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Scripture Reading: Gen. 2:8-9, 16; Exo. 12:6-8; Deut. 12:6-7; 15:19-20; 16:10-11, 15; John 6:35, 57, 63; Rev. 22:2, 14
The Bible is a wonderful book. What does the Bible speak about? It is entirely correct for us to say that the Bible speaks about Christ, life, and salvation. Moreover, it is not wrong to say that the Bible speaks about wives submitting to their husbands, husbands loving their wives, children honoring their parents, and parents caring for their children. Neither is it wrong to say that the Bible speaks about humility, patience, peace, and goodness. Nor is it wrong to say that it speaks about God’s love, God’s light, and God’s holiness. Furthermore, it is not wrong to say that the Bible teaches us to worship God, to love God, and to serve God. We can list hundreds and even thousands of topics that the Bible speaks about. However, the strange thing is that we may never have heard a message in Christianity telling us that the Bible speaks about eating.
It is true that the Bible is a book of life, a book of salvation, a book of love, and a book of teachings. However, after reading the Scripture verses above, you have to admit that the Bible is a book on eating.
After God created man, God did not say that man needed life or salvation. Neither did He say that man needed to love and obey God. Nor did He say that man needed to be humble or to be peaceable. After God created man, He put man in a garden, and He placed man before the tree of life, telling him in effect, “Eat! Eat! Eat!” What does the Bible speak about? It speaks about eating. What kind of book is the Bible? It is a book on eating.
The Bible is a profound and mysterious book. It does not become boring even after repeated readings, and it cannot be exhausted even after you have read it a hundred times, a thousand times, or ten thousand times. Regardless of how many times you read the Bible, there are still new things. Thirty years ago I already had worn out three or four Bibles from repeatedly reading them, and I thought I understood the Bible almost completely. However, I gradually came to realize that there are still many truths in the Bible that I have not seen. At this time if you were to ask me, “Brother Lee, what have you now uncovered from the Bible?” I would say, “Now I have uncovered one word — eat.”
Brothers and sisters, this word is clearly in the Bible, yet we did not see it even after reading the Bible many times. Why? It is because every old concept we have is a veil. It is more than evident that the word eat is in the Bible, yet we could not see it. This is due to the fact that we have our old preconceived notions, our old concepts.
The verses in the Scripture Reading from the book of Deuteronomy contain a statement that is repeated many times: “You shall eat,...you and your households” (12:7). Yet we may not see this even after numerous times of reading. However, when we read Joshua 24, we clearly see a sentence such as, “As for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah” (v. 15). This sentence is spoken only once in the sixty-six books in the Bible, but every Christian sees it. Why? This is because our natural concept is to serve God; we simply do not have the concept of eating the Lord. Therefore, even after having read the verses on this subject a thousand times, we still may not see the word eat. Eating is in the Bible, but it is not in your concept. Instead, the word serve is in your concept. Honestly speaking, even without Joshua 24, according to your mentality, you would always say, “I and my household will serve Jehovah.” It just so happens that the Bible has such a verse that corresponds with your concept. Therefore, the idea is quickly imprinted in your mind immediately after you have read the verse. This is not to read the Bible into your mind; rather, it is to read your mind into the Bible. This is our problem with respect to reading the Bible.
God says that His thoughts are not our thoughts, yet we are not willing to drop our thoughts. Every time you come to read the Bible, you are not actually reading the Bible; you are reading your concept. For example, day after day you have the concept that wives should submit to their husbands and that husbands should love their wives. Therefore, one day when you come to Ephesians 5 concerning wives submitting to their husbands and husbands loving their wives, you are quick to see this. However, you may not see the many more important words in the Bible, even though you have read them again and again.
What does the Bible speak about from beginning to end? All those who know the Bible acknowledge that there is a principle in the Bible: The way a certain thing is spoken of the first time in the Bible record becomes the immutable meaning of that thing in its later development. Therefore, if we want to know the proper relationship between God and man, we have to see what God wanted man to do after He created him. After God created Adam, He did not say, “Adam, I created you. I am your Lord. You have to worship Me, and you have to thank and praise Me.” We do not see these words recorded in the Bible. These thoughts are man’s religious concepts. I am not suggesting that these concepts are bad, but these religious concepts came out of man’s fallen thoughts. They were not the thought in the beginning. After Adam was created, God placed him in front of the tree of life and told him to freely eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden. The first thing God wanted man to do was to eat, eat, and eat! Therefore, we see that the Bible is a book on eating. To eat what? Eat God! Eat the Lord!
However, you can see that man immediately made a mistake in what he ate, and he fell. It is dreadful to eat the wrong thing. Adam fell because he ate the wrong thing. Our physical eating is a symbol of this matter. Anything we eat, whether it is of the animal life or the plant life, gives us the life supply. If we eat the wrong thing, we can be poisoned. In some cases we can become sick, but in the more serious cases we can die. The same is true in the spiritual realm. Only God is the right food; it is right for us to eat God only. If we eat anything other than God, we eat the wrong thing. Not surprisingly, every human being has been poisoned. The last sentence in Genesis says, “They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt” (50:26). This was the end of Joseph, and it is the end of the entire human race as well. This is the outcome of the man who was created by God and who was poisoned. After being poisoned, man died; after his death, he was placed in a coffin; after being placed in a coffin, he remained in Egypt.
After the book of Genesis, there is Exodus. In Exodus God came to save the man who was still in Egypt. How did God carry out His salvation? This time God presented Himself in another form. In Genesis God had presented Himself as the tree of life; in Exodus God presented Himself as the Lamb.
First, God presented Himself as a plant; then He presented Himself as an animal. Both are not enormously big figures. A lamb is small. I believe that the tree of life was neither a big tree nor a tall tree that would be out of Adam’s reach. In fact, I believe that the tree of life was not a tree that grew upward but a tree that grew by spreading out like a vine. Therefore, God did not present Himself as something truly great.
I am not saying that God is not great; however, when the great God gave Himself to us to be eaten by us, He reduced Himself. When Jesus came the first time, the Jews were waiting for a Messiah. In their concept the Messiah had to be a great One. However, when the Lord Jesus came, they looked at Him and found Him to be One who appeared weak, without attracting form or majesty, and who was born in the city of Nazareth in Galilee. He was indeed very small.
One day this small Jesus performed something spectacular. He fed five thousand people, not counting the women and children, with five loaves and two fish. Therefore, the Jews said, “This is the Prophet! Come, let us make Him King.” The Lord Jesus quickly fled when He heard this. Do not applaud Him; if you do, He will not receive it. If you put Him in a high position, He will not accept it; rather, He will run away. On the next day the Lord Jesus came back not in a way to show off His strength and power but in a hidden way. He came back and said in effect, “I am the bread of life. I have come to be your food. I have no intention to be your King. Do not worship Me. The more you worship Me, the more I am displeased with you. If you eat Me, I am happy. I am the bread of life; he who eats Me shall live because of Me.”
This is neither a moral concept nor a religious concept; it is truly a divine concept. To this day we still have our religious concepts; we still have the feeling that the Lord is high above in heaven and that He is altogether holy. I am not saying that this concept is wrong or that it is not good. What I am saying is that this concept is not God’s concept. God’s concept is not for you to do anything except to eat Him.
The verses we read in Deuteronomy 15 say that the firstborn ox should not be put to work and the firstborn sheep should not be shorn; instead, they should be eaten (vv. 19-20). What does this mean according to typology? When many Christians and non-Christians talk about Christ, they expect that Christ will either “till the ground” or “be shorn.” No one thinks of eating Christ. To ask Christ to till the ground means to ask Him to labor on your behalf, to do things for you. Did you know that every day you want the Lord Jesus to till the ground for you? You do not have a way to deal with your wife, so you pray, “Lord, You know the kind of wife You have given me; I am helpless. Please deal with her.” This is to ask the Lord Jesus to till the ground for you. Some sisters may pray, “Lord, You know how stubborn my husband is. Lord, You have to deal with him; otherwise, I will not be able to bear it any longer.” When you ask the Lord to do things for you in this way, you are asking Him to till the ground as an ox.
What is the meaning of shearing the sheep of their wool? Wool is used to make clothing. You may want Christ to be your outward adornment; you try to imitate Christ outwardly. It is rare to find Christians who have escaped these two things. Those Christians who do not love the Lord simply ignore Him. However, Christians who love the Lord want Him either to till the ground or to be shorn.
The Bible does not tell us to till the ground but to eat. Do not ask Christ to do anything for you; rather, eat Christ into you. Do not pray and ask Christ to change your wife; instead, eat Christ into you and live by Him! Your wife may not change a bit; yet to you, to live is Christ. Do not ask the Lord to give your husband a beating; the Lord will never answer this kind of prayer. The Lord will say, “I will use My staff as a whip to beat you instead.” You have to eat the Lord. When you eat the Lord, any mistreatment from your husband will be sweet to you. Hallelujah! You do not need the Lord to till the ground; neither do you need to shear Him. You simply need to eat Him.
It seems that the Lord is saying, “I am the bread of life. He who eats Me shall live because of Me. Do not expect Me to do anything for you or expect Me to be your outward adornment. You have to understand that I have come to give you life and to give it more abundantly. I want to enter into you to be your life and your everything. As long as I live in you, you should not care about the outward circumstances. It is good if your wife has changed; it is even better if she has not changed. It is good to have a submissive wife; it is even better to have an unsubmissive wife. A warm and tender husband is lovely, of course; however, a rough and tough husband is even lovelier.”
Therefore, what matters today is to have life within us, not to implore Christ to do anything for us. As long as Christ enters into us to be our life and our supply, we can do the things that others cannot do, we can endure the sufferings that others cannot endure, and we can bear the burdens that others cannot bear. Do not till the ground or shear the sheep. Instead, eat the Lord! Do not expect Him to be your Prophet or your King. He came to be the bread of life to you. Therefore, eat Him!
Brothers and sisters, what does the Bible speak about? Eating! For what reason did Jesus come? He came for us to eat Him. Whenever fundamental Christianity speaks about the Feast of the Passover, the blood of the lamb is invariably regarded with utmost importance. I am not suggesting that the blood is not important. Man sinned, and he needs the blood. In the garden of Eden, however, there was the tree of life; there was no blood. It was when man sinned that the blood was needed, but the lamb has not only blood but also flesh. The blood deals with our sins due to our fall, and the flesh supplies us with the life from the tree of life. Hence, it is not only the blood; it is the blood with the flesh.
When you read Exodus 12, you can see these two things — the blood and the flesh. The blood was sprinkled outside the house, so the house was under the blood. What were the children of Israel doing under the covering of the blood? They were eating. Many in Christianity speak clearly about the blood, but the focus of the passover lamb is not on the blood but on the flesh. The blood is for the flesh; the sprinkling of the blood is for man to eat the flesh. The blood is for redemption, and redemption is to bring man back to the enjoyment of Christ as life.
In the book of Deuteronomy, you see all kinds of produce as different kinds of offerings for the people of Israel to bring before God. These different kinds of produce are all types of Christ. Although the offerings are for God, eventually they are for us to eat. We offer them to God, yet they become our food. Therefore, we must eat what we offer.
At this stage, what we enjoy is not only the lamb but also a feast. In this feast we have oxen, sheep, pigeons, grain, new wine, and all kinds of firstfruits. We have a rich feast that includes both plants and animals. Furthermore, we eat this feast not only once; we eat it for seven days. In all seven days of the feast, we eat a feast every day.
Today we eat Christ not only as the tree of life and as the Lamb but also as a feast. We are keeping the feast of Christ. Every church meeting is to keep the feast and eat Christ. Come and keep the feast! Come and eat Christ!
Finally, at the end of Revelation you see the New Jerusalem with a river of water and the tree of life growing on both sides of the river. There is a verse in the last chapter of Revelation that says, “Blessed are those who wash their robes that they may have right to the tree of life” (v. 14). Therefore, we see that eating and drinking the Lord is our destiny. This is God’s ordination. If you do anything else or have any other choice, you will find death. God’s ordination is our destiny. We should not have our own choice.
God ordained even before the foundation of the world that our destiny, our future, would be to daily eat the Lord. What must Christians do? Eat the Lord! What kind of Christian are you? We are Christians who eat the Lord. What kind of church do you have? A church that eats the Lord. Christians are people who eat the Lord. This is the Lord’s recovery. What is the Lord recovering? The Lord is recovering the matter of eating Him. Christianity in general has lost the matter of eating the Lord, and it has lost sight of the fact that believers have the right to eat the Lord. The Lord is recovering this today.
Blessed are those who have washed their robes because they have the right to the tree of life. It is not the right to worship and to serve but the right to eat. Recently, when the church in Los Angeles has met, the chairs were not neatly arranged in single rows but rather in many small circles. I have heard that they plan to set up small round tables so that they can sit around them during meetings to enjoy the feast. This is very meaningful. Consider the way the benches are arranged in this meeting hall. When the brothers and sisters come together and occupy the benches row by row, it looks like a “Sunday worship service.” When you are seated in this way, the atmosphere of Sunday worship is present. Do not think that the seating arrangement does not deserve consideration. When everyone is seated in this orderly way, this is religion, and the atmosphere of eating is gone. But to have small round tables here, each with five or six chairs, and to sit around them gives the atmosphere of feasting.
The Lord whom we eat as our food is the Spirit. Therefore, which organ do we use to eat Him? We use our spirit to eat Him. The Lord is Spirit, so we must use our spirit to eat Him. How do we eat Him? By calling, “O Lord! O Lord!” To call on the Lord is to eat Him. The Bible clearly shows us that the Lord is our food, and we must eat Him. As the Spirit He is our food. The organ by which we eat Him is also the spirit. Moreover, the way to eat Him is by calling on the Lord’s name. Calling on the Lord is eating the Lord.
Some may say that we do not appear to be holding a Sunday worship service with our calling and shouting. They are absolutely right. We do not care for their kind of Sunday worship; we come here to eat the Lord. How do we eat? By calling on the Lord. You can be refined in many other gatherings but not in a time of eating. Calling on the Lord’s name may not be considered refined, but I know it is truly sweet, because I have tasted it. We thank and praise the Lord that this is the Lord’s recovery today! What is the Lord recovering? Eating the Lord! Hallelujah!
