Search
Scripture Reading: Matt. 15:21-28; Luke 14:15-16; 15:22-24; 1 Cor. 3:2; 1 Pet. 2:2
The Bible is an extraordinary book. The concepts and points of emphasis in the Bible are often beyond what we can think and are even contrary to our natural concepts. Therefore, whenever we come to the Bible, we have to learn to completely drop our own concepts. When we read the Bible, we need to say to the Lord from our innermost being, “Lord, get rid of my concepts; remove my veils that I may see the pure light in Your Word and touch the pure feelings in You.”
Many of us have read the New Testament many times. I believe that in your reading you have picked up many teachings from the Bible. However, if you examine them closely, you will discover that most of them are concepts that already existed in your mind. We can almost say that you cannot get any concept out of your reading of the Bible unless that concept was already there in your mind.
Why is it that we often read the Bible as if it were a book on ethics and morality? This is because ethics and morality are in our concepts. Why is it that when we read the Bible, all we can see is that we need to serve the Lord, to labor for the Lord, to be zealous for the Lord, and to do this or that for the Lord? This also is because these notions already exist in us. Therefore, it is easy to see these items when we read the Bible.
I would like to say, yes, all these ethical concepts, moral concepts, and concepts such as serving the Lord and laboring for the Lord exist in the Bible. These items are found in the Bible, but they are the issues of the life that is in the Bible. This may be likened to a pot of flowers. They have their outward appearance, shape, and color. However, their outward shape and color are not something only external; they are the growth and expression of the life within the flowers. Every kind of life has the essence, the power, and the shape of that life. If you allow this life to develop, its shape and outward appearance will become manifested. Therefore, the outward appearance is the expression of the life within.
Today when we read the Bible, it is very easy for us to see the outward appearance and the shape, but it is not easy for us to touch the life within. This is the fundamental difficulty in our reading of the Bible. Now how do we see the life within the Bible? Simply put, it is in the matter of eating.
Let us use an illustration. Matthew 15 speaks about the Lord leaving the land of Judea and withdrawing to the Gentile region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman came forward and cried, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter suffers terribly from demon possession” (v. 22). Although she was a Gentile woman, she addressed the Lord Jesus as the Son of David according to the traditional concept of Judaism. However, the Lord replied, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs” (v. 26). The woman used the religious title Son of David; Jesus’ answer was concerning a piece of bread. There was a vast difference between the words they said to each other.
The Son of David as a royal descendant and an heir to the throne was a great man. In man’s religious concept Christ was considered an incredibly great man and the Heir in the royal family. However, Jesus’ reply was that He was the children’s bread. Now let me ask you, “Who is greater, the Son of David or the children?” Everyone will agree that the Son of David is greater. Now let me ask you another question: “Which is greater, the children or the children’s bread?” Needless to say, the children are greater than the children’s bread. Therefore, consider this: Who is greater, you or the Lord Jesus? You have to boldly say, “I am greater because I am a child, and He is the bread.” However, you would dare not declare that you are greater, because of the influence of the traditional concepts in religion. To say that we are greater than the Lord is not a blasphemy to the Lord but a genuine knowing of the Lord. With all sincerity of heart, you can say, “Lord, I thank You and praise You! Today You have become my food. The eater is always greater than the food. Lord, You have become the small food for me to eat!”
When the Lord Jesus withdrew to Tyre and Sidon, there appeared a Canaanite woman who was pitiful, lowly, and base. She regarded the Lord Jesus as the Son of David, a descendant of the royal household. However, the Lord was wise, and His response was wonderful — simple but profound. He said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” He wanted the Canaanite woman to know this: “If I were the Son of David, I would not have come to you. The Son of David should be on the throne, not in Tyre and Sidon. You have to know that I am the children’s bread. You have to also know your position. If I were the Son of David, you would not be qualified to cry out to Me. If I were the children’s bread, you would neither be qualified to eat Me. You are a Gentile dog. You do not know Me thoroughly, nor do you know yourself accurately.”
The Lord was truly wise, and the meaning of His answer was truly profound. Nevertheless, on that day the Holy Spirit worked in the Canaanite woman so that her understanding was opened immediately after hearing the Lord’s word. She did not argue or get angry. It is as if she said, “Lord, You are right. You are the children’s bread, and I am a heathen dog. However, You have to know that even dogs have their portion. The dogs’ portion is not on the table but under the table. The dogs cannot eat the bread on the table, but shouldn’t the crumbs under the table be their portion?” The response of this Canaanite woman was also very meaningful. It is tantamount to saying, “Lord, You have to know that even though You are the children’s bread, the bread is not on the table anymore because Your naughty children have dropped You off the table. As a heathen dog, I am under the table, but You also are under the table. I am in Tyre and Sidon, but You also are not in Jerusalem. Hence, You are now my portion.”
Brothers and sisters, you have to see the significance of this case. People invariably address the Lord Jesus according to their religious concepts, regarding Him as a great man. However, the Lord clearly reveals to us that He is not so. We have to know the Lord not according to the religious concept but according to the revelation in His Word. Today, the whole world sees Christ in the same way as the Canaanite woman did. Therefore, some say that Christ was a religious teacher, others say that Christ was the founder of a religion, and still others say that Christ was a great man. These are what the unbelieving Gentiles say. Then in the eyes of the Christians, Christ is greater and higher. I am not saying that the Lord Jesus is neither great nor high. However, you have to realize that this notion is according to man’s religious concept. Since the creation of man, God has always revealed Himself to man and placed Himself before man as the tree of life. We all know that fruit trees are not gigantic trees. For example, neither apple trees nor vines are tall. However, trees such as fir and cypress, which are used for pillars, are very tall. If the fruit trees were several hundred feet high with fruit hanging from them, at such a height how could we get the fruit to eat? Therefore, I firmly believe that the tree of life presented in the Bible must be a small and short tree. Some Bible scholars suggest that the tree of life is a grapevine because the Lord Jesus once declared, “I am the true vine.” Regardless of this, the tree of life cannot be very tall or high.
Hallelujah, when God appeared to man the first time, He did not appear as a great one but rather as a tree placed before man! Then when Jesus came, men regarded Him as a tremendously great religious person. However, He said, “I am the bread of life.” Bread is even smaller than a tree. God has always placed Himself before men as a small one; He never manifested Himself as a great one. Why? It is because only by being small can He enter into man. When we take Him into us, He is delighted.
Many of you are very familiar with Paul’s Epistles. Let me ask you, “In Paul’s fourteen Epistles, how many times did he write that he bowed his head and prostrated himself before God?” There are only a few instances. However, he repeatedly said, “Christ in me” and “Christ in you.” For example, he said, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me”; “It pleased God...to reveal His Son in me”; “My children, with whom I travail again in birth until Christ is formed in you”; “Christ in you, the hope of glory”; “That Christ may make His home in your hearts” (Gal. 2:20; 1:15-16; 4:19; Col. 1:27; Eph. 3:17). When something gets into you, which is greater, you or that thing? Hallelujah, you are greater! When you praise the Lord, you truly should tell Him, “Lord, I praise You, I am greater than You! O Lord, You are smaller than I!” If you dare not praise the Lord in this manner, it proves that you are still being influenced by your religious concepts. In the morning try to boldly say to the Lord, “Hallelujah! I am great, and You are small.” If you do this, I can guarantee that your spirit will leap with joy. The Lord will then say, “Here is a man who knows Me thoroughly.”
Do not misunderstand me. I am not saying that the Lord Jesus in His person is smaller than you. In Himself He is many times greater and higher than you are. However, He has indeed become a small Jesus in order that you may eat and enjoy Him. Moreover, when He left Jerusalem and withdrew to Tyre and Sidon, He became even the crumbs that fell under the table. The bread on the table is comparatively big; the crumbs under the table are truly small. “O Jesus, I praise You as the ‘crumbs.’ Today You are not a whole Jesus; You are Jesus as the ‘crumbs’!”
About fifteen years ago in a long-term training here, I searched through the Bible and tried my best to find all the titles of the Lord. He is Christ, Jesus, Emmanuel, Son of God, and so on. We found about two hundred seventy titles. However, I did not include “the crumbs” as a title. This morning I want to add another title: The Lord Jesus is also called the crumbs. The Lord Jesus is not only the bread of life but also “the crumbs.”
I repeat, Jesus in Himself is great, but in order for us to eat and enjoy Him, He willingly humbled Himself and took the form of a slave. Man, in his natural concept, called Him “the Son of David,” which was a traditional form of address. However, the Lord Jesus said, “I am the children’s bread, even the crumbs. I am not the crumbs on the table but rather the crumbs under the table.” Oh, the Lord Jesus is in the place where you are — in a fallen condition, in Tyre and Sidon. Tyre and Sidon were not respectable places, yet the Lord withdrew to those places. Although He is holy, He humbled Himself and condescended to be with us, to approach the unrighteous sinners. As the great God, He approached the lowly men.
The Canaanite woman came to ask the Lord to do something for her. She begged the Lord to heal her sick daughter. However, the Lord’s answer did not give any hint that He was going to do something. He said that He was the bread to feed her. By this we understand that we do not need the Lord Jesus to do anything for us; instead, we need to eat the Lord Jesus. Sisters, is your husband ill? Do not ask the Lord first to heal his sickness. The reason your husband is ill is so that you may eat the Lord Jesus. Take the Lord Jesus into you, and then your husband’s illness will be healed. Are you vexed by your children’s disobedience? You often pray that the Lord will perform a miracle to make your children obedient. However, the more you pray, the less effective your prayers are; the more you pray, the more disobedient your children are. Now you have to learn this secret: You have to eat the Lord more. Eat the Lord well, and your child will be healed.
Whenever you have a need, it is a proof that you need to eat the Lord Jesus. Have you lost your job? Do not pray to the Lord for a good job. All you need to do is eat the Lord Jesus, and the job will appear. When unbelievers hear these words, they will think that I am talking nonsense, but the experienced ones know that the job comes out of our eating the Lord. Do not ask the Lord Jesus to do something outside of you. Rather, eat the Lord Jesus and take Him into your being.
Brothers and sisters, we have all seen that the Lord Jesus has truly come to be our food. We need to change our concept. The elders in all the localities are faithfully managing the churches, bearing the churches on their hearts, and earnestly hoping that the churches will go on. Being anxious for the churches is good but not effective. Do not ask the Lord to help you take good care of the churches; you have to turn to take a few bites of the Lord Jesus. When you eat more of the Lord Jesus, the churches will be enlivened.
This is the central viewpoint in the New Testament. The Lord came not to work for us but to feed us. It is wrong to ask the Lord to till the ground for you like an ox; it is also wrong to shear the Lord of wool for your beauty. When the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15 asked the Lord Jesus to heal her sick daughter, the Lord replied in effect, “Do not ask Me to be an ox to till the ground for you; I am the crumbs for you to eat! Regardless of whether or not your daughter is sick, just eat Me! Eat Me, and your daughter will be healed!”
Brothers and sisters, your family life has problems because you do not eat Jesus. When the wives eat Jesus, the husbands change for the better; when the husbands eat Jesus, the wives change for the better. When the children eat Jesus, the parents no longer are a problem. When the parents eat the Lord Jesus, the children have a turn. You need to take the Lord Jesus into you and let Him become your life, your food, and your everything; then your circumstances will change. Actually, we do not care whether our circumstances are good or bad; we only care to eat and enjoy the Lord. The Lord is for you to eat! You first eat under the table, and then after a while you eat what is on the table. When the Gentile dogs eat Christ, they become the children of God. After the children eat more of Christ, they become the precious stones. In Revelation 2 the Lord told the messenger of the church in Pergamos, “To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna, and to him I will give a white stone” (v. 17). The white stone is the one who overcomes. The one who eats the hidden manna eventually becomes the white stone for God’s building.
When the prodigal son returned home, outwardly he was clothed with the best robe prepared by his father, but inwardly he was still hungry. Therefore, the father said, “Bring the fattened calf; slaughter it, and let us eat and be merry” (Luke 15:23). This is the thought in the New Testament as well as in the whole Bible.
The Lord Jesus also said that the preaching of the gospel is likened to a man preparing a great dinner. When we preach the gospel, we often tell people to repent and frequently speak about man being sinful. However, in this parable the Lord Jesus said, “Go and invite the guests! The dinner has been made. Come, for all things are now ready!” Come to do what? Come to eat! Do not worry that the unbelievers will fail to confess and repent of their sins. When they eat the Lord, they will rejoice. Later, when they realize that they are sinful, they will weep. Such weeping and confessing of sins are better than what they would do after listening to your persuasion. Therefore, when we preach the gospel to others, we have to urge them to eat. Man needs to eat the Lord, to take the Lord in.
Paul said in his Epistles that he fed the believers with milk. Peter also said that as newborn babes we should long for the guileless, spiritual milk. Milk is not only for drinking but also for eating. Milk is nourishing food. Thus, the thought of the Bible is eating! The Bible is a book on eating! Eat! Eat! We need to eat the Lord Jesus!
