Christ is the reality of the heavenly manna sent by God to be the daily life supply of His chosen people, and we can eat the Lord Jesus and live because of Him by eating His words and digesting Him into our inner being.
This week in our deeper study of the book of Numbers we come to the matter of, The Change of our Diet to the Heavenly Christ as the Reality of the Heavenly Manna, so that we may be Reconstituted with Christ to become God’s dwelling Place.
Manna is spoken of and introduced in Exodus, but in Numbers it is mentioned again.
The children of Israel ate the Passover, crossed the Red Sea, and as they journeyed through the wilderness, they became hungry and murmured for food; so God gave them the manna every day.
Then at Sinai they saw the completion of the tabernacle, the establishing of the priesthood, and they received the instructions with all the ordinances and the feasts; they were arrayed to be God’s people, they were ready to march forward not just as a big crowd but as a numbered and arrayed people.
Then, a little over a year after they left Egypt, after they already had the experience of manna, in Num. 11 it says that the people murmured again concerning the matter of food.
Outwardly it seemed that they progressed and advanced yet, all of a sudden, the multitude among them lusted exceedingly, and they stirred up the lust in the children of Israel, reminding them of the food they ate in Egypt, the garlic, fish, leeks, onions, and all other things they ate freely there.
In their murmuring against Moses they even said that their appetite is gone, for there’s nothing to eat but this manna to look at; they had no more taste for this, they didn’t want to eat the manna anymore.
So God responded, He gave them quails, and there was a judgement in His response; and then, the children of Israel journeyed again forward for another period of time.
Then in Num. 21:5 they murmured again; by this time they were already numbered and ready to move forward, and they even fought their first battle with the king of Arad and won it – yet they still murmured.
In their murmuring they asked Moses why did he bring them out of Egypt to die in the wilderness, for their soul loathes this light bread, this worthless bread.
The manna is the greatest miracle that God gave to His people, yet His people considered it as worthless bread, and their soul was bored and tired of it. It is with this background that we want to come to the matter of manna and the need of the change in diet.
Manna is how God intends to feed His people; also, it is how God exposes the nature of His people to show them that they are still flesh, and they need to be inwardly reconstituted.
Outwardly His people experienced a lot, they had gone on, they saw the things that God did for them, and they even fought their first battle, but their flesh did not change – they still murmured.
We all need to not only experience Christ and go through many experiences with Him but also be inwardly reconstituted with Him by eating Christ as the reality of the heavenly manna day by day.
Christ is the Reality of the Heavenly Manna sent by God to be our Daily Life Supply
The reality of the heavenly manna sent by God to be the daily life supply of His chosen people is the heavenly Christ; in John 6 we see this quite clearly when the Lord mentioned that He was the bread of life (see John 6:31-35, 48-51, 57-58, 63).
In this chapter the Lord made reference to manna extensively; manna was the way that God fed the children of Israel in the wilderness, and in John 6 the Lord referred to id and applied it to Himself, saying that He is the reality of the heavenly manna sent by God to be our daily life supply.
In our daily journey with the Lord we cannot go on without receiving the life-supply; Christ is our daily manna, and we need to eat Him and feed on Him, so that every day – not just once a year or once in a while – we would be richly supplied.
Christ is the heavenly bread as the bread that came down out of heaven; His source is heavenly, yet He as the heavenly manna satisfies our need!
Christ is the heavenly bread coming down out of heaven to make us, the earthly people, heavenly like Him; He meets our need, and He Himself is our life supply.
Christ is the bread of God as the One who is of God, who was sent by God, and who was with God (John 6:33). Christ is the bread of God; this bread in its element and essence is God Himself given to man to eat.
We can eat the Lord Jesus as such a bread to be constituted with God. Christ is the bread of life as the bread with eternal life, the “zoe” life; the bread of life refers to the nature of the bread, which is life (John 6:35, 48).
Christ is the reality of the heavenly manna to be the tree of life to us, which is the life supply “good for food” (Gen. 2:9).
When we exercise our spirit and take Christ in, we receive Him as our life supply and we thus receive life; this bread is organic, easily received and digested into our being. Christ is the living bread; this refers to the condition of the bread, which is living (John 6:51).
The more we eat Christ as the living bread, the more living we become, for as we eat Him, the nature of this bread – which is living – will make us like Him, living.
The best way to counter any death is by eating the living bread, Christ as the reality of the heavenly manna, who is living in nature.
Christ is the true food; all other kinds of food are merely shadows of Him as the real food. Our breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks are all types of Christ; He is the real food, the living food, and when we eat Him, we receive eternal life.
Lord Jesus, thank You for coming to us to be the reality of the heavenly manna sent by God to be our daily life supply in our Christian life. Thank You for coming down out of heaven as the heavenly bread to satisfy the earthly man’s need; by eating You we can live a heavenly life on earth. Thank You for coming to us as the bread of God to be God as life to us. Amen, Lord, You are the bread of life good for food, and when we eat You, we can take in God as life to receive life and be living! Lord, we come to eat You as the true bread, and whenever we eat physical food we’re reminded of You as our real food!
We Eat the Lord Jesus by Eating His Words of Spirit and Life to Live Because of Him
In John 6 there are two key verses that show us not only that Christ is the reality of the heavenly manna but also how can we eat Him and live because of Him.
Verse 57 says, As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me”, and verse 63 says, It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
God created us as an eating vessel, and He gave us a mouth to receive food into us through it. We are not a perpetual machine that runs on forever; we are an eating vessel, and we eat at least three times a day, for we cannot survive without eating.
God presents Himself to us as the tree of life for men to eat and partake of Him so that He can be received into us. From the very beginning of the Bible we see the tree of life, and in the book of Revelation, the tree of life is still there.
To eat is to take food into us that it may be assimilated organically into our body; to eat the Lord Jesus is to receive Him into us so that He may be assimilated by the regenerated new man in the way of life.
Eating is a process by which something organic which was outside of us is now taken inside of us; Christ is the reality of the heavenly manna, and He came into us by our eating Him to become part of us.
After we eat the Lord, He is digested and “broken down” into our being to be received into our blood stream and be assimilated into the very fiber of our being.
We live not merely by Christ as if He is a supporting cane for us to live by; we live because of Christ as our energizing element and our supplying factor (Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:19-21).
Just as Christ fed on the Father and lived because of the Father, so we eat Christ and live because of Christ, and we live Christ in His resurrection.
If we have a sprained ankle we use a cane, an instrument to help us in our walk; the cane help us walk when we need help, but the cane cannot become part of our being.
Christ needs to be received into us to become the energising element within us. The food we receive into us becomes the energising element by which we live, and we live not by the food we eat but because of the food we take in.
The Lord’s ultimate desire is not that we as His people would live by Him or for Him; He wants us to live because of Him, that is, He wants for us to eat Christ to live because of Him.
We eat the Lord Jesus as our spiritual food, receiving Him as the Spirit who gives life, by eating His words of spirit and life, by receiving His words by means of all prayer (see Jer. 15:16; Eph. 6:17-18).
In a practical way, we eat Christ by eating His words; His flesh profits nothing, but His words are spirit and life.
The Lord’s spoken words are the embodiment of the Spirit of life; He is now the life-giving Spirit in resurrection, and the Spirit is embodied in His words. So when we receive the Lord’s words by exercising our spirit over His word, we get the Spirit who gives life!
The Lord told those around Him that His flesh is true food and His blood is true drink, so they need to eat Him and drink Him to have a share in Him; because of this, many were troubled and offended, and many left Him.
What He was referring to was not the physical flesh and blood but His words, which are spirit and life. When we come to His words in the Bible we should not merely read black-and-white letters but pray and exercise our spirit to touch the Spirit in the word and receive life!
Reading the word of God with our eyes and mind doesn’t mean that we eat the Lord; we may get some knowledge and information, but for us to eat, we need to exercise our spirit to touch and receive the Spirit in the Word.
Every day we need to practically eat the Lord Jesus, exercising our spirit over the word of God to contact the Lord and eat the heavenly manna, eating Jesus in a practical way.
Lord Jesus, we come to Your word to eat You and live because of You. We exercise our spirit and turn our heart to You as we pray over Your words, and we take You in by faith so that Christ may be the energising element and supplying factor of our Christian life. Hallelujah, Christ as our spiritual food is in His word, and we can receive His words by means of all prayer to take in spirit and life! Amen, Lord, we want to exercise our spirit over Your word every day so that we may receive You as spirit and life, be inwardly nourished, be constituted with You, and live because of You!
This article can also be read in the Romanian language / Citiți acest articol în limba română vizitând următorul link, Îl mâncăm pe Domnul Isus mâncând cuvintele Sale ale Duhului și vieții ca să trăim datorită Lui.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. James Lee for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1982, vol. 2, ”The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John,” chs. 18-19, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Numbers (2), week 3, The Change of our Diet to the Heavenly Christ as the Reality of the Heavenly Manna, so that we may be Reconstituted with Christ to become God’s dwelling Place.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Christ is our manna true, / Our bread of life indeed; / He’s our supply of nourishment, / As on Him now we feed. (Hymns #1147)
# Manna from heaven came down. / Miraculous mystery from God. / Jesus said, “I am this bread… / Given for the life of the world.” / Eat Him. / He is the living bread. / Gain Him. / Oh what a supply! / Praise Him! / Only He satisfies. / Jesus! / The all-inclusive Christ. (Song on, Manna from Heaven)
# Our flesh, which is with us the rest of our lives / Needs to be dealt with, exposed, recognized. / It’s only by eating our Christ every day; / A little each morning, oh this is God’s way! / What is it? Manna! / Christ as our food! / Oh change our diet! / Reconstitute us! / What is it? Manna! / Christ as our food! / Oh change our diet! / Reconstitute. (Song on, Manna)
About aGodMan
