Message 72
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Scripture Reading: Exo. 22:29-31; 23:10-12, 14-19
In the foregoing message we considered a number of points related to how to live in Christ. We saw that we need to offer the fullness of our harvest of Christ and the outflow of our experience of the cross; that as those redeemed through Christ as our Substitute, we should be separated unto God; that we should be saturated with Christ as our holiness to become holy men unto God; and that we should not eat anything of death, but take only Christ as our life supply. Furthermore, we saw that we need to care for others and supply them with food by taking Christ as our rest. Finally, we saw that keeping feasts unto God three times a year typifies the full enjoyment of the Triune God in Christ. Now we must go on to cover some supplementary matters related to the keeping of the three feasts.
Exodus 23:18 and 19 give us four supplementary ordinances for the keeping of the feasts. First, verse 18 says, “Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread.” This is a warning not to mix Christ’s redemption with our sinful life. When the people came to the feast, they were not allowed to mix the blood of the sacrifice with leavened bread. This indicates that we should not mix Christ’s redemption with our sinful life. The blood of the sacrifice signifies the redemption of Christ, and leavened bread signifies our sinful life. These two things must never be put together. In order to enjoy Christ’s redemption, we must be separated from our sinful life.
Exodus 23:18 also says, “Neither shall the fat of my feast remain until the morning” (lit.). According to this verse, the fat of God’s feast (Christ) should not remain until morning. This signifies that the riches of Christ should be for our enjoyment with God today, not tomorrow. As Christians we should enjoy Christ today and not put off this enjoyment until tomorrow.
Exodus 23:19 says, “The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of Jehovah thy God” (lit.). According to this verse, the first of the firstfruits were to be brought into the house of God. This typifies Christ as the firstfruit (1 Cor. 15:20, 23) being brought to God’s dwelling place for His satisfaction. This verse does not speak merely of the firstfruits; it speaks of “the first of the firstfruits.” For example, there may be firstfruits of both peaches and almonds. The almonds, however, may ripen first. This would make the almonds the first of the firstfruits, which should be brought to the temple, God’s house, for His satisfaction. This indicates that in our experience and enjoyment of Christ we should have not only the top experience, but even the topmost of the top experiences of Christ. This aspect of our experience of Christ should be brought directly to God. No one else should be allowed to enjoy it. Sometimes if we share certain experiences of Christ with others before presenting these experiences to God, we cause our experiences to become common. At other times, we may think that a certain experience of Christ is a topmost experience when it is actually quite ordinary and common. Any experience of Christ that is truly a topmost experience should be kept in secret and then brought to God’s temple and offered directly to God for His satisfaction.
Exodus 23:19 also says, “Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.” The milk here typifies the milk of the word of God (the life supply of Christ) used to nourish new believers (1 Pet. 2:2; Heb. 5:12-13; 1 Cor. 3:2). Not seething a kid in his mother’s milk typifies that the milk of the word of God should not be used to kill new believers in Christ. Use the milk of the word, Christ as life supply, to nourish newborn Christians; do not use it to kill them. Many Christian teachers have “boiled” new believers with superficial teachings concerning Christ. They have used the word of God for “seething” others instead of for feeding them. The word of Christ which produces milk should be used always to nourish the babes in Christ, never to kill them.
As we are enjoying the Triune God in Christ as typified by the feasts, we need to observe these four supplementary ordinances. We should not mix Christ’s redemption with our sinful life. We should not postpone the enjoyment of the riches of Christ until tomorrow. We should offer the topmost experiences of Christ directly to God for His satisfaction. And we should not use the word of Christ to kill new believers, but use it to nourish them.
In Exodus 21 through 23 we see a picture portrayed by the ordinances of how we, fallen sinners, have been redeemed by Christ and how we have fled into Him to enjoy Him as our rest and freedom. This picture also shows us how to live in Christ and how to supply others with rest and food. Moreover, the three yearly feasts signify the full enjoyment of the Triune God in Christ, with the feast of ingathering, the feast of tabernacles, pointing to the eternal enjoyment of God in the new heaven and the new earth. Is not all this a revelation of God’s economy? Praise Him for the picture painted in all these ordinances! We should not simply read the ordinances in black and white letters; we also need to pray-read these verses and fellowship over them that we may apprehend the marvelous picture they present.
I believe it is helpful to consider as a whole the picture presented by the implications, indications, and significances of the ordinances in Exodus 21 through 23. These ordinances reveal that we have fled into Christ, have taken Him as our refuge, and now enjoy rest and freedom in Him. As those who are in Christ and who take Him as their rest and freedom, we need to learn how to live in Christ. Because we are in Christ as our refuge, we are no longer in slavery, no longer in the fall. In Christ we have been set free. This reminds us of Paul’s word in Romans 8:1: “There is now then no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” In Christ we are free and we enjoy rest. In Him there is no condemnation.
Four important matters are related to living in Christ. First, we must have the fullness of the harvest and also the tears of the presses, the outflow of wine and oil, to offer to God. The fullness is the fullness of the produce gained from laboring on Christ as the good land. Hence, the fullness of the harvest is the reaping of the rich experiences of Christ. As those who live in Christ, we should experience Him. To experience Christ is to labor on Him, to grow Him, and to harvest Him. If we labor on Christ in this way, we shall have the fullness of the harvest to offer to God.
Along with the fullness of the harvest, we need to have the tears of the presses of wine and oil. These tears signify the experiences of Christ through the suffering of the cross. The cross is a press out of which flows wine and oil. As we live in Christ, we should offer to God both the fullness of the harvest and also the tears of the presses. In other words, we should have both the experiences of Christ and the suffering experiences of the cross. The experiences of Christ give us the fullness, and the suffering experiences of the cross give us the tears, the flow of wine to cheer God and man and the flow of oil to please God. Day by day we should offer to God what we experience of Christ and the cross. We should make no delay in presenting to Him the fullness and the tears.
Second, we should always take the standing as those who have been redeemed through Christ as our Substitute and who have been separated unto God. We should declare to others, especially to those in our family, that as the firstborn in Adam our destiny was to be smitten by God in His righteousness. However, we have been redeemed through Christ as the Passover lamb, and now we are no longer our own. We have been bought with a price, the blood of Jesus, and now we belong to the One who purchased us. We need to remember this ourselves and then declare it to others. In particular, the parents should testify to their children that we do not belong to the world, but we belong to God. Should a child ask his father why he does not desire to make money like others in the world, he should say, “Child, I have been purchased and redeemed. Now I must be separated unto God. I deserved to be slain, but instead I have been redeemed by Christ. Because I am not my own, I have no choice but to be separated unto God.” Everyone who lives in Christ should have such a standing, remembrance, and declaration.
Third, in order to live in Christ, we must be a holy people. Standing on the ground of having been redeemed by Christ and separated unto God, we now should be saturated with Christ to become a holy people. To be saturated with Christ is to become a Christ-man, a truly holy person.
Fourth, we should not eat anything which has the nature of death. This is typified by the ordinance related to not eating the flesh of animals torn by beasts in the field. If we do not eat the torn flesh, then what are we to eat? We should partake of the sacrifices slain by God on the altar, not the flesh torn by the Devil, demons, or evil men in the field. Christ should be our unique food. We should eat of Him according to God’s way. We are holy men separated unto God and saturated with Christ. Thus, Christ alone should be our food and life supply.
If we live in Christ according to these ordinances, we shall no doubt keep the Sabbath weekly and also the sabbatical year every seven years. This is to take Christ as our rest in order to benefit others with both rest and food. The weekly Sabbath issues in rest and refreshment for others’ benefit, and the sabbatical year results in an abundant supply of food for the poor. In principle, both indicate that we should take Christ as our rest for others’ supply and benefit.
If we live in Christ and take Christ as rest for the benefit of others, we shall be ushered into the full enjoyment of the Triune God as typified by the feasts. We shall have Christ as our feast of unleavened bread, the life-giving Spirit as our feast of harvest, and the fullness of the Father as our feast of ingathering, our feast of tabernacles. This is the full enjoyment of the Triune God in Christ.
As we are enjoying the Triune God in Christ, we need to take care of four supplementary matters. Although they are supplementary, they are nonetheless crucial. First, we should never mix the blood of redemption with unleavened bread. This means that whenever we enjoy the Triune God in Christ, we should not put Christ’s redemption together with our sinful life. If we would apply the redemption of Christ, we must give up our sinful life. Anyone who remains in the sinful life is not able to apply the blood of Christ and not able to partake of the feasts. It is impossible to enjoy the feasts apart from the redeeming blood of Christ. Therefore, whenever we apply the blood, we must give up our sinful life.
Second, we should enjoy the fat, the sweetest part of Christ, day by day and not wait until tomorrow. We should not try to keep the riches of Christ for tomorrow’s enjoyment. This is forbidden by God. He requires that we enjoy the sweetest part of Christ today. In our experience, tomorrow may be not only the next day, but even the next hour or the next minute. Enjoy Christ now — do not wait until a future time. Wherever you are, enjoy Christ now.
Third, we should always keep the topmost of our experiences of Christ for God’s satisfaction. We should bring these experiences, the first of the firstfruits, to the house of God. Whenever we enjoy the Triune God in Christ, we must keep the topmost experiences for God’s satisfaction.
Finally, we must observe the ordinance of not seething, boiling, a kid in its mother’s milk. This means that we should not kill young believers in Christ by our knowledge of the Word or by our experience of the Word. To kill others in this way is to seethe a kid in its mother’s milk. Instead of “boiling” the new ones or the young ones, we should use our experience of Christ and our knowledge of the Word to feed them.
Milk comes from nourishing food digested by a mother. Spiritually speaking, we all should be mothers in the enjoyment of Christ. The riches of Christ we digest should produce milk for the feeding of the young ones. However, there is a danger that we would use this milk not to feed others, but to “boil” them by condemning them or rebuking them. Do not use the milk produced in your enjoyment of the Triune God to condemn the young ones or the new ones.
The saints who are experienced in Christ produce a good deal of milk. However, most of these saints have the weakness of using this milk to “seethe” the younger ones. Although these experienced saints are “mothers,” they do not feed the young ones with their milk. Because the more experienced brothers and sisters have the tendency to “boil” others, the young ones often stay away from them, regarding these saints as too “holy.” Unable to bear the “seething” of the older ones, the young ones may prefer to stay together. We all should heed the warning not to use our milk, the supply of Christ, to boil others, but always use it to feed them.
Because the law of God was given by Him, it points us back to Him. Thus, God’s law with all the ordinances refers to spiritual things. Certain ordinances refer to our fallen life and to sins, sin, Satan, and demons. Other ordinances refer to Christ, the redemption of Christ, and our enjoyment of Christ. In these chapters we see God’s economy. We may even say that Exodus 21 through 23 is a condensation of the entire Bible. On the negative side, we see the fall of man, Satan, demons, sin, and sins. On the positive side, we see God, Christ, the cross, redemption, the enjoyment of Christ, and even the full enjoyment of the Triune God for eternity. This is God’s economy.
