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Scripture Reading: Deut. 8:7-8; 7:13; 32:13-14; Judg. 9:9, 11, 13; Ezek. 34:29; Num. 13:23, 27; Zech. 4:12-14
We have seen three items of the foods in the good land of Canaan: the wheat, the barley, and the vine. Let us notice again the order: first the wheat, then the barley, then the vine. The incarnated, limited, crucified, and buried Jesus comes into our experience first; then we touch the resurrected Christ. By the power of His resurrection we can live the life He lived on the earth. By the resurrected Christ we can live the life of the incarnated and limited Jesus. Then we learn that the more we enjoy Christ, the more we must suffer. The more we experience Christ, the more we will be put into the winepress. We will be pressed so that something may be produced to please God and others. Our experience testifies to all these things.
We now come to the fourth item — the fig trees. Judges 9:11 tells us that the fig tree represents sweetness and good fruit. It speaks of the sweetness and satisfaction of Christ as our supply. In the first item, the wheat, we could not see the sweetness and the satisfaction; neither could we in the barley. Even in the vine the emphasis is not on the sweetness and satisfaction of Christ as our supply. We must come for this to the fourth item, the fig tree.
From our experience we realize that the more we enjoy Christ as the wheat, as the barley, and as the vine, the more we experience the sweetness and the satisfaction of Christ. The more we enjoy Christ as the resurrected One, the more we will be pressed, and the more we will enjoy Him as the vine. But praise the Lord, at that very moment we realize the sweetness and the satisfaction of Christ as our supply.
About thirty years ago in China, a young girl who lived in the northern province of Kiangsu was sick. It was a time of famine, and she was in terrible poverty. In her sickness she was brought to the Lord, and in the face of strong opposition from her entire family she made swift progress in her spiritual growth. Just at that time her husband died, and pressure upon pressure came upon her. She was put into one winepress after the other. Concerning doctrine, she knew very little, but she really experienced something in the spirit. She experienced Christ. Day by day she enjoyed Christ and testified that Christ was her very life. Her family was severely antagonistic. The more she attended the meetings, the more her mother-in-law beat her and persecuted her. She sang hymns of praise to the Lord, but the more she rejoiced, the more the wrath of her mother-in-law was stirred, and she was smitten all the more. The sister, however, was undaunted. Her mother-in-law’s beatings only caused her to praise her Lord more than ever. One day when she returned singing from the meeting, her mother-in-law was deeply irritated. “Whatever are you doing!” she exclaimed. “We are so poor, and yet you have the heart to sing something!” And upon that, she gave her a good beating. Going to her room and shutting the door, the young sister sang praises to the Lord and prayed with a loud voice. The mother-in-law could not help but hear her and came to the door to listen. “What in the world is the matter with her?” the mother thought. “Perhaps she is mad.” She listened carefully. Do you know what that young sister was praying? “O Lord, praise You, praise You, I am so happy! Forgive my mother-in-law! Save her, Lord, save her! Give her the light, and give her the happiness I have! Bless her, Lord!” All these simple words of prayer greatly surprised the mother-in-law. She thought the young girl was probably cursing her, but instead of cursing, she was praying for her. The mother-in-law knocked on the door. Trembling with fear, the young sister thought that her mother-in-law was coming to beat her again. But instead, the mother-in-law asked, “Daughter, how are you, how are you? I beat you! Why do you pray for me, asking your God to bless me and give me joy? What is the matter with you?” “O Mother,” the young sister replied, “Christ satisfies me! I am so satisfied. I am full of sweetness. You know, mother, the more you beat me, the more sweetness and satisfaction I have.” Immediately, the mother-in-law came in and took her hand, saying, “Daughter, let us kneel down. Teach me how to pray. I want to take your Jesus as mine.”
The sweetness and satisfaction of the Lord is our supply. The more we are pressed, we may be sure, the more we will be satisfied. The pressure only causes us to realize His sweetness and His satisfaction. This is Christ as the fig tree.
We come now to the fifth item, the pomegranates. What do they represent? Have you ever seen one? When you see a ripe pomegranate, you immediately realize the abundance and the beauty of life.
Consider the young sister we have mentioned. What beauty there was in her life! Her life was the transfiguration of the life of Christ. And what abundance of life there was! One of our co-workers went to that place and became acquainted with her situation. He brought us word so that all the churches in that area were nourished by her experience. Praise the Lord for such abundance of life.
When you enjoy and experience Christ as the wheat, as the barley, as the vine, and as the fig tree, the beauty of Christ is about you, and the abundance of the life of Christ is with you. This is the experience of Christ as the pomegranate. If you enjoy Christ as the resurrected One and by the power of His resurrection you live the life of Jesus on the earth to suffer all kinds of pressure, persecutions, troubles, and conflicts, you will realize the sweetness and satisfaction of Christ within you, and you will manifest the beauty and the abundance of life to others. When others touch you, they will sense the loveliness and attractiveness of Christ, and an abundance of life will be imparted to them.
The sixth item is the olive tree. The olive tree, we know, is the tree that produces olive oil. This is the last item of the foods that we may classify as vegetables. Why has the Spirit put this one last? We have read Zechariah 4:12-14. In that passage there are two olive trees before the Lord, which, the Lord explains, are the two sons of oil. We must realize that Christ is the Son of oil; Christ is the man anointed with the Holy Spirit of God. God poured upon Him the oil of gladness. He is a man who is full of the Holy Spirit; He is the olive tree, the Son of oil. If we enjoy Him as the wheat, as the barley, as the vine, as the fig tree, and as the pomegranate, we will certainly enjoy Him as the olive tree, which means that we will be filled with the Spirit. We will be full of oil, and we will become an olive tree.
For what purpose is the oil of the olive tree used? We are told in Judges 9:9 that it is used to honor God and honor man. If we would honor God or man, we must do it by the olive oil. This simply means that if we would serve the Lord, if we would help others, we must do it by the Holy Spirit. We must be a man filled with the Spirit, an olive tree, a son of oil. We can never serve the Lord or help others without the Holy Spirit. But praise Him, if we enjoy Him as the wheat, the barley, the vine, the fig tree, and the pomegranate, we will surely have the oil. We will be filled with the Holy Spirit. We will be truly able to honor God and others.
I like the word honor. We must not only honor God but also honor others. Do not think it is a light or superficial matter. Do you realize that whenever you go to contact a brother or a sister, you are going to honor him? By what will you honor him? — by your self, by your natural life, by your old man, by your worldly knowledge? You can honor him only by the Holy Spirit. But you have to be filled with the Holy Spirit. You have to be a son of oil. You have to experience Christ as the olive tree.
Now you can realize why the Holy Spirit has made the olive tree the last item. When you have experienced Christ as all the other items and have reached this point, then you are full of the Holy Spirit. Then you can honor God, and you can honor others.
One day a brother came to visit me, but he did not come to honor me. Do you know what he said? He said, “Brother, today I went to see a movie; it was the best movie I have ever seen. I was so happy that I came to see you.” I simply felt that he dishonored me. He put me to shame. He came to dishonor me by a movie instead of honoring me with the Holy Spirit.
Brothers and sisters, if anyone comes to fellowship with you in the Holy Spirit, you are truly honored by that one. That person through the Holy Spirit bestows true honor upon you. Only when we are filled with the Holy Spirit can we honor others. Otherwise, whatever we say, whatever we do, will simply dishonor them. If we can talk with them only about the world situation and about this and that, we are heaping dishonor upon them. In all your contacts with others, can you say that by the Lord’s mercy and grace and by the Holy Spirit you honor them? Or do you dishonor them with so many things? To honor others, we must be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Whether or not we are filled with the Spirit to honor God and others depends very much upon how we enjoy and experience Christ day by day as the wheat, the barley, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and then the olive tree. If we pass the first five items, we will surely come to the sixth, the olive tree. We will be a son of oil, a saint full of the Holy Spirit.
Now let us go on to see something concerning the animal life. The aspects of Christ in the land are so many and rich. We not only have the vegetable life, the plant life, but also the animal life. There are two kinds of life. With the Lord Jesus Christ there is the aspect of the vegetable life and the aspect of the animal life.
The vegetable life is the life that generates, that multiplies. It is the life that is always generating and multiplying. A grain of wheat falls into the ground; it dies and is buried. What happens? Thirty, sixty, or one hundredfold of fruit will be produced. This is generation; this is multiplication. Therefore, the aspect of the Lord Jesus Christ that is represented by the vegetable life is that of generating and multiplying. This is one aspect.
But there is another aspect. We must remember that before the fall, before man had sinned, the food that God ordained for man was of the vegetable kingdom, not the animal. It was after the fall, after man had sinned, that for his diet the blood must be shed. Animals were not required for human consumption before the fall, but when sin entered, man must include them in his food. Without sin there was no need of redemption through the blood, but after the fall, because of sin, the blood was required. If we are going to live before God, we must partake of redemption through the blood. What then does the animal life signify? It signifies the redeeming life, the sacrificing life. After man fell and sinned, such a life was required that he might live before God.
These are the two aspects of the Lord’s life. On one hand, His life is a generating life, and on the other hand, His life is a redeeming life. The Lord said in John 6, “My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink,” and “he who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life” (vv. 55, 54). We have to enjoy Christ as the redeeming One.
Perhaps by now you feel that you have learned something. You have learned how to apply Christ as the wheat, as the barley, and as so many kinds of trees. You rejoice, but you must realize that you can never simply apply Christ as the barley, because you are a sinner, you have sinned. To this very day, you and I are sinners. Whenever we would apply Christ as the wheat, as the barley, as the vine, as the fig tree, as the pomegranate, and as the olive tree, at the same time we must apply Him as the lamb, as the One who died on the cross, shedding His blood to redeem us from our sins. With all the offerings in the Old Testament there was always the offering of an animal with the offering of the vegetable. You know what Cain did. He offered vegetables without something of an animal, and he was rejected by God. Whenever you would enjoy Christ, you must realize that you are sinful. You must ask the Lord to cover you with His precious blood and cleanse you once more. You cannot simply enjoy Christ as the plant, as the wheat, or as the barley. You have to enjoy Him as the plant with the animal. You must enjoy Him as the generating life and at the same time as the redeeming life.
One day a couple, a brother and a sister, came to see me. They said, “Brother, we know your stomach is not so strong, so we have prepared some food for you. We would like to invite you to come to our home for dinner.” I replied that I was so willing to do so. When I went there, they had indeed prepared some good food, and they had prepared it very nicely. When they spread the table, it was quite colorful. There was the green, the red, the white, and the yellow — it looked most pleasing. But I shook my head. My wife noticed and asked, “What is the matter? Why are you shaking your head? Don’t you like this food?” “I like it,” I said, “but it is not scriptural; there is nothing of the animal.” All that was prepared was of the plant life. There were vegetables, vegetables, and more vegetables, and some fruit, but there was no meat. There was nothing of the animal. “Do you think that I am not a sinner?” I asked the sister. “Do you think that I do not need to take the Lord as the slain One, that I do not need His blood at this very moment?”
Now you understand. You cannot simply experience Christ as the plant life, as the vegetable life. You are sinful. Whenever you offer the meal offering, you must also offer something of the animal. Whenever you take Christ as your life, as the wheat, as the barley, as the fig, or as the pomegranate, you must at the same time take Him as the bullock or as the lamb. He is the One who was slain on the cross, shedding His blood to redeem us from our sins.
One day a brother came to me, saying, “Brother, whenever I hear you pray, you always say, ‘Lord, cleanse us with Your precious blood that we may enjoy You more and more.’ Why do you always ask the Lord to cleanse you with His blood?” “Brother,” I answered, “don’t you realize that you still have a sinful nature? Don’t you realize that you are still living in this corrupt and defiling world? Are you not defiled from morning to evening by many things?” Whenever we come to experience Christ and apply Him as our life, we must realize that He is not only the plant life but also the animal life. We must always apply Him as the redeeming One, as the Lamb who has been slain, so that we may enjoy all the riches of His generating life.
Now we come to two more items — milk and honey. The good land is a land flowing with milk and honey. Can you tell to which life the milk and the honey belong? Do they belong to the animal life or to the vegetable life? Notice how the Holy Spirit arranges them in the Word. In Deuteronomy 8:8 the honey is put with the plants: the wheat, the barley, the vines, the fig trees, the pomegranates, the olive trees, and then the honey. And in Deuteronomy 32:14 the milk is put with the animals: the cattle, the flock, the milk, and the butter. The Holy Spirit is very fair. He put the honey with the plants, and He put the milk with the butter and the animals. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is well aware that, for the most part, honey has to do with the plant life. It is derived mostly from the flowers and the trees. Of course, a part of the animal life is involved — that little animal, the bee. Without the flowers we cannot have honey, and without the bees we cannot have honey either. We must have flowers, and we must have bees. These two cooperate; these two lives are mingled together, and honey is produced. But honey, for the most part, belongs to the vegetable life.
What about the milk? We can say that the greater part of milk belongs to the animal life. But indeed it is the product of both the animal life and the vegetable life. If we do not have the pasture, if we do not have the grass, even though we have the cattle and the flock, we cannot have milk and butter. Which is the better food: the milk or all the fruit of the trees — the vine, the fig, the pomegranate, and the olive? Yes, they are all good, but which is better? I believe we all realize that milk is better than all the fruit of the vegetable life. Why? Because with both milk and honey, we enjoy the mingling of two kinds of life. You see then that both these items are of the vegetable and of the animal lives.
What is the meaning of this? What aspects of the life of Christ do the milk and the honey portray? When you enjoy Christ as the wheat, the barley, the vine, etc., and at the same time you enjoy Him as the bullock and as the lamb, you will realize that the Lord is so good, that the Lord is so sweet and so rich to you, just as milk and honey. Especially when you are weak in spirit and you come to the Lord to experience and apply Him, you sense that He is the milk and the honey. You sense the riches and the sweetness of the life of Christ — the goodness of milk and the sweetness of honey. Christ is so good. Christ is so sweet. He is a land flowing with milk and honey. This experience is produced from the two aspects of the life of Christ, the generating and the redeeming life. The more you realize Him as the wheat and the barley and so forth, and at the same time as the cattle and the flock, the more you will enjoy Christ as milk and honey.
We have seen three kinds of waters and at least eight kinds of food. How rich Christ is to us! We must have such an adequate and full experience of Him, not just as the living water but as so many kinds of food. We must enjoy Christ to such an extent that the life within us may be matured. Then there will be a building for the Lord and the warfare with the enemy. We will consider this in the next chapter.
