appropriating, and appropriation leads on to attachment. That is what happened to these persons. Moses became attached to Him and there are many others like that. You can see that with Ruth very beautifully. She too faced these exercises, a young girl facing the sorrows that came into her life very early, difficult circumstances, but she came to appreciate a kind of food that was going to abide unto life eternal. The Lord would encourage persons who turn aside and make room for it. It says about Ruth that there were “handfuls of purpose for her”, Ruth 2: 16 KJV. Another time she was invited to taste of the parched corn, v 14. How ready is the variety of food the Lord is ready to give and dispense to persons who show themselves interested in the food that has come down out of heaven.
May it attract us as it did Ruth. She was very soon attached; very soon she not only enjoyed the food but typically became attached to the one who was the food; she came into those arrangements of divine love that had been provided. She became attracted to the giver too! The Lord would say that, and how attractive these persons who turn aside and who have acquired a taste for this kind of food are to Him. The Lord would encourage us to be stimulated in the eating. It says, “As the living Father has sent me and I live on account of the Father”; it makes us dependent. It does not puff up like the foods of this world but it makes us dependent. There He was, “As the living Father has sent me and I live on account of the Father”. We come to it that we cannot do without Him! He is there as our food for every circumstance whatever it may be; at school, or at work, or in the family or the sicknesses of this life, He is there as this food that we cannot do without. Sometimes we see the result of it when we are put to the test. God works that way too; He brought in famines time and again in the history of the people to bring them to their senses, as we speak! But to show them that there was something that they could not do without. The Lord says, “without me ye can do nothing”, John 15: 5.
Jacob came to that; he got discouraged, he had enjoyed it earlier, but he was there in that far country, and he heard that there was bread elsewhere. It is food that revives too if there has been departure as we have all known in varying degrees; there is food there to quickly hasten our steps. He says, “Joseph my son is yet alive; I will go and see him”, Gen 45: 28. Joseph is alive! What food, what tidings coming to that weary man who God had set His eye upon, and He was not going to lose him, and leave him dying in sorrow or leave him dying in weakness; so he says, “Joseph my son is yet alive; I will go and see him before I die”. What did he find? He found waggons ready to take him. O the grace of divine love that has come down, come down as food, come down in supply to bring us into the circumstances of life eternal. Well, Jacob very quickly came: it says, “he saw the waggons that Joseph had sent to carry him. And the spirit of Jacob their father revived”, Gen 45: 27. That is like God speaking to us in the circumstances we may be in and He would quickly encourage our hearts to make a move. I said food involves movement, and it was so with Jacob. He came into the best days of his life, he came to touch something in the sphere where Joseph controlled everything, and he was never for a moment without what he needed and he rose in those circumstances to the peak of his life, blessing Pharoah, worshipping God.
Well, there is how God would meet the exercises of our pathway, and how varied they are! And yet the food comes in to help us, to adapt itself to those circumstances, to change us, to change us that we may be brought into the sphere where He lives. It meets us to give us power to leave the food that does not abide, to lay hold of the food that does abide. It leads us from a realm of death into a realm of eternal life. The Lord would encourage us to be brought into it. He goes on and says, “he also who eats me shall live also on account of me”. We get our affections bound up with the Lord’s; it is all conducive to where this food would lead us. It brings us into the area of eternal life when our affections are bound up, “I live on account of the Father, he also who eats me shall live also on account of me. This is the bread which has come down out of heaven”. You see how these persons became attached to the Father; that is where the Lord and this food leads us, to our heavenly Father. He is One who becomes well known to us in the practical circumstances of life; it leads us to have confidence and to be at home in the Father’s presence. When we come to the Father as having eaten this food, we come as sons. We come into the enjoyment of sonship, to know His embrace and to know His love and His thoughts in purpose for us; that is what this food would bring us into so that we become enriched. Peter shows at the end of the chapter how he had been feeding on it. It says many went away - they did not turn aside, they turned back; how easy it is! We think things are hard; we do not understand them. Paul says, ‘If you do not understand them’ “Think of what I say, for the Lord will give thee understanding in all things”, 2 Tim 2: 7. Well, there were some here who turned back, but there was Peter, and he says, “we have believed and known”; you see how much he had eaten. He had not only appropriated it, but it had made him a different character; that is what it does. This food produces character according to God. He says, “we have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God”.
Well, dear brethren, the Lord would encourage us, and I trust would attract our hearts that this food is available now. He not only died, He shed His blood, but He is alive and leads us into this realm where life is: “I live on account of the Father”. If we are dependent on Him, we will be led into this sphere where this life is enjoyed and we ourselves become persons who are characterised as having eaten this kind of food. We will be able in our measure too to dispense something about it. These persons who are eating it like this are very satisfied. They are enriched in their own soul, and they are able in the simplicity of life to speak a word to him that is weary. It is almost a gift, dear brethren, to be able to be satisfied like this and be able to go and speak to another saint, someone who is weary, to encourage “by a word him that is weary”, Isa 50: 4. It needs to be persons who have fed themselves. There is no sense of being able to help a person who is down if you are down yourself, but if you are going to visit someone you look for something to take, something that you have enjoyed yourself, something that you have been enriched by, so it is persons who have been eating, who have been enriched who are able for the circumstances and the exercises of this life.
Think of Abigail; David was in very difficult circumstances and she came to meet him with everything prepared, 1 Sam 25: 18. That is a very beautiful touch there, the things she brought were all ready for eating; David did not need to go through the preparations, she had done it all, she had been exercised how she would meet it. She came with those raisin cakes and she said, ‘Here you are’; a time of urgency it was, but she brought in a great supply of food that met the emergency and more. She saw beyond the circumstances, she saw beyond all that was there, and she was able to lift David back on to sure ground. What a thing it is to be able to speak a word to him that is weary. Another time there was a man came from Baal-shalishah - another emergency - he comes laden, he had been living on the true bread, 2 Kings 4: 42. He had been feasting typically on this One who has come down out of heaven, come down into our circumstances to be food for our souls to lead us into His circumstances. That would encourage us to follow Him, to be filled with this food as that man was, more than he could carry, but he brought it all there and it says, “and they ate”. How much there is around; may we be exercised to appropriate, to assimilate and be formed by what has come within our reach that it may produce in us these kinds of affections that are at home in the Father’s presence; everything settled, food that has nourished us. One thing that is said about the Lord’s service to the assembly, is that He nourishes it, Eph 5: 29. That would involve the food supply and much more, but it would involve what is flowing from Him above in the circumstances in which He is: He is nourishing and cherishing the assembly. It happens at our gatherings, it happens in our individual lives, but it happens in our gatherings, the Lord touches our hearts; may there be exercise to appropriate it, to eat it, make it our own. It is enjoyed by us and we are able thus to be a succour to one another in the days of testing that we are passing through.
May the Lord encourage us to have a taste, to have an appetite to be formed by all that has come within our reach so abundantly; let us gather it all, let us think it over, let us assimilate it so that it becomes part of our being so it helps us with what we have been speaking about that our minds and our lives are hid with Christ in God, Col 3: 3. It produces affinity. The eating produces the character, it produces persons who become like Christ and so they are at home in the Father’s presence.
May it be more known by us for Christ’s name’s sake.
Havering
11th December 2004
This address was not revised by the author but has been carefully reviewed by the editors.
Ministry by our brother now with Christ is being collected with a view to publishing it in book form.