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Many Christians say that we should not allegorize the Bible. However, if we do not know how to allegorize the Bible, it will be a closed book to us, for the Bible is full of allegories. There are many allegories in the Gospel of John. Take, for example, John 1:1. This verse says, “In the beginning was the Word.” Even this Word is an allegory. Certainly Christ as the Word is not a word composed of black and white letters. That is not the meaning of John 1:1. In John 8:12 the Lord Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.” This also is an allegory. Jesus is not a light given off by the sun or by a lamp. The Gospel of John also tells us that Jesus is the Lamb of God (1:29). Certainly Christ is not a lamb with four feet and a tail. What nonsense it would be to say that! To say that Christ is the Lamb is to speak allegorically.
In the Gospel of John the death of the Lord Jesus is described in an allegorical way. It is very difficult to describe a person’s face. Not even a book of hundreds of pages could replace a photograph of a person’s face. If you want someone to know what you look like, do not write many letters describing yourself — send him a picture. Likewise, if you want an adequate understanding of the death of Christ, consider the figures used in the Gospel of John. John uses three figures to depict the death of Christ: the Lamb, the serpent, and the grain of wheat (1:29; 3:14; 12:24). Although we may use thousands of words to describe the death of Christ, without these three figures we would not know the meaning of His death in an adequate way. Praise the Lord for the allegories in the Gospel of John concerning Christ’s death. Christ died on the cross as the Lamb to redeem us. He was also crucified in the form of a serpent so that He might destroy the enemy, Satan. Christ did not have the poisonous nature of the serpent; nevertheless, He was crucified in the form of a serpent. Christ also died as a grain of wheat in order to release His life. These three allegories give us a full picture of the death of Christ. They indicate that Christ died to redeem us, to destroy the enemy, and to release His life. If we did not have these three allegories, it would be very difficult to adequately understand the death of Christ. Hence, it is not right to say that we should not allegorize the Bible.
In this chapter we shall see how to eat Christ as wheat and as barley. Both wheat and barley are allegories of Christ. Christ is the real wheat and the real barley. If we would know Christ as wheat and as barley, we need to consider both the plain words in the New Testament and the pictures in the Old Testament. The New Testament says clearly that Christ is our life (Col. 3:4). But this statement is rather general. In what specific way is Christ our life? We need a picture to show us how Christ can be our life. Thus, we need the wheat and the barley to portray the meaning of Christ as our life.
In John 12:24 the Lord Jesus indicated clearly that He was a grain of wheat. This verse says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Wheat signifies Christ in His incarnation and crucifixion. To be incarnated means to be limited. Although in eternity Christ was the unlimited God, unlimited both in space and in time, one day He was incarnated and became limited. Oh, the unlimited God was limited in Jesus, a little carpenter from Nazareth! Although the Lord is the eternal, infinite, unlimited God, He lived as a man, limited even in the matter of time. When His brothers in the flesh encouraged Him to go into Judea, Jesus said, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready” (7:6). The Lord seemed to be saying, “I don’t have the freedom to go to Jerusalem; I am limited to stay in Galilee.” The Lord Jesus was not only limited in time but also in space. It is difficult to believe that the unlimited God lived in the house of a carpenter for thirty years. This is Jesus as our life, the One by whom we may live. Thus, wheat signifies the limited Jesus.
We all know what it means to be limited. Married life, for example, is a limitation and a restriction. Marriage certainly places limitations on us. Although the young people may be free as the birds in the air, they experience limitations when they get married. Although you may be as free as a bird today, you will find yourself in a cage after you get married. Every wife is a cage to her husband, and every husband is a cage to his wife. Before I was married, I kept my bedroom window open at night because I enjoyed the fresh air. But my wife would close all the windows and turn the bedroom into a cage. Before I was married, I had the freedom to spend as much time as I wanted reading the Bible. I could study the Bible from 7 P.M. until 2 A.M. However, after I was married, my time spent in studying the Bible in the evening was limited. At 9:30 my wife would want the lights turned out because she felt it was time to go to sleep. Although we may not always be happy in the cage of our married life, there is no escape from it. For us Christians there is no divorce or separation. We cannot flee the cage of married life. After a period of time, some little birds are born into this cage. What a further restriction this is! As the years went by and children were born, I experienced many more limitations. I cried out to the Lord and said, “O Lord Jesus! What should I do?” The Lord seemed to say, “Simply be limited and restricted. Look at Me. Although I am the unlimited God, I was incarnated and limited for thirty years. I can promise you that after thirty years you will be released.”
One day, thirty years later, I said to the Lord, “Lord, You told me that I would be released after thirty years, but now I am more limited than ever. I have not only sons and daughters but daughters-in-law, sons-in-law, and grandchildren. I also have the limitation of so many churches and elders. Lord, what shall I do now?” Then the Lord said, “Look at Me again. Although I was released after thirty years, don’t you know that I am still being limited by you and all the other believers?” Eventually, I saw the vision of Christ as the wheat. The very Christ who indwells me is the incarnated One. In a sense, He is still incarnated today, for the indwelling Christ is willing to be limited, caged, in us. When I saw this vision of the limited Christ, I began to worship Him, saying, “O Lord, thank You for my wife, for all my children, for all the churches, and for all the elders. How I thank You, Lord, for my cage.” Such a prayer causes wheat to begin to grow immediately. I can testify that I have a wheat field in my Christian life. How I thank the Lord for my wife, my children, my in-laws, my grandchildren, the churches, and the elders. All these produce the environment that enables me to grow wheat.
The young brothers and sisters who soar like birds in the air do not have any wheat. Whenever they come to a meeting of the church, they fly freely, but they do not have any wheat in their hand. But after they get married and experience Christ in their limitations, the limited Jesus will begin to grow in them as wheat. The brothers who take responsibility in the churches are also limited by one another. But this limitation gives Christ the opportunity to grow in them as wheat. This wheat is the incarnated Jesus growing in the midst of our limitations.
Eventually, these limitations will put us to death. Limitation always leads to crucifixion. Husbands and wives not only limit each other; they also crucify each other. Without exception, every husband crucifies his wife. If you are honest, you will admit that you have crucified your wife many times. But how good it is to be crucified! The more we are crucified, the more the wheat grows within us. The way to eat Christ as wheat is to be limited and crucified. If you are not willing to be limited and crucified, you will not have any wheat. There will be no need for you to talk about how to eat the wheat because there will not be any wheat to eat. You must grow the wheat before you can eat it, and in order to grow wheat you must be limited and crucified. Hallelujah for this limitation and crucifixion!
Paul said, “We who are alive are always being delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake” (2 Cor. 4:11). Day after day the wives and the husbands deliver one another to death. Although your honeymoon may have been very sweet, I am sure that it did not last very long. I do not know of any honeymoon that has lasted for even thirty days. It seems that the honeymoon often becomes a “vinegar-moon.” Although you may tell your wife that you love her, you are ready to crucify her several days later. During the first few days of your honeymoon you may say, “Dear, I love you.” But after those days you will feel like saying, “I will nail you to the cross and put you to death.” This kind of crucifixion does not take place once for all; it is continual. My wife has crucified me many times. Whenever I think that this crucifixion will be over once and for all, I am crucified again a few days later. This is the experience of the incarnated and crucified Jesus. When we experience Jesus as the limited One and as the crucified One, He grows in us as wheat.
Now we come to Christ as barley. The Bible is wonderful. If you do not know how to allegorize the Bible, you will never know the secret of the Bible. More than fifty years ago, I was taught that the Bible was inspired by God. For years I believed this doctrinally. But gradually, as I probed into the depths of the Bible, especially the allegories, I became thoroughly convinced that the Bible is indeed inspired by God.
Why does Deuteronomy 8:8 mention wheat first and then barley? Wheat must come before barley. After Christ was incarnated and crucified, He was resurrected. In the good land barley ripens earlier than any other grain. Because it ripens so early, it is the firstfruit of the harvest. The firstfruit is a type of the resurrected Christ (Lev. 23:10). First Corinthians 15:20 says, “Now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”
As the barley, Christ is unlimited. According to John 6, Christ fed more than five thousand people with five loaves of barley (vv. 9-10), and the fragments left over from these five loaves filled twelve baskets! This proves that barley is unlimited. On the one hand, we are growing the limited Jesus; on the other hand, we are growing the unlimited Christ. The riches of this Christ are unsearchable, and His power is profound. Like Paul, we can say, “I am able to do all things in Him who empowers me” (Phil. 4:13). By this unlimited Christ I am able to bear my wife, my children, and all the elders.
The sisters who live by the resurrected Christ can bear their husbands and all their children. Every husband gives his wife a difficult time. Sisters, do not expect to marry an angel. Every husband is troublesome. We husbands simply do not know how to sympathize with our wives. What then shall the sisters do? They must say, “We wives are more than conquerors because we have an unlimited Christ. The resurrected Christ is now in us, and He can bear anything.” Learn to grow the limited Jesus and the unlimited Christ. I can testify that I have Christ as both wheat and barley. I have an abundance of both wheat and barley on which to feed and with which to feed others.
Although the wheat and barley are the two basic items, Deuteronomy 8 also mentions other foods. Bread may be the major food on the table, but we still need some marmalade or jam to put on the bread to make it sweet. In addition to the wheat and the barley we have vines and different fruits. Praise the Lord, we have wine to cheer us up and to make us joyful, and we have figs to satisfy us (Judg. 9:11, 13). Thus, along with the wheat and the barley, the solid food, we have wine and figs to be our joy and satisfaction. Furthermore, we have pomegranates, signifying the expression of the riches of life, and olives, signifying the fullness of the Spirit. Therefore, we have the riches of life and the fullness of the Spirit. In our field we enjoy Christ as six items: wheat, barley, vines, figs, pomegranates, and olives. With the limited Jesus and the unlimited Christ we have joy, satisfaction, the riches of life, and the fullness of the Spirit.
In this chapter we have seen some hints concerning how to eat Christ as the solid food. First, we must grow Christ. Christ as our solid food is not given to us; we must grow Him. Everything has been prepared for us to grow Christ. We have the land and the seed, and the rain has been promised. Now we need to grow Christ as wheat, the limited Jesus; as barley, the unlimited Christ; as wine, the joyful Christ; as figs, the satisfying Christ; as pomegranates, the rich Christ; and as olives, the Spirit in fullness. Hallelujah, we can grow Christ in all these aspects and have a bountiful harvest! After we have reaped the harvest, we must set the top portion aside, bring it to the church meeting, and share it with the Lord and with the brothers and sisters. As we share this top portion of Christ, we eat it. In this way we eat Christ as the solid food that energizes us and equips us to fight the battle, to build up the temple, and to bring in the kingdom. When we eat Christ as the solid food, we are no longer wafers; we are stones, iron, and copper for God’s temple and for God’s kingdom.
