晨更经节 — 1 月 10 日 – 1 月 16 日
腓立比书晨兴圣言 第一周：腓立比书一19～二8
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Day: January 9, 2022
Philippians – Week 2
Morning Watch — January 10 – January 16, 2022
Philippians 1:19-2:8
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Corporate Reading of “How to Enjoy God and How to Practice the Enjoyment of God” Chapter 8 – Sections:
Eating And Drinking—The Focus Of God’s Salvation; The Lord’s Desire Being for Us To Live Him; Man’s Concept Being to Work, Not to Eat and Drink
The Lord Being Our Savior by Entering into Us through Eating and Drinking; Salvation Being a Matter of Eating and Drinking; In the Old Testament Types (paragraphs 1-3)
In the Old Testament Types (paragraphs 4-7)
In the New Testament Parables (paragraphs 1-3)
In the New Testament Parables (paragraphs 4-6)
How to Enjoy God and How to Practice the Enjoyment of God, Ch. 8, Sec. 3 of 3
In the New Testament Parables
In the four Gospels men came to the Lord Jesus, but they did not know about eating or drinking Him. They only knew to work. Everyone, male or female, seemed to ask the same question: “Teacher, what should I do?” (Luke 10:25), or “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” (Matt. 22:36). Those who came to the Lord Jesus were bound by the concept of working and doing. The Lord Jesus said that He is the bread of life and that He came that we may have life. He said that His flesh is true food, and His blood is true drink. He also said that if we believe into Him, He will enter into us, and we will be born again. When He spoke these words, the listeners were confused. Even the aged Nicodemus was confused. He asked how an old man could enter his mother’s womb and be born again. He did not understand the Lord’s word. No one could understand. As we have been speaking concerning enjoying God, many have also considered this as a hard word. They think that this is too deep. However, if like a scribe and a teacher, I said that we should not take alcohol, play mah-jongg, or lose our temper, but we should submit to our husbands and love our wives, everyone would easily understand this. But when I say that we should not do anything, not try anything, and not consider anything, it is difficult to accept these words because we are short of the concept of eating and drinking God.
The Lord repeatedly spoke of His being food for man because He faced this concept when He was on earth. The parables in Matthew 21 and 22 illustrate this concept. At the end of Matthew 21 the Lord Jesus spoke a parable concerning a vineyard. He said that God leased a vineyard to vinedressers in order for them to work on it. However, when God came to collect the harvest, there was no fruit. This parable was meant for the Jews, and in essence the Lord was saying, “You desire to do something, and you are trying to work. But your work has no result, no fruit. You cannot do anything.” In chapter 22 the Lord spoke another parable. He compared God to a king preparing a wedding feast for his son. He had slain the oxen and the fatted cattle and made all things ready. He then invited many to come to the feast. No one who comes to a feast comes with the thought of working or doing something; instead, he goes with a mouth ready to eat. God seemed to say, “All things are ready. Come. I do not want you to come to work or to do anything. I want you to come to eat, to enjoy.” In these two parables the Lord Jesus was saying, “Even though you desire to do something, God has absolutely no intention for you to do anything. He desires that you come and eat.” The Lord was eventually slain like the oxen and given to man to eat. The cross can be compared to a big feasting table. The Lord was slain on this table and placed on it for men to eat. God has no desire for us to do anything. He has no desire for us to work. His desire is to give us His Son for our enjoyment. His Son is simply His embodiment. God wants to become food to us in the person of His Son.
This also applies to the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15. In this parable there are two sons. The younger one went astray but later repented. He resolved in himself, seeming to say, “I am no longer worthy to be called my father’s son. I will go and be his hired servant.” The meaning of being a son is to enjoy; a son enjoys all that his father has, but a hired servant works and has no share in the enjoyment. The son resolved within himself to be a servant. But when he reached home, his father saw him from afar and ran toward him and kissed him. While the son proceeded with his clumsy speech, the father interrupted him and ordered the servants to put the best robe on him. The father also said, “Bring the fattened calf; slaughter it, and let us eat and be merry” (v. 23). This is a clear description of our salvation. When the younger son came home, the joy consisted of eating the fattened calf and being merry. We should notice that the Bible speaks of a fattened calf, not an ordinary calf. Who is the fattened calf? It is the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the calf God has prepared and given to repentant sinners for their eating and enjoyment.
The Lord presented a full picture of salvation in this short parable. The father first put the best robe on the son. However, the best robe alone does not offer much joy. The son came home with an empty stomach. If the father merely said, “Come, child, let us sit down and be merry,” this rejoicing would lack something because the son’s stomach would still be empty. But the father killed the fattened calf and fed him. For a period of time the son’s longing was only for carob pods, but now suddenly he had the fattened calf. This was true merriment to him. His merriment was not merely in the best robe but in the eating and drinking.
While God’s salvation has an aspect of putting on a garment, there is also an aspect of eating. When man was in the garden of Eden, only the matter of eating was important. There was not even a question of clothing, because man had not yet fallen. Eating is God’s original intention. Clothing is a remedy for man’s fall. If man had never fallen, there would never have been a question of shame, and there would never have been a need for clothing. Spiritually speaking, this means that there would have never been a need for justification. Man was undefiled and uncorrupted when he was created. In the eyes of God he was justified and good. Therefore, he did not need clothing; he needed only to eat. However, man became fallen; he was like a prodigal son. He completely lost his standing of beauty and acceptability before the father. He became a feeder of hogs, and his clothes became ragged, old, and dirty. Consequently, it would not be enough for this prodigal son to return to his father’s house and partake of the fattened calf without first exchanging his ragged clothes for his father’s robe. Hence, he must first put on the robe of righteousness to match the fine clothing of his father. When the son matches the father, the fattened calf can be brought in. Only then will he fully match his father.
The same can be said of a sinner. When he first turns to God, he is cleansed by the blood and given the Son as his righteous robe, having been forgiven, justified, accepted, and freed from condemnation. Then he is given the Son as food for his enjoyment. It is a pity that many of us have only put on the robe; we do not know that we should eat the fattened calf. We are all properly dressed outwardly, but we are still hungry. Hence, our Christian life is weak, lifeless, and malnourished. Today in Christianity most people see only the side of justification, not the side of enjoyment. They see only the putting on of the robe, not the eating of the fattened calf. Strictly speaking, the robe is a remedial measure; God’s original intention is that we eat and drink Him. Because of our fall and defilement, we must first be cleansed and justified in order to eat and drink Him. These are remedial measures; they are the means to make us worthy to eat and enjoy Him. Putting on the robe does not make us merry; eating and drinking make us merry. When we have taken in the Son of God, when we have eaten the lamb and the fattened calf, there is genuine merriment within us. When we eat Him and drink Him, we practically enjoy the riches of salvation and are inwardly filled. Then it is so easy to live a life that is according to His will. These are the central matters of the Bible. They are the very heart and marrow of the Bible. We must realize that the focus of God’s salvation is that He wants to be our food, drink, and enjoyment.
How to Enjoy God and How to Practice the Enjoyment of God, Ch. 8, Sec. 2 of 3
The Lord Being Our Savior by Entering into Us
through Eating and Drinking
We always say that the Lord Jesus is our Savior. However, in what way is the Lord Jesus our Savior? Someone drew a picture with a man in a miry ditch and next to him was the Lord with an outstretched hand. This person considered that this is how Jesus saves us. That is, after a person is saved, he needs the Lord to hold him by his right hand in order to progress in his spiritual journey. But is this the way the Lord Jesus acts as our Savior? No! The Lord Jesus does not save us in an outward way or hold our hand in a physical way. Rather, He is the Lord whom we eat and drink. We eat Him and drink Him, and He saves us from within. As the edible and drinkable One, the Lord Jesus would say to the man in the miry ditch, “Poor man, are you hungry? Eat Me. Are you thirsty? Drink Me.” When this one takes the living Lord into him through eating and drinking, he will experience an inner operation, an inner strength, which will bring him out of the pit. After he is saved, the Lord does not need to hold him by the right hand. He is in him, supporting him and living and walking through him. There is no need to teach him to take the right way or to exhort him to be good. He only needs to take a drink of the Lord Jesus in the morning, and the Lord will live, move, and operate within him. Then it will be impossible for him not to take the right way.
This is our Savior. We often say that we trust in the Lord, but the New Testament never speaks of trusting in the Lord Jesus in an outward way. When the word trust is used in the Chinese Union Version, it is often an inaccurate rendering of the original language. For example, in Philippians 4:13 Paul says, “I am able to do all things in Him who empowers me.” The Chinese Union Version translates this as, “I am able to do all things by trusting in the One who empowers me.” We do not do things by trusting in Him. We are in Him. We can be in Him because He is in us. We have taken Him in through eating and drinking. He is mingled with us, and we are mingled with him. We are not merely trusting in Him, but we are joined to Him. He is mingled with us and has saturated our entire being. Hence, we are in Him. Because we are in Him, we can do all things. Actually, it is not we who are able to do all things, but it is He who is doing all things through mingling Himself with us. The Lord does not give us an outward, objective deliverance. He does not remain in Himself, and we remain in ourselves. He is not merely offering us a helping hand. He is not our Savior in an objective way. Our salvation is absolutely subjective. It is absolutely a matter of the Lord coming into us to become our food and our salvation.
Salvation Being a Matter of Eating and Drinking
In the Old Testament Types
This is clearly portrayed in the Old Testament types. In the picture of God delivering the children of Israel in the book of Exodus, He did not lift His mighty hand and pull His people out of Egypt one by one. Rather, in this picture of God’s salvation, God commanded His people to prepare one lamb per household. In the evening they slaughtered the lamb and ate its flesh. How did they eat it? They ate with their staff in their hand and their sandals on their feet. This typifies a journey. The strength for their journey came from the flesh of the lamb. There was not an outpouring of power from on high that delivered them out of Egypt. It was the flesh of the lamb, which they ate, that became their inward supply and strength and sustained them when they were thrust out of Egypt. They were able to leave Egypt by the strength of the food they ate.
Because there was no food, they became weary again when they reached the wilderness. However, God did not say, “Do this or do that”; rather, He sent manna from heaven and daily fed them to the full so that they had the strength to continue. When they became thirsty, God did not tell them to do this or that; instead, He cleft a rock and out came water, which quenched their thirst. Prior to reaching Mount Sinai, God’s deliverance of the children of Israel was altogether through eating and drinking. They ate the lamb, unleavened bread, and manna, and they drank water from the rock. This eating and drinking brought them onward in their journey. God did not command them to do anything other than eat and drink. It was their ignorance of God and of themselves that forced God to give them the law that spoke of His requirements upon them. The law was not God’s original intention. His original intention was for them to enjoy Him by eating and drinking.
What were they eating and drinking? In the Old Testament the people were not clear, but in the New Testament we are very clear. The lamb they ate was Christ. First Corinthians 5:7 says, “Our Passover, Christ, also has been sacrificed.” We are eating the same Lamb. Praise the Lord, He is not only the redeeming Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, but even more He is an edible Lamb who dispenses Himself into us. As a Lamb, He not only redeems us from our sins but also avails Himself to be our food and satisfaction.
We should read Exodus 12 again. The flesh of the lamb was eaten by the Israelites, and the blood was put on the doorposts and the lintel. The Israelites did not obtain their strength from the blood; the blood could only expiate their sins before God. It was the flesh of the lamb, which they consumed, that afforded them the strength for their journey. In the same principle, if the Son of God had shed His blood on the cross merely to redeem us from our sins, we would have received only the forgiveness of our trespasses before God. We must thank and praise Him that He also has given Himself to us. As we take Him in, He becomes our life. He is not only the Lamb who shed His blood but the Lamb who has become our food.
Why do we remember the Lord by breaking bread? Why do we eat the bread and drink the cup when we remember the Lord? The Lord seemed to say, “This bread is My body, broken for you; take and eat. This cup is my blood, shed for you; take and drink.” When He died on the cross for us, He not only made propitiation for our sins before God but also became food for us to eat. A lamb or chicken cannot be our food unless it is first killed. In the same way, the Son of God was slain in order for us to eat Him. It is a pity that poor, degraded, and deformed Christianity does not know anything concerning this aspect of the Lord Jesus’ death. Many Christians are only aware of a redeeming Christ who was crucified for them. They do not see that as a Lamb, who shed His blood for us, He is also our food who can be eaten by us.
Let us consider manna. Manna is a type of the Lord Jesus. When the Israelites were in the wilderness, God did not come down from heaven to hold Moses, Aaron, and Miriam by the hand to take them through the wilderness. Instead, God sent manna from heaven, and Moses, Aaron, and Miriam took it and were filled with it in order to continue with their journey. This is a type. What is manna? We know that manna is a type of Christ, but the people who ate it did not know this. They saw only a small, white thing that came down from heaven and looked like coriander seed and bdellium. They asked, “What is this?”—which is the meaning of the word manna. We are often like the Israelites, enjoying the Lord Jesus, eating and drinking Him, but we do not know that it is the Lord we are enjoying. We too ask, “What is this?” Perhaps we rise up in the morning to pray, and in our fellowship with Him we sense a power welling up from within that enables us to endure what we previously were unable to endure. In the past if our wife said something to us, we would lose our temper. But now we are happy and joyful no matter how much she complains. We may wonder, “What is happening? I used to lose my temper, but today I have not lost my temper once. What is this?” This is manna. This is Christ. Christ has another name that is given to Him by those who are not very familiar with Him: What is this? Because He is food that cannot be found anywhere in the world, we do not know Him, but we enjoy Him. We know the food that we regularly eat. However, here is a wonderful food that becomes our strength once it enters into us, yet we do not know what it is. Hence, we continually ask, “What is this?” Instead of asking what it is, we should joyfully declare, “This is Christ. This is our glorious Lord. He has become our food. He has become our satisfaction. Not only so, He has also become our living water that quenches our thirst whenever we drink Him. Christ is the spiritual rock that follows us.”
In the Old Testament the lamb, the unleavened bread, the manna, and the living water are all types. When the Lord Jesus came, the reality, the body of the shadows, came. The God who is the tree of life to man, who was the unleavened bread, the manna, and the living rock, became incarnated. He came among men for the purpose of presenting Himself to man to be his full contentment and satisfaction.
How to Enjoy God and How to Practice the Enjoyment of God, Ch. 8, Sec. 1 of 3
CHAPTER EIGHT
EATING AND DRINKING—
THE FOCUS OF GOD’S SALVATION
Scripture Reading: Exo. 12:3-4; 16:14-15; 17:5-6; 1 Cor. 5:7; 10:3-4; 1:2; 1 Pet. 2:2-3; John 6:54-57; Matt. 22:1-2; Luke 15:18, 21; Acts 2:4; Eph. 5:18
THE LORD’S DESIRE BEING FOR US TO LIVE HIM
THROUGH EATING AND DRINKING HIM
In the previous chapter we emphasized that God wants man to enjoy Him through eating and drinking Him. Although some may think that this is a crude and unrefined way of speaking, the New Testament speaks of God offering Himself to us for our food and drink. Although the expression eating and drinking may seem common and even vulgar, God often uses common expressions to convey extremely mysterious things. In describing the relationship between God and man, it is insufficient to say that man should receive God. This can be understood as receiving something purely in an objective way. Even if we speak of receiving God into us, this may not convey the thought adequately, because receiving something into us does not necessarily mean digesting it into our being so that it becomes our very constitution. The most direct and clear way is simply to say that God wants man to eat and drink Him. This is because everything we eat and drink is assimilated into us and becomes a part of us. “Eating” God is the clearest description of this thought.
Regrettably, the concept of eating and drinking God does not exist in man. Our concept is to worship God, serve Him, be zealous for Him, and do something for Him. When we first hear the expressions eating God and drinking God, we may consider them as hard sayings that are difficult to understand. The Lord Jesus said that He is the bread of life that came down out of heaven and that those who come to Him would no longer hunger, and those who believe into Him would no longer thirst (John 6:35). He said that His flesh is true food, and His blood is true drink (v. 55). This word confounded the Jews. How could they eat His flesh, and how could they drink His blood? This was a hard word. Who could hear it (v. 60)? But the Lord Jesus said that His flesh is true food, and His blood is true drink. He who eats His flesh and drinks His blood abides in Him, and He in him. As the living Father abides in Him, and He lives because of the Father, in the same way, those who eat Him will live because of Him (v. 57). We live because of Him when we eat Him, because after eating Him, He enters into us and is digested by us. He becomes our nutrients, our element. This is not difficult to understand. We live today because of the food we eat. If we did not eat, we would cease to exist. This is the reason the Lord said that we should eat Him. If we eat Him, we will live because of Him.
Man’s Concept Being to Work, Not to Eat and Drink
When man considers Christianity, his first thought is that he should do good or achieve some work. People often say that Christianity is a good religion and that it teaches people to do good. Then they claim that they are good and do not need Christianity. They say that only those who are evil and poor need Christianity. Some friends have said to me, “I know you are trying to convert me for a good reason. But I cannot give up my drinking or my gambling; therefore, it would not be good for me to join Christianity.” These statements show that people’s concepts are based on behavior.
What about the concepts of Christians who are saved by grace? Although our gospel proclaims that we are not saved by works but by grace and although we readily acknowledge and confess this with our mouth, when we become a Christian we immediately place ourselves under a kind of bondage. For example, we say, “In the past I often rebelled against my parents, but from now on I will no longer rebel against them. I often lost my temper and abused my wife, but from now on I will no longer do these things.” Some sisters say, “I used to argue with my husband all the time. It was terrible, but from now on I will be a good wife. Tonight I am being baptized. As soon as I rise from the baptistery, I will be a new person and will act like a new person.” However, no one can produce this kind of “newness.” After only a few days the old man will resurface. Because this is our situation, we never have the concept that God is for us to eat, drink, and enjoy. I have never seen a person on the day of his baptism prostrate himself before the Lord and say, “Lord, I thank and praise You. You do not want me to do anything or behave in any way. You simply want me to enjoy You, receive You, eat You, drink You, and take You into me.” I am afraid no one who is baptized has ever uttered such a prayer. Rather, everyone has the concept that following his baptism he should make a resolution to refrain from certain things. As Christians, we focus on acts and behavior. Rarely do we think about eating and drinking God. We can say that Christianity knows nothing about eating and drinking. It only knows about work and behavior. Christianity is a work and a walk with an empty stomach. But this concept is far from the record of the Bible.