“OUT OF THE EATER CAME FORTH FOOD”
E. C. Burr
On these occasions for ministry in relation to the death of a beloved brother or sister I think that things come before us in three areas. First, of course, as always, is the promotion of the glory of Christ, the second is the comfort of the bereaved, the third is what the Lord might have for the saints. I do not say that they necessarily fall in that order, save that the glory of Christ will always have the pre-eminent place in the affections of the brethren.
If we think of this scripture in relation to the death of Christ it is familiar ground to us that “out of the eater came forth food. And out of the strong … sweetness “. I think that that is the normal portion and experience of the saints as they contemplate the death of, the Lord Jesus.
The occasion which gave rise to this riddle of Samson’s was when a young lion roared against him, and the Spirit came on him “and he rent it as one rends a kid”. It speaks to us of the glory of the Lord Jesus going into death, “who by the eternal Spirit offered himself spotless to God” (Hebrews 9: 14), and all the evidence of the death of Christ is that, going into death, He “rent it as one rends a kid”. There was a loud cry, there was an earthquake, the stone was rolled away and the guards were paralysed—the glory of the display of the Father’s operations in raising Christ from the dead. You can see that the power of the Lord Jesus going into death rent it “as one rends a kid”, and it has no more power.
Of course it has power in relation to what is natural in us, and that brings the sorrow and the grief which the breaking of the natural ties necessarily involves, but Christ going into death has broken its power, and He has come out of it.
Well may we sing, ‘His be the Victor’s name’; He has rent it “as one rends a kid”. This is why there is a disposition of hope, and even of glory, in relation to the burial of a saint; because Christ has been into death and come out of it in power. Out of the eater has come forth food. What food there is in the resurrection of Christ! We were reminded last night in London of the necessity of one being “a witness with us of his resurrection”, Acts 1: 22.
What glory there is in the food that has come out of the eater being rent. We touch the greatness of what Christ is in resurrection first and find Him as food, I suppose, as Saviour.
He would not be Saviour if He were not out of death but, as Paul affirms, He is out of death—“now Christ is raised from among the dead” (1 Corinthians 15: 20) and He is gloriously great. The first way we think of Him is as Saviour, and we feed on that—
‘Jesus! our Saviour, Shepherd, Friend,
Thou Prophet, Priest, and King’.
What glorious things these are to feed on, made available to us because He has rent the power of death “as one rends a kid”. You can add to that, Son of God, Son of Man, Son of David—the glory of everything that is His. I was thinking on Lord’s day in preaching that you could almost say that “Him who knew not sin” is a name of Christ. There is only one Person to whom that could be applied.
What food there is out of His death, and what sweetness too. Out of the strong has come forth sweetness. ‘How sweet the Name of Jesus sounds in a believer’s ear!’ How blessed it is to contemplate the Man who is out of death and to find that He is out of what naturally is bitter, and, in one sense, was bitter to Him, and that out of that has come sweetness. These things, beloved, are for our contemplation and they promote the glory of Christ in the souls of the saints.
Then there is comfort for our beloved sister. In measure we enter into this with her. We have known our beloved brother and we have loved him, loved him for his service and for his spirit, for his grace, his tenderness—many things might be said of our beloved brother. It is hardly necessary to enter into them on an occasion like this which is not for the acclamation of those who are dead, but is for the current continuance of the testimony. But we have known our brother among us. None of us has known him as our beloved sister has known him. The breaking of natural ties is the sorrowful consequence of sin coming into the world, and many of us have known the breaking of these ties. There can be no tie broken in death like that of marriage. The intimacy of the link and the loss it creates—how food is needed then! How food is needed to nourish and strengthen the soul, but the food is out of the death of Christ and out of His glory as raised from it. And even out of the sorrow there is sweetness, sweetness in the knowledge and possession of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ.
How blessed! May this be ministered, beloved brethren, to our beloved sister abundantly—food and sweetness. May these be her portion. We may say, as observing these things, that our beloved sister will need them. May she find food and sweetness.
But, beloved, what for the rest of us? Our brother prayed at the beginning that things might bear on the local assembly, and, as bearing on that, they bear on the church universally. Out of death, will there be food? Is that what the local brethren are committed to?—our beloved brother who fed them a great deal having departed to be with Christ, that there will still be food? that there might even be more food? Are the young men in the place committed to food for the saints and thus for the church that out of the eater should come forth food? Out of what would have consumed food there should come that which supplies food. Beloved, are the local brethren committed to nourishing what there is of Christ in an assembly way in this locality? That should be one result of death, that out of it comes food; otherwise the eater will consume and he will go on consuming, and unless, in that sense, he is turned round to be a supply there will be loss as a result of death.
“Out of the eater came forth food, And out of the strong ... sweetness”. Beloved, are the local brethren committed to that too—committed to there being sweetness in the local assembly position in St. Albans? Are we in London? Are the saints everywhere? Many things come up which test us as to sweetness. We remember that in Jotham’s parable the fig tree says, “Should I leave my sweetness?”, Judges 9: 11. Beloved, do we think of the local assembly as a place where sweetness is to be known? Often it is interpreted in relation to the way it could be spoken of naturally, and in that sense it cloys, just as there are other scriptures that lead us to have reservations about honey. In this scripture honey is right. In this scripture honey is the result of death. Are we going to find, beloved, that there is sweetness? Not the astringency or rigour of the law, from which all the glory of the death of Christ has delivered us, but the sweetness that knows how to dispose of and how to arrange things in relation to what has been brought to light through the glad tidings. He has “brought to light life and incorruptibility by the glad tidings”, 2 Timothy 1: 10. That is sweetness coming out of the strong. How blessed!
At the end of Luke you have it manifest. He came out of death, and where there had been bitterness and sorrow among the disciples—“We had hoped that he was the one who is about to redeem Israel” (Luke 24: 21); you can see that they are still in the bitterness of it—as He comes in there is sweetness. I am not thinking merely of the broiled fish and the honeycomb, but the sweetness that comes out of His death in the word “beginning at Jerusalem”—“that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24: 47, 48)—that is, “Out of the strong came forth sweetness”. Instead of judgment being visited as a result of the way in which the Son of Man, the Son of God, had been treated, “repentance and remission of sins” is preached in His name beginning at the very place where He was crucified. “Out of the strong came forth sweetness”.
Well, beloved, may we find it in our localities! There is probably not a locality which could not do with more of this kind of sweetness.
‘The river of His grace,
Through righteousness supplied,
Is flowing o’er the barren place
Where Jesus died’.
Out of the strong has come forth sweetness. May we find comfort and support and means of advance in this, for His name’s sake.