Spiritual Food: July 2008
Table of Contents
The Tree of Life
Soon we taste the endless sweetness
Of the Tree of Life above;
Taste its own eternal meetness
For the heavenly land we love.
In eternal counsels founded,
Perfect now in fruit divine;
When the last, blest trump has
sounded,
Fruit of God forever mine!
But, my soul, hast thou not tasted
Of that Tree of Life on high?
As through desert lands thou’st
hasted,
Eshcol’s grapes been never nigh?
As a tender seedling, rising
From a dry and stony land,
Object of man’s proud despising,
Grew the Plant of God’s right hand.
Yes! that Tree of Life is planted;
Sweetest fruit e’en here has borne;
To its own rich soil transplanted,
Waits alone the eternal morn.
Fruits that our own souls have tasted
By the Spirit from above,
While through desert lands we’ve
hasted,
Fruits of perfect, endless love!
J. N. Darby
Spiritual Food
“Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live” (Deut. 8:3).
Why did God allow the children of Israel to suffer hunger and then feed them with manna? He tells us why in Deuteronomy 8. They needed to learn that they could not live by food alone; they must receive every word that came from God’s mouth and obey it.
The manna was food they could not provide for themselves by their own efforts; only God could provide the needed food in the wilderness. God knew and provided that when they got into the land. He blessed them with riches. They were apt to forget the need to obey God’s word and take credit for being rich, saying, “My power, and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth” (Deut. 8:17).
Are we not in the same danger? When God blesses, it is so easy to take the credit for it and forget the true source of the blessing. When that happens, the need to live in dependence and obedience by every word that comes from God is forgotten. The Lord Jesus did not forget. He said, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me.” As a result, He could also say to the disciples, “I have meat to eat that ye know not of.” Now we, too, can know and feed upon that meat.
Our Daily Bread
It is well to begin every day with God and His Word. Let your first conscious moments be spent in His holy presence and your first desires be expressed to Him. Start on your daily course from the throne of grace; in the evening, close it there; yet, never leave that sanctuary all day long.
Childlike, attend what Thou wilt
say;
Go forth and do it while ’tis day,
Yet never leave my sweet retreat.
We are only safe when trusting in Him and walking in the light of His countenance. Seek, by God’s grace, to be kept in the place of simple dependence on Himself.
There is deep reality in communion with God, through the medium of His Word, by the power of the Holy Spirit. “How sweet,” says the psalmist, “are Thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth.”
When our spiritual appetite is good, we are sure to grow. We need spiritual as well as natural food every morning, but we are more in danger of forgetting the former than the latter. Hence the importance of the exhortation, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere [pure, unmixed] milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.” Show that you heartily desire it, that it is sweet and pleasant to your taste, that you are nourished by it, that you are satisfied with it, and that you return to it with increasing delight.
Oh! that ALL in God’s family would relish their divine food! Oh, to cleave to God’s Word for everything past, present and future. “Thy testimonies have I taken as a heritage forever.”
May the Lord Himself be richly with you, filling your heart with heavenly food and spiritual gladness, and causing you to sing for joy.
Christian Truth, 3:327
Christ Our Food
Aaron and his sons were to eat what was not burned in the fire of the meat offering. Christ was the true bread, come down from heaven to give light unto the world, that we through faith as priests and kings may eat thereof and not die. It was holy food for Aaron and his sons, for who indeed ever fed on Christ but those who are sanctified by the Holy Spirit, live the life of faith, and feed on the food of faith! And is not Christ the food of our souls, sanctifying us also ever to God! Do not our souls recognize in the meek and humble Holy One what feeds, nourishes and sanctifies? He shines as the light of human perfection and divine grace among sinful men. Cannot our souls feel, by the sympathy of the spirit of Jesus in us, what is to be offered to God in tracing the life of Jesus toward God and before men in the world? He, the example to us, presents the impress of a man living to God and draws us after Him. And by the attraction, are not our affections occupied and assimilated in dwelling with delight on what Jesus was here below? We admire, are humbled, and become conformed to Him through grace. He who is the head and source of this life in us draws forth and develops its energies and lowliness in us, for who could be found in fellowship with Jesus? Humble, as one has said, He would teach us to take the lowest place, as He is in it Himself. Blessed Master, may we at least be near to and hidden in Thee!
J. N. Darby, adapted
The Bread of God: John 6:43-69
There are three positions in which the blessed Lord is presented in the doctrinal portion of this chapter: first, as come down out of heaven to fulfill the will of the Father who sent Him; then, as giving His flesh for the life of the world; and last, as ascending up where He was before. In the first He is the bread of God — not merely the bread God gives, but that which He feeds upon Himself. Now, for the first time, man’s path was found opening out in Christ in all its perfection before the Father, whose eye and heart only could enter into it. What perfect dependence, obedience, devoted love to the Father was there — a life governed only by His Father’s will in every detail of word and action, with the absolute refusal of every other object but His Father’s glory. No wonder the heavens opened to Him and the Father’s voice declared His perfect delight in Him. Thus He was the bread, or food, of God’s own joy. But how wonderful to know that it was not to be for Himself alone: “My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.” In His infinite grace the Father would have others enter into His estimation of the Son whom He loved. He was the bread of life, and he that comes to Him by faith shall never hunger or thirst. This leads us to the second position that the Lord took — that He who was the bread of God might be the bread of life to us.
Life to Us
The more perfection that shone out in Him among men, the more the state of every other man came out in His presence. The light shone in darkness: We saw no beauty in Him that we should desire Him. “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?” was the answer of the Jews (vs. 42) to the gracious revelation that it was the will of Him who sent Him that He should lose nothing of those given Him, and that every one who sees the Son and believes on Him should have eternal life and be raised up into the proper sphere of that life when the end of the present age had come. This moral incompetency to enter into all that made Him the sealed One (vs. 27) of the Father’s delight was the last and conclusive proof that there was nothing in us for God and the absolute necessity of the early sentence of God upon man, “The end of all flesh is come before Me,” so that in order that any should eat of the bread come down out of heaven and not die but live forever, we read, “The bread that I will give is My flesh which I will give for the life of the world” (vs. 51), and the essential condition of our having life in Him is that we eat His flesh and drink His blood (vs. 53).
Up to this point in the Gospel there had been the objective presentation of the life in Him, but now it is the question of our subjective entering into it. This depends upon our having been brought to bow to the judgment of God, not only of our sins, but of all that we are according to the flesh, in His death. It is surely by faith, but having eaten His flesh and drunk His blood [the verbs in verse 53 are of one definitive act] expresses more than this. It is that we have solemnly identified ourselves with Him in the death He endured for us, and which ended before God and for faith all we were as children of Adam. We have, as in the type of the sin offering, laid our hands upon the victim’s head and owned His death to be ours. It is a definite point to which we have to be brought in the soul’s history, never to be gone back from: Deliverance from the dominion of sin is found in it.
But the eating of His flesh and drinking of His blood is not simply a thing of the past — that we have done with — for now begins the necessity of the habitual feeding upon the death of the Son of Man that we may possess eternal life in all its reality as a life of communion with the Father and the Son. As His death is thus before our souls, we are extricated and practically delivered from all that is of the flesh in us, and of man and his world, that the Lord Jesus had to carry down to death under the judgment of God. How could we, in the presence of the infinite sufferings of Gethsemane and the cross, tolerate anything in ourselves of what involved those sufferings for Him who, in such unfathomable love, gave Himself for us? With His death thus applied to our souls continually, there will be nothing to hinder our enjoyment of that life of divine and heavenly relationship which is “eternal” (vs. 54). But dwelling or abiding in Him, as the continuous realization of our being in Him, depends also upon our eating His flesh and drinking His blood, which is true meat and drink.
And now verse 57 brings us into what verse 33 had presented to us: “He that eateth Me.” It is no longer simply His death, but He Himself personally known as the food and joy of our souls, who is the Bread of God. We could only have part in that wonderful Bread by identification with Him in His death, but it is He Himself upon whom now we can feed. “As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by [or on account of] the Father: so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by [or on account of] Me.” He lived for nothing else but the Father: The Father was the whole reason of His existence here, the absorbing object of His life. And so, as He rises before our souls in all His perfection, more and more entered into as we feed upon Him, He will become the absorbing object of our life: We shall live only for Him.
Christ Ascended
At the close, the Lord intimates that He would ascend up where He was before. Of what immense importance for us, for it is thus that all the precious truth has become available for us. The light of the glory in which He is has been shed back on all He was in the lowly, perfect path of His humiliation and upon the cross in which God has been infinitely glorified and man’s history closed in judgment, so that nothing but Christ should remain before our souls in this blessed communion of divine joy and satisfaction.
May we each know increasingly what it is to eat His flesh and drink His blood, and feed upon Him personally who is the Bread of God.
J. A. Trench
The Food of Egypt and of Canaan
After they were redeemed out of Egypt, the children of Israel had to pass through the wilderness on their way to Canaan. God provided for them food from heaven which fell on the dew each morning — a food which they called “manna.” However, they tired of the manna and desired what they had eaten in Egypt. In Numbers 11 we are told that the children of Israel in the wilderness lusted for six things which they had fed upon in Egypt — “fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic.” All of these foods were found in or on the earth, and they had two characteristics — they were relatively easy to obtain, and they were easily contaminated and made unfit to eat.
The Christian today can fall into the same snare, seeking to feed his soul on the things of this world. The food of this world is found in its media and many forms of entertainment, and it is used by Satan to lure the unsaved to their doom. If we feed on these things, they will rob us of our appetite for the true food for the believer — Christ as the bread that came down from heaven (the manna) and Christ as the man who ascended into heaven (the old corn of the land).
Some years ago, a former editor of this periodical wrote these faithful warnings concerning the literature allowed in our homes:
“There is much in the way of current literature which might not be called infidelity, but which certainly has no place in our homes. Perhaps we would do well to ask ourselves the question which the prophet put to King Hezekiah: “What have they seen in thine house?” Is our home encumbered with such literature that we would hasten to remove it if we were to have a visit from, say, the Apostle Paul, or some other devoted Christian? Has our appetite for the imperishable Word been dulled by feeding on the leeks, onions and garlic of Egypt? For us, Egypt is a type of the world. It had its own characteristic food, while the redeemed Israel fed on the heavenly manna in the wilderness and on food indigenous to the land of Canaan when they reached that land. The manna is a type of Christ who came down from heaven to be the food of His people; the “old corn” of the land of Canaan is a type of Christ in heavenly glory. Even the most harmless and innocuous of worldly literature can become a real snare to Christians and do unmeasured harm by robbing us of the little time we have for reading the Word with quiet meditation or reading profitable written ministry.
“We need to take heed what we read, as well as what we hear. The eyes and ears are avenues to our souls, and what enters by these will give color to our whole Christian life and testimony. The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, ‘Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. . . . Meditate upon these things’ (1 Tim. 4:13,15).”
The radio, television, video and the Internet are more advanced forms of serving up the food of Egypt to our souls and minds. These forms of media make it possible to take in much in a short time and can have an insidious influence on our lives. They dull our spiritual appetite, for “the full soul loatheth an honeycomb.” They tend to develop an appetite in us for the food of Egypt — “to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.” Let us set our minds “on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3:23).
The Food of Canaan
The land of Canaan drank water of the rain of heaven and produced seven things that were gathered without stooping — wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranates, oil olive and honey (Deut. 8:8). Also, this food required more effort to obtain. It grew above the ground, but also needed more energy to harvest, process and enjoy.
After the children of Israel crossed the river Jordan, they no longer needed the manna. We are told that they fed upon the old corn of the land — a picture of the risen Christ (Josh. 5:11-12). In the same way, the true food for the Christian is in the heavenly country. Passing through the wilderness we need Christ as the manna, but as a heavenly people we feed upon Christ as “the old corn of the land.” We need to feed upon all the glories and perfections of Christ in the place where He is, for what we feed upon forms us. To feed upon Christ in His earthly path of humiliation will win our affections, but to feed upon Christ in His glories will change our characters. “With open [unveiled] face beholding . . . the glory of the Lord, [we] are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18).
Wheat and Barley
Wheat in Scripture is looked at as a very precious grain. Barley comes in typically in a lower place. We read, “He [the Lord] made him [Jacob, His people] suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock . . . with the fat of kidneys [inner part] of wheat” (Deut. 32:13-14). “The fat” means the richest part of an animal (and also of oil or wine). In Psalm 81:16 we read that He “fed them . . . with the finest [margin, fat] of the wheat.” We find, too, that wheat harvest was a special time of joy and connected with blessing. “Ornan was threshing wheat” when David came to him to build an altar to the Lord. “Wheaten flour” was used for the meat offering (Ex. 29:2), although barley was used in a peculiar case (Num. 5:15), where a lower class of meat offering was brought.
It seems that barley in Scripture has to do with man as in responsibility in the old-Adam family, whether converted or not, while wheat is typically used of Christ and the responsibility as in Him. In the feeding of the five thousand, we have “barley loaves”; the scene is typical of grace acting towards man, who is still in Adam responsibility. In the feeding of the four thousand, we have typified the heavenly and divine One feeding us according to God’s thoughts in our new place — in contrast with the famine come on the earth. Wheat harvest followed barley harvest — there is grace, and then the abundance of grace.
The Vine
The vine is that which cheers God and man (Judg. 9:13). It speaks of fruitfulness. The land of Canaan was known to have large and plentiful grapes. One cluster from Eshcol was borne of the spies as a witness of the good land. Also we read that God had a vine, which He had brought out of Egypt — that vine was Israel (Psa. 80:8-11). A vine which is unfruitful is useless. The Lord then in John 15 teaches His disciples that He is the true vine, thus fruitfulness could only be produced as they abode in Him.
The Fig Tree
Figs are known for their sweetness. The trees abound in Palestine and give lots of fruit. Figs were made into cakes by being pressed together. The trees bear figs at different times, thus the expressions “first-ripe figs” and “untimely figs.” The tree is unique in that the fruit is produced before the leaves. When the Lord sought fruit and found leaves only, He cursed the tree, for it should have had fruit before the leaves. The tree represents Israel nationally (Luke 21:29; 13:67; Hos. 9:10) and speaks of profession. Israel made a profession of being God’s people but did not render fruit.
The Olive Tree
The olive represents fatness, wherewith the trees honor God and man (Judg. 9:9). This was the principal source of oil in the East. Israel occupied the special place of privilege and testimony before God, but according to Romans 11, they were broken off. Other branches have been grafted in, so that today the Gentiles occupy that place of privilege and testimony. These branches partake of the root and fatness of the olive tree (Rom. 11; Judg. 9:89; Jer. 11:16).
Pomegranates
Pomegranates are a fruit of a heavenly character (Ex. 28:33-34; Song of Sol. 6:11; 8:2). This fruit was not found in Egypt. We may look upon it as a symbol of those who are saved —fruit for heaven. Some have said it has nine sections corresponding to the nine parts of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). Bells and pomegranates were placed alternately on the high priest’s robe and hung low near the ground. As the priest walked, the bells sounded with melody as they touched the pomegranates — melody connected with rich fruit. What a contrast this was from the murmuring and complaining often heard in the camp of Israel!
Honey
Honey was plentiful in Palestine, for it was called a land “flowing with milk and honey” (Ex. 3:8,17). Honey is symbolic of what is sweet in nature and was to be partaken of with discretion, lest it cause vomiting (Prov. 25:16,27). It was strictly forbidden to add honey to the offerings of the Lord by fire (Lev. 2:11). The things of nature, though they may be sweet to us, can have no place in what is offered to God. The Lord had no honey during His life on earth, but He did partake of a honeycomb when He was risen, to prove His bodily resurrection.
These seven foods of Canaan present to us the picture of what the Christian is to feed on for spiritual growth.
From various sources
This Light Bread
It has often been noticed that the burst of song that broke forth from redeemed Israel on the banks of the Red Sea had scarcely died away before they began to murmur against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” Though they had been slaves under the iron yoke of Pharaoh, they were not prepared for the hardships of the desert, and as a consequence their hearts were filled with rebellion and their lips with murmurs.
There were three things that made up the bitterness of their daily lives, all of which are most instructive to us. First, there was “no bread” nor “water” (Num. 21:5); second, they loathed — became weary of — the bread which God had provided for them, saying, “Our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes” (Num. 11:6); third, they longed after the food of Egypt, “the fish . . . the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic” (Num. 11:5; Ex. 16:3).
These things together became so insupportable that again and again they said that they would far rather have remained in Egypt. “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples [examples]: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come” (1 Cor. 10:11).
A Dry and Thirsty Land
The first thing that troubled them was that they found no bread and no water in the desert. As the psalmist expresses it, they found it to be “a dry and thirsty land, where no water is” (Psa. 63:1). Brought out of Egypt — type of the world of nature, of man in his natural condition—they had lost their accustomed food. As well, the wilderness was destitute of all the sources from which they had hitherto drawn, as well as those from which they needed now to draw their life and sustenance. They had lost their old life forever (in figure) in the Red Sea, the life which Egypt fed and nourished. They now possessed a new life, the springs of which were not found in the scene through which they were passing.
It is so with the believer now. For the new life which he possesses in a risen Christ, there is neither bread nor water in the desert. Before he was met by the grace of God, all the springs of his life were in the world. Now the world has become a wilderness to him, and looking out upon it he has to learn that it can offer him nothing either to stimulate or to refresh him in his pilgrim way. He is not of the world, even as Christ was not of the world. As dead with Christ to it and risen with Him out of it, how could he find his suited food in it or slake his thirst at its polluted streams?
These truths are as familiar as household words, but we need to challenge our hearts continually as to their practical acceptance. Do we remember that, apart from the simple requirements of our bodies, the scene of our strangership contains nothing for us — nothing to aid or invigorate—but, on the other hand, everything calculated to blight and deaden the life we have in Christ Jesus?
Nourishment From Above
It is of the greatest importance, especially for young believers whose feet have just entered upon the sands of the desert, to have this continually before the mind, that there is no bread or water to be found for our souls in the wilderness, for we belong to another scene. Christ Himself at the right hand of God is our life (Col. 3:3), and it is from thence alone that we can derive our nourishment and strength. All our springs are in Christ risen and glorified. With Him alone is the fountain of life. The believer who walks through the world in the power of this truth, expecting nothing but snares and dangers from it, will be kept in independence of it. He will be conscious of a life that has no affinities to anything round about him, and he will exhibit a life, fed from on high, which, shining as a light in the moral darkness of this scene, will be a testimony for Christ, a testimony of grace and also, alas! of coming judgment.
Weary of Manna
The second thing that afflicted these pilgrims was that they became weary of the food which God had provided for them. It was in response to their murmurings (for as yet they were under grace, Sinai not having been reached) that He in His tenderness and mercy gave them the manna. “The whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness: and the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots, and when we did eat bread to the full: for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger” (Ex. 16:23). Such conduct merited judgment, but the Lord acted in grace, and hence He said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you.” He did this for forty years, until they passed over the Jordan (Josh. 5). The manna was Israel’s food, suited food for the wilderness, and it was of this that they tired, until at length they dared to say, “Our soul loatheth this light bread” (Num. 21:5). Now the manna is a type of Christ, of a humbled Christ, of all that Christ was in His tenderness, grace and sympathy as He passed through this scene. It therefore speaks of all that He is as suited to us in wilderness circumstances as strangers and pilgrims. Christ then in this character is our only food (see John 6), the only food that can sustain and strengthen us — Christ in every aspect in which He is presented to us as the Manna. We need all that He is as thus given, but we need nothing outside of Himself —nothing but Himself. Since He Himself is our life, it is He only that can sustain it.
How then is it possible for the believer to weary of Christ? We have two natures, the old and the new, and “these are contrary the one to the other.” If we are not walking in the Spirit (see Gal. 5), the flesh will assert its desires, and the flesh never loves Christ; the mind of the flesh, indeed, is enmity against God (Rom. 8). It is the flesh, therefore, that wearies of Christ, that, desiring its own proper food, begets in us a distaste for the heavenly manna. But the flesh is subtle and, when thus acting in the believer, generally loves to conceal its true character. But flesh is flesh, whatever the forms in which it is expressed, and even as Satan knows how to transform himself into an angel of light, so the flesh knows how to assume most pious forms. It is necessary, therefore, to be on our guard, lest we also fall into this grievous sin of loathing “this light bread.”
Indications of Being Weary
Signs of this tendency often appear where least expected. For example, if a ministry which appeals to the intellect instead of to the heart and conscience is preferred; if the exposition of interesting principles, in which the natural man can even delight, is welcomed rather than a simple presentation of Christ Himself; if we become restless under sound doctrine, and after our own desires heap to ourselves teachers having itching ears; if we turn to books which deal with spiritual or prophetic problems (though these may have their place) rather than to those that unfold the excellencies and the graces of Christ; if we seek companionship with those who can entertain us naturally or socially in preference to those with whom we could have spiritual fellowship, those with whom Christ alone would be the bond; if we are losing our appetite for the Scriptures, and, it may be added, if we are losing the sense of our pilgrim character, and are gradually settling down into the enjoyment of things around — then there is reason to fear that we are becoming weary of “this light bread.”
Let us then boldly ask ourselves whether we are satisfied with Christ, satisfied to the full in Him as our daily food. Let us ask ourselves this question in our homes, in our daily and social life, in our leisure moments, when listening to ministry, when gathered together in the assembly of the saints. It is one thing to sing, “Jesus, of Thee we ne’er would tire,” and it is another thing to know it practically. May the Lord keep us from the grievous sin of losing our appetite for Himself.
The Fleshpots of Egypt
Combined with this, in the case of the Israelites, there was an intense desire for the things of Egypt. How often did they longingly recall the fleshpots, the fish, the leeks, the melons and the cucumbers of Egypt? The two things always go together. Losing appetite for Christ is sometimes the consequence of indulgence in, and sometimes the cause of desiring, Egyptian gratifications. But let us ask plainly what this means. To long after the food of Egypt, then, is for the believer to seek after the same gratifications, amusements and sources of enjoyment as the man of the world. The natural man has that food in which he endeavors to find his life, as the Christian has his. If the believer turns from Christ to that on which the world feeds, he is in exactly the same case as the Israelites. Thus, if the Christian looks with desire of heart to the world’s amusements and social enjoyments; if he takes delight in the world’s subjects of pride — painting, sculpture, architecture, national greatness; in its leaders in science, philosophy, literature, and art; if he is becoming interested in politics and party conflicts; if he would feed his mind with the world’s books; if he courts worldly society, the world’s fashions, distinctions, luxuries and ways; if he cultivates the world’s habits and manners; if, in short, he is turning to any of the sources of earth, any of its sources of enjoyment, pride, pleasure or exaltation, he is, in fact, longing after the fleshpots of Egypt.
What, then, have we to say to these things? Are we in this case? There is no sadder spectacle than that presented by some who once knew what it was to feed on Christ and to find their all in Him, but who now are turning back to the very things which they had gladly refused for His sake. They did run well, but they have been hindered through the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, or the pride of life. Whatever is not Christ and of Christ is Egypt and of Egypt. We need, therefore, to be so attracted, possessed and absorbed by Christ as to have every want satisfied in Himself. This is the effectual antidote to every fascination and allurement that Egypt can present.
E. Dennett, adapted
The Golden Pot of Manna
The manna signifies the Son of God become incarnate to give life to our souls. He, entering in humiliation into all our circumstances, is the provision for the daily walk through the wilderness. We find the manna spoken of in connection with Jesus as the living bread sent down from heaven. “This is the true bread which cometh down from heaven” (John 6). But what then is the hidden manna? The manna for Israel was spread around the camp, and they were to gather it daily for their food. And so likewise is Christ to be the daily provision of the soul while in this wilderness world, but this is not the hidden manna. There was to be a golden pot of manna laid up before God, and when the Israelites had entered into the land, they were to have the memorial of what they had enjoyed in the wilderness. This hidden manna is the remembrance of a suffering Christ down here — the memory of what Christ has been in the wilderness, as a man, a humbled, suffering man, and one who is God’s eternal delight in heaven. In our eternal state, those who have overcome, those who have been faithful in separation with Christ from the world, will have the everlasting enjoyment of fellowship with God in His delight in a once-humbled Christ — the same kind of delight, although in a different measure.
J. N. Darby, adapted
World Food Shortage
Food production and, more important, the distribution of food have been matters of concern in this world for thousands of years. When the fall of man brought sin into this world, God told him, “Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life” (Gen. 3:17). In addition, God said to Adam, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread” (vs. 19). Later, when Cain killed his brother Abel, God pronounced a further curse, telling him that “when thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength” (Gen. 4:12). For these reasons, man has had to work hard in order to eat. Add to this curse on the ground the fluctuations of weather, and we have a combination that has caused shortages and sometimes famines in various parts of the world.
We know well the truth of the words, “The king himself is served by the field” (Eccl. 5:9), and that all men are dependent on God, who gives us “rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 14:17). Even though we may live in an industrial and technological world, ultimately we depend on the land for our basic need of food. We know also that from time to time God has used food shortages and famines to speak to this world and to recall man to his responsibility toward Him. Over the centuries this world has seen many food shortages, interspersed with times of plenty.
Changes in Recent Years
In the past one hundred years, agriculture has changed tremendously in this world, especially in western countries where mechanization has, perhaps, been the most apparent. In the decades following World War II, world food production far outstripped the population growth. These surpluses continued well into the 1980s, with farmers having to endure very low prices because production was so high. As a result, food was very cheap in many countries, and especially in North America, where surpluses of most food commodities were taken for granted. Over the past decade all this has changed. Global supplies of cereal grains are at a 40year low, and with consumption trending continually upward, the world’s supply of food is under pressures unknown since World War II. At the time of writing this article, cereal stocks in the world stand at less than 60 days, meaning that if all grain production were to stop right now and the world continued its present consumption, all cereal grains would be exhausted in less than two months. (In 1987 the figure was 128 days.) Some would argue that this is a temporary situation that will resolve itself by market forces within a reasonable time, but most experts agree that the problem will be with us at least for several years, and it probably is here to stay. It has been with us for some years already and shows no sign of improving.
The nations of Africa have been perhaps the hardest hit, but more recently other nations such as Mexico and Brazil have also experienced shortages. Middle Eastern nations and even Western Europe have seen a drastic increase in food prices. The tsunami that hit southwest Asia several years ago has taken its toll and has affected food production in that part of the world. China, a nation now experiencing prosperity and starting to want more meat in its diet, has had severe droughts, causing its food production to fall. Even India, traditionally a food exporting nation, has now become a net importer. In countries such as the U.S.A. and Canada, where there is no immediate shortage, food costs have risen, requiring that consumers spend considerably more in order to eat the same way as they did before.
What Are the Causes?
We may well ask what has caused all this, but there is no simple answer. Rather, a combination of forces, some of them beyond man’s control, have come together to bring it about. Probably the most significant factors have been climate change and the price of oil. In many areas, either droughts or floods have lowered production drastically, particularly in places where irrigation is not affordable. Along with this, in some countries, mainly the U.S.A., 2025% of the corn crop has now been diverted to the production of ethanol, resulting in less of it for food and, of course, a higher price.
Other factors have also affected food production. The world use of water increased sixfold between 1990 and 2005, as most of this was for agricultural use. For this reason and others, there has been a water shortage in many parts of the world, and water tables have been falling drastically in some countries. As well, the world’s population is increasing by 80 million each year, and even more important, the world’s poor are increasing faster. According to Josette Sheeran, head of the United Nations’ World Food Program, there are 854 million hungry people in the world, and 4 million more join their ranks every year. She went on to say that we are facing the tightest food supplies in recent history, and that for many of the world’s poor, food is simply being priced out of their reach.
The sad results of all this are already being felt. In certain countries, people have started to boycott foods that they feel are too costly, while in other nations, this social unrest has escalated into violence. Food riots have occurred in several countries in West Africa, notably in Mauritania, Senegal and Niger. A number of people were killed and others jailed during recent food protests and rioting in the Middle East, in Jordan and Yemen. One author stated, “We need to augment food production by about 1520% per year for the next three years, or we may face violence in the poorer societies of the world. This is a crucial issue confronting world leaders.”
The Christian’s Place
What should be the Christian’s view of, and reaction to, all this? On the one hand, we can rest in God’s promise, given to Noah and his family and ultimately to us too, that “while the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Gen. 8:22). While this promise does not, by itself, guarantee a plentiful food supply, it does tell us that God will look after the need for a food supply in this world, for He knows how long this world has to last, in order to accomplish His purposes. He made this world, and not only placed man in it, but also placed in it the resources necessary for man to live. He will give what is necessary for man, although He may well use food shortages to speak to him. This brings us to another consideration in Scripture.
Prophecies of Shortage
While we do not want to make any rash predictions, we may well consider whether all this is the forerunner of what we read in Revelation 6:56: “I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.” Here it is evident that, at a point in the future, a serious food shortage will exist, and the prices charged for wheat and barley will reflect that shortage. If we remember that a penny was a man’s daily wages when the New Testament was written, we see that basic staples of food will become very expensive. No doubt the events referred to in these verses take place after the church has been called home, when God has begun to work by providential judgments. At that time He will gradually topple all of man’s prosperity and technology, eventually reducing him in the great tribulation to primitive methods of farming and survival. However, we may well see the beginnings of all this before we are called home, as God “sets the stage” for events to take place afterward.
It is also noticeable that, at least initially, the poor will feel the pinch of much higher prices, while the wealthy of this world will be able to maintain their standard of living. This is borne out by the phrase, “See thou hurt not the oil and the wine.” Oil and wine suggest a more refined and luxurious diet, as opposed to the staples of wheat and barley. We see this pattern today, as the world’s poor try to cope with price increases as high as 50%, while more affluent nations are able to maintain their lifestyle, at least for the moment. However, we know that as time goes on during the tribulation period, all will feel the hand of God, for it “shall come upon all the world” (Rev. 3:10).
The Coming of the Lord
For those of us who know the Lord, we can rejoice, knowing that “the coming of the Lord draweth nigh” (James 5:8). Also, we can seek grace from the Lord to use whatever opportunities may be given to us to alleviate the suffering in this world and to help those who are in need. We cannot straighten out the mess in which this world is, but we can use the resources God has given us to help out, while at the same time warning sinners of God’s impending judgment. We can take courage too, knowing that God is using all this to further His purposes. As a result of His judgments on man, our blessed Saviour will have His rightful place in this world. “When Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness” (Isa. 26:9). When He reigns in righteousness, the curse on the ground will be lifted, and the harvests will be so abundant that “the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed” (Amos 9:13). As part of the church, we will enjoy heavenly blessings, but it will be wonderful to see our blessed Saviour vindicated where He was rejected, while in turn He brings unparalleled blessing to this world.
W. J. Prost
The Hidden Manna
In Genesis we see a paradise for man; in Revelation 2:7 we have a paradise for God. In man’s paradise were certain things — plants, trees, fruits — things in which the heart of man could find refreshment and a particular tree in the midst of the garden, the tree of life. In the midst of God’s garden of delights will be a tree of life too, and that the Tree of Life. We cannot doubt who that is, the blessed Lord Jesus. God will be able to say of that garden, Here I have all I desire; here I can move about freely. Eden was no place to satisfy Me, but here I have everything to delight in. I have filled the earth, and there is not a single thing that does not speak to Me of what is My own delight. All around is a perfect answer to My heart — poor sinners, saved by grace, filling heaven! It is God’s paradise; no hand save His has interfered there.
Now one well understands that when one comes home to the garden of God’s delight, while it will be very blessed to look around on the saints reflecting glory, yet there will be One who will stand out conspicuously among all — the blessed Lord Jesus, the Tree of Life in the midst.
It is something beyond being a partaker of eternal life. Israel ate of the manna, but not of “the hidden manna.” God loved to feed His people, pilgrims in the wilderness, but that display of His love was a passing one — one not needed in the land. But there was a portion not to pass away, a portion treasured up, not for Israel nor for the priests; it was a record to God! If Israel rejoiced in the manna, God delights in Him who was the manna. Did His delight in Christ cease when Israel needed the manna no longer? No; He loved to have the memorial of it laid up for Himself. Here the manna is needed day by day; I take and feed on it. But how little does my heart enter into the preciousness of it, to what it will do there! To those who overcome there will be the power of tasting God’s delight in Christ as the Tree of Life in the midst of the paradise of God. Christ, the One who can give back life to poor sinners, is the ornament in the midst of that garden of delights of God; He adorns it.
G. V. Wigram
in The Seven Churches