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In this message we will continue to consider Christ as the Priest who trims the lampstands, the churches.
In Revelation 2:17 we see that Christ as the Priest is the hidden manna for the overcomers to enjoy. “To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna.” Here to overcome is specifically to overcome the church’s union with the world, the teaching of idolatry and fornication, and the teaching of hierarchy. The Lord promised the overcomers in Pergamos the hidden manna for their support and supply. In the local churches Christ is the hidden manna for the overcomers to eat and enjoy. Just as the tree of life is “good for food” (Gen. 2:9), the hidden manna is also good for food.
Manna is a type of Christ as the heavenly food that enables God’s people to go His way. A portion of manna was preserved in a golden pot concealed in the Ark (Exo. 16:32-34; Heb. 9:4). The open manna was for the Lord’s people to enjoy in a public way; the hidden manna, signifying the hidden Christ, is a special portion reserved for His overcoming seekers, who overcome the degradation of the worldly church. While the church goes the way of the world, these overcomers come forward to abide in the presence of God in the Holy of Holies, where they enjoy the hidden Christ as a special portion for their daily supply. This promise is being fulfilled today in the proper church life and will be fulfilled in full in the coming kingdom. If we seek the Lord, overcome the degradation of the worldly church, and enjoy a special portion of the Lord today, He as the hidden manna will be a reward to us in the coming kingdom. If we miss Him as our special portion today in the church life, we will surely lose the enjoyment of Him as a reward in the coming kingdom.
The hidden manna mentioned in Revelation 2:17 was hidden in a golden pot in the Ark within the Holy of Holies (Heb. 9:4). Gold signifies God’s divine nature. Thus, placing the hidden manna in the golden pot signifies that the hidden Christ is concealed in the divine nature. The open manna is for all the people of God, but the hidden manna is for those who are intimate with the Lord, those who have forsaken the world and every separation between them and God. They come into the intimacy of God’s presence, and here in this divine intimacy they enjoy the hidden manna in the divine nature. This is deep. It is not outward but absolutely inward. It is so inward that those who eat of the hidden manna are actually in the divine nature enjoying the hidden Christ. Today we must enjoy the hidden Christ in God’s golden divine nature.
In Exodus 16 Jehovah commanded Moses to take a portion, one-tenth of an ephah, of the manna that He had given the children of Israel and to place it before His testimony (vv. 32-36). This portion of the manna was for God. The open manna was the people’s portion, but this offered, hidden manna in the pot before God’s testimony was God’s portion. Manna signifies Christ, whom God has given to us as a gift. While we are enjoying Christ as our manna, we must take the best portion and offer it to God, offering Christ to God.
Once the manna had been presented to God, it was no longer the open manna; it had become the hidden manna because, after being presented to God, it was placed in a golden pot and hidden in the Ark in the Holy of Holies within the tabernacle. Originally, the manna was under the sky in the open air. It was open to anything and anyone. But after the top portion had been presented to God and placed in the pot, it was hidden within the innermost part of the tabernacle, the Holy of Holies, where it was placed before the Testimony of God. Among the children of Israel was the tabernacle, within the tabernacle was the Holy of Holies, within the Holy of Holies was the Ark, within the Ark was the golden pot, and within the pot was the manna. Hence, manna was altogether hidden. In this way the top portion of manna became hidden.
If we would eat the hidden manna, we must first eat the open manna. If we do not experience the open manna, we will have no manna to offer to God as the hidden manna. The hidden manna is the manna that we experience, enjoy, and then offer to God. We enjoy manna, and out of the manna we enjoy, we offer a small portion to God, saying, “God, I offer to You the Christ whom I have been enjoying. You have given Christ to me as my portion, and now I give the best of Him to You as Your portion.” God will then invite us to come into His Holy of Holies and enjoy this portion with Him. This is the hidden manna. Enjoying Christ as our hidden manna is not a sudden experience; it must have a history behind it.
Christ as the hidden manna is not the manna in the wilderness but the manna in the Holy of Holies. It is not the manna displayed but the manna hidden in a secret place. The hidden manna in the Holy of Holies corresponds to the bread of the Presence in the Holy Place. The difference between the two, however, is that the bread of the Presence was exhibited on the table, whereas the manna in the Ark was hidden in the golden pot (v. 33; Heb. 9:4). In the wilderness the people of Israel enjoyed the manna, but the manna they enjoyed was public manna — the manna that had fallen to the earth, not the manna hidden in the heavens. We need to experience Christ as the hidden manna, a Christ in the secret place, a Christ in the heavenlies. This is the Christ mentioned in Hebrews 7 as the High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek, not according to the order of Aaron (cf. 5:6, 10; 6:20). Aaron ministered in the outer court, offering sacrifices on the altar; Melchizedek ministers on the throne of grace in the heavenlies (4:16; Rev. 4:2). We may experience Christ as our food, but this enjoyment may be only in the Holy Place; whatever we experience of Christ is immediately known by many people. This is but the experience of the open bread of the Presence. We need to press deeper to enter into “the secret place of the Most High” (Psa. 91:1) in order to touch the heavenly Christ Himself.
The way to overcome all kinds of degradation in the church life is to eat and enjoy Jesus as the hidden manna, the private manna, for the inner life and life supply. In Christ as the Ark, we can enjoy Him as the hidden manna, as a particular portion for our life supply, to overcome the worldliness of the degraded church. We should get away from all persons and distractions to have a personal time with the Lord, in which we can enjoy Him in a hidden way. We can enjoy Christ in a public way with all the saints, but we still need a time apart from everyone to enjoy Christ as the hidden manna. We need to be in a private place to contact Him, to praise Him, and to enjoy Him in the holy Word. Many believers may eat only an open, public Christ, but we all need a time to eat a private, hidden Christ. Our experience of Christ should not merely be open in the meetings but hidden in the Holy of Holies, even in Christ Himself as the Ark, the Testimony of God.
Today Christ as the Ark is in our spirit, which is joined to the Holy of Holies. In our spirit we have the Holy of Holies; in the Holy of Holies we have Christ, the Ark, and within Christ we have the golden pot, the divine nature. Today God’s divine nature is in our spirit. Although we have the golden pot, the problem is that often we are far off from our spirit. We need not be quarreling or fighting with others in order to be out of the spirit. Even when we joke with the brothers, we are outside the spirit. Also, being religious is much different from being in the spirit. By being religious we are carried out to the wilderness. The golden pot is in the Ark, and the Ark is in the Holy of Holies, and the Holy of Holies is joined to our spirit. If we continually touch Christ in our spirit, we will enjoy Him as the hidden manna. The open manna was food for all the people who were outside the dwelling place of God and were wandering in the wilderness, whereas the hidden manna is for the person who is remaining in the innermost part of God’s dwelling place, no longer wandering in the soul but abiding in the presence of God in the spirit.
If there is a distance between us and God, we may enjoy the open manna, but we cannot eat the hidden manna. If we would partake of the hidden manna, there must be no distance between us and God. In the Holy of Holies we enjoy something of Christ that all those who are far off from His presence cannot taste. Consider the service around the tabernacle in the Old Testament. The Levites served in the outer court, and the priests served in the outer court and also in the Holy Place, where they arranged the bread of the Presence, trimmed the lamp, and burned the incense. But when the high priest entered into the Holy of Holies, there was hardly any work to do. Here, in the Holy of Holies, the high priest ministered directly in the presence of God. Here, in the Holy of Holies, the ministering one enjoys the hidden manna. The hidden manna is that portion of Christ that we enjoy in the presence of God when there is no distance between us and Him.
The farther we are from God, the less service we have toward Him. The closer we are to Him, the more service we render to Him. Eventually, when we enter into the presence of the divine glory in the Holy of Holies, all service ceases. Here we have only the presence of the Lord and enjoy the hidden Christ, the hidden manna. It is here that we have direct fellowship with the Lord and know His heart and His intention. It is here that we can be charged with Him, with His intention, and with all He wants us to do. In this way we become a person who knows His heart and His intention. When we are such a person, His commitment will be ours. We have God’s commitment because we are in His presence. We know that we are in the presence of God because we realize that there is no distance between us and God.
The hidden manna cannot be enjoyed by those who live outside of God; it is enjoyed only by those who live in the Holy of Holies before God’s face. Those who stand on the Lord’s side to maintain His testimony will be able to experience Christ as the hidden manna. They will have Christ as their life supply, but the flavor of that supply will be the hidden manna, which others do not know. Others will not be able to touch or taste the Christ that these overcomers experience and enjoy. If we seek fame or position, we will have no share in the enjoyment of the overcomers; we will not taste, touch, or experience the hidden manna. If we desire worldly fame and are married to the world, we cannot enjoy the hidden Christ before God.
When we become intimate with Christ, on some occasions we are so close to God that while touching the divine nature and partaking of it we are beyond the world, every situation, our self, and even our natural being. Everyone who enters into the Holy of Holies is with the High Priest. Christ, our High Priest, is in the Holy of Holies, and we also must be there. We must also be the priests in the Holy of Holies where the golden pot is. If we would be in this place, we must be beyond the world and every kind of situation. We must be beyond being bothered by people. When we are beyond all situations, good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant, we are in our spirit touching the Ark and the golden pot. If we would partake of the hidden manna, we must constantly be in our spirit touching the divine nature.
To eat the hidden manna is something absolutely outside of the world. While the worldly church is going down into union with the world, we are coming up from Egypt to the wilderness, from the wilderness to the good land, from the good land to the tabernacle, from the outer court to the Holy Place, and from the Holy Place to the Holy of Holies. After we have entered into the Holy of Holies, we must still dive into the Ark, touch the golden pot, and enjoy Christ as the manna hidden there. The more worldly the church becomes, the more we need to enter into the Holy of Holies to eat the hidden manna. If we would enjoy it, we must abide in the deep intimacy of God’s presence. We must be in His divine nature where there is nothing worldly or distracting and where there is the intimate fellowship between us and God. Some of us who have had this experience of the hidden Christ have said, “Lord, I do not care for the world. I care only for You, Lord, not for any human relationship or friendship. Lord, I am willing to drop every tie. Lord, now I am thoroughly free, and I love You from the depths of my being. I love You without anything frustrating me.” When we say this to the Lord, we are in the golden pot, in the intimacy of the divine nature, partaking of the hidden Christ.
The manna preserved in the golden pot was the center of the tabernacle, God’s dwelling place in the Old Testament. Likewise, the Christ whom we have eaten, digested, and assimilated is the center of our being as a part of the church, God’s dwelling place today (2 Tim. 4:22; Eph. 2:22). The Christ whom we eat as open manna spontaneously becomes hidden manna by being digested and assimilated into our inner being. The focal point of God’s building today is the Christ eaten, digested, and assimilated by His people.
The open manna, the manna that lay on the ground every morning, was for the enjoyment of God’s people in a public way. However, the omer of manna placed in a pot (Exo. 16:33) was hidden and was not for the congregation in a public way. The amount of manna kept in a pot before Jehovah was one omer, the same as the amount gathered and eaten by the people (vv. 16-18). In spiritual experience, this indicates that the amount of Christ we eat is the amount we can preserve. As we partake of Christ day by day, we are also preserving Him. The amount of Christ we preserve depends on the amount of Christ we eat. The more we eat Christ, the more we preserve Him.
The fact that the Christ we eat is the Christ we preserve indicates that whatever we eat of Christ will become a memorial in generations to come. The Christ whom we eat and enjoy will be an eternal memorial, because such a Christ becomes our constitution, enabling us to build up and even to become God’s dwelling place in the universe. Nothing of what we are, what we have, or what we can do is worthy of remembrance. Only the Christ who has become our constitution is worthy to be an eternal memorial. Everything else may change, but our experience of Christ will remain for eternity.
When some Christians are in eternity, they may not have very much of Christ to remember. Because they are not eating much of Christ today, they will not have much of Him to recall in eternity. However, if we are right with the Lord day by day and eat Him consistently, we will have much to say about Him in eternity. We will recall the wonderful times we had in the church life eating Christ and enjoying Him. Whatever we enjoy of Christ in the church today will become an eternal memorial. This memorial will be preserved in the presence of God, even in His being. This hidden manna is a memorial of Christ as the supply to God’s people for the building of God’s dwelling place.
Exodus 16:36 says, “Now an omer is a tenth of an ephah.” If we read Numbers 18:26-30, we will see that the tenth part denotes a special portion that was reserved for the priesthood. This indicates that the hidden manna was not for the congregation in general but for the serving priests in particular. If as children of God we do not eat manna, we will have only open manna, not hidden manna. Without the hidden manna we will not be able to function as priests. On the contrary, we will simply be among the general public, part of the congregation. But if we eat, digest, and assimilate the manna, we will have hidden manna. Spontaneously the manna we eat causes a transformation that transfers us from the general congregation to the priesthood. The more we eat of Christ, the more function we will exercise. In this way we will become a functioning priest, a priest in reality and practicality. Every proper priest is an overcomer. If we eat the open manna, Christ will become the hidden manna. This hidden manna will constitute us into an overcomer.
The contents of the Ark — the hidden manna, the budding rod, and the tablets of the covenant — are arranged in a particular sequence. First, we must enjoy the hidden manna. Then out of our enjoyment of the hidden manna our rod will bud. When we enjoy the hidden Christ in such a deep way, there will be the budding, the blossoming, which refers to the spread of the resurrection life and to glorification. As a result, we will have the law of life, signified by the tablets of the covenant. The inward law of life, the inward working of the Spirit of the Triune God, is operating within us, infusing the element of God into our being and making us a corporate reproduction of Christ as the standard model. In this way God can have the fulfillment of His eternal purpose.
When we enjoy the hidden manna, we will partake of the budding rod, which signifies our experience of Christ in His resurrection as our acceptance by God for authority in the God-given ministry. If we enjoy the hidden manna, we will bud, for the issue of enjoying the hidden manna is the budding rod. How much we will bud with life depends on how much we eat of the hidden manna. If we bud, blossom, and yield almonds, others will know that we are the authority. When we enjoy Christ as our life supply in such a hidden and mysterious way, we will experience the rod budding with authority in resurrection life. If we are to be a true minister of the word or a genuine elder in the church, we need to have this kind of authority in the resurrection life of Christ.
According to Exodus 16:34, we read that Aaron placed the pot with an omer of manna “before the Testimony to be kept.” Since the golden pot with the manna was in the Ark (Heb. 9:4), the Testimony here must refer not to the Ark but to the tablets of the law that were in the Ark (Exo. 34:1, 29; 25:21; 40:20). The law is a testimony of what God is. Hence, the fact that the manna in the golden pot was placed before the Testimony indicates that manna corresponds to God’s testimony, God’s law, and meets its requirements. When we take Christ as our heavenly life supply, Christ as the hidden manna preserved in the divine nature within us causes us to correspond to God’s testimony and to fulfill its requirements, thereby making us God’s expression. In the words of Romans 8:4, the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in those who walk according to spirit.
If we suffer persecution from others yet remain with and in the Lord, He will be the hidden manna to us. A particular portion of Christ, a special portion, will be our hidden manna. This special portion will become our support and our strength. We can endure suffering and live in a situation in which no one else can live, because we daily enjoy the Lord Jesus as a special portion, the hidden manna.
In Old Testament typology, the hidden manna was in the Holy of Holies. In the New Testament reality, the Holy of Holies may refer to the church. In the church life Christ is our hidden manna. Because Christ is hidden, those outside the church do not know where we obtain our energy to attend many church meetings week by week. Our supply comes from the hidden Christ, whom we eat as our food. When we come into the church, we enjoy something hidden, Christ as our hidden manna, for our supply.
In ancient times the eating of manna was related to the building of the tabernacle as God’s dwelling place. Today the eating of Christ as the hidden manna is also related to the building of God’s dwelling place. In Revelation 2:17, the Lord promised the overcomers in Pergamos, saying, “To him I will give a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, which no one knows except him who receives it.” Enjoying Christ as the hidden manna produces transformation. In the Bible a stone signifies material for God’s building (Matt. 16:18; 1 Pet. 2:5; 1 Cor. 3:12). In our natural being we are not stones but clay. Because we received the divine life with its divine nature through regeneration, we can be transformed into stones, even precious stones, by enjoying Christ as our life supply (2 Cor. 3:18). If we do not follow the worldly church but enjoy the Lord in the proper church life, we will be transformed into stones for the building of God. These stones will be justified and approved by the Lord, as indicated by the color white, while the worldly church will be condemned and rejected by Him. God’s work of building the church depends on our transformation, and our transformation issues from the enjoyment of Christ as our life supply.
The white stone is for God’s building. We cannot be built up together in the church life because of our peculiarities, our particular, peculiar traits. Therefore, we need to be transformed so that we will be delivered from our peculiar traits and be no longer natural. Yet when we are transformed, we can be properly and adequately built up with others. God’s building, the building of the church, depends upon our transformation, and our transformation issues from the enjoyment of Christ as our life supply.
In Revelation 2:17 the Lord also said that “upon the stone” would be “a new name written, which no one knows except him who receives it.” A name designates a person, and the new name here is the designation of a transformed person. Every transformed believer as a white stone bears “a new name...which no one knows except him who receives it.” Such a new name is the interpretation of the experience of the one being transformed. Hence, only he himself knows the meaning of that name. As we eat the Lord Jesus as the hidden manna, we will have certain experiences and the Lord will write a new name upon us. This new name is simply the new designation of what we are. Since this new name is based upon what we are according to our experiences, others cannot know what it is. This is truly the greatest blessing. This involves our being, for it is related to what we are. The greatest blessing is not what the Lord gives us but what the Lord makes us.
The Lord’s promise of the hidden manna to the overcomer in the church in Pergamos corresponds to the parables in Matthew 13. The Greek word translated “Pergamos” means “a fortified tower,” which is like the great tree in Matthew 13:31-32, in which everything was exposed for outward show. In principle, however, the precious things are hidden (v. 44). In this age Christ is the hidden manna. Therefore, we must be the hidden church. We must learn to be hidden and not exposed. We should not advertise ourselves in a worldly way. To do so is to be married to the world and to commit spiritual fornication. It is not only to have idol worship but also to become an idol. Since this is the age for Christ to be hidden, we as His Body must also be hidden. Then we will enjoy Him as the hidden manna.
The more we are hidden, the more we will experience Christ as the hidden One and experience the white stone (Rev. 2:17). White in Revelation signifies being justified, approved, and accepted by the Lord (3:4-5, 18). We should not try to be accepted or admired by people. We must not be afraid to be criticized and persecuted. Rather, we should try to be justified and accepted by the hidden Lord. When we become the hidden ones, we sense the Lord’s hidden approval. Upon the white stone is a name that the Lord gives. This name is known only by us and the Lord; no one else knows it because it is a secret. We need to have hidden experiences of Christ. Then there will be something secret between us and Him.
The purposeful God has an economy, and in His economy He intends to have a universal incorporation. The word incorporation refers to persons indwelling one another, coinhering. God in His Divine Trinity is an incorporation by coinhering mutually and by working together as one; the three of the Trinity are an incorporation by what They are and by what They do (John 14:10-11). The Triune God in eternity past held a council (Acts 2:23) to make a decision that the second among Them had to become a man and pass through the processes of human living, death, and resurrection so that all the redeemed and regenerated believers of God would be incorporated into God’s incorporation to be an enlarged, divine-human incorporation. The processed and consummated Triune God and the redeemed and regenerated believers became an enlarged, universal, divine-human incorporation in the resurrection of Christ (John 14:20), consummating the New Jerusalem as the tabernacle of God (Rev. 21:2-3). The tabernacle in the Old Testament is a sign of the universal incorporation, and to eat the hidden manna is to be incorporated into the tabernacle.
Christ as the hidden manna is the center of the tabernacle. The hidden manna is in the golden pot; the golden pot is in the Ark, made of acacia wood overlaid with gold; and this Ark is in the Holy of Holies. The hidden manna, which signifies Christ, is in the golden pot, which refers to God. The manna in the golden pot indicates that Christ is in the Father. The Ark is in the Holy of Holies, and the Holy of Holies is our spirit. Today our spirit indwelt by the Holy Spirit is the Holy of Holies. From this we can see that Christ as the hidden manna is in God the Father as the golden pot; that the Father is in Christ as the Ark with His two natures, divinity and humanity; and that this Christ as the indwelling Spirit lives in our regenerated spirit to be the reality of the Holy of Holies. This means that the Son is in the Father, that the Father is in the Son, and that the Son as the Spirit is the reality of the Holy of Holies. This implies and corresponds to the four in s in John 14:16-20. Verse 20 says, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you,” and verse 17 says, “The Spirit of reality...shall be in you.” The Son is in the Father, we are in the Son, the Son is in us, and we are indwelt by the Spirit of reality. This is the incorporation of the processed God with the regenerated believers.
The way to be incorporated into the tabernacle is to eat the hidden manna. The more we eat Christ, the more we are incorporated into the Triune God as a universal incorporation. By eating the hidden manna, we are incorporated into the tabernacle. The tabernacle in the Old Testament was a figure of the New Jerusalem, which is called the tabernacle of God. As the tabernacle of God, the New Jerusalem is the universal incorporation. This universal incorporation is God’s eternal goal. The New Jerusalem is the tabernacle of God, and the center of this tabernacle is Christ as the hidden manna for us to eat. The way to be in the New Jerusalem is to eat Christ. The more we eat Christ, the more we are incorporated into this universal incorporation.
The world will perish in the lake of fire. We need to ask whether we are a part of the world or a part of the New Jerusalem as God’s tabernacle, the universal incorporation. The Lord promises the overcomers in the church in Pergamos that if they eat Him, they will be incorporated into the universal incorporation, the consummated New Jerusalem. We should not be joined to the world; we should be incorporated into the New Jerusalem by eating Christ as the hidden manna. The way to be incorporated into this unique incorporation is to enjoy Christ, to eat Him, and to partake of Him. When we eat Him, we live by Him in this incorporation, which today is the corporate Body of Christ and which consummates the New Jerusalem.
