THE BIBLE BEING GOD’S FOOD FOR US
Since we desire to be persons who eat, drink, absorb, and breathe in God, we need a drastic change in our concept concerning the Bible. We need to see that the Bible is the food God has given us. We read the Bible with the purpose of eating, drinking, absorbing, and breathing in God, because we know that the Bible is the Word of God. John 1 says that the Word of God is God Himself. God’s Word is God’s coming forth. When God is expressed and presented to us, we have the Word, the Bible. Since God wants to be our food, His expression and manifestation to man as the Word means that the Word is man’s food.
Some people think that God’s words are only precepts and commandments, but in John 12:50 the Lord Jesus said that God’s commandment is eternal life. God’s commandment is life because it is food. When we receive God’s commandments, we receive them in the way of eating. When these commandments enter into us as food, we spontaneously receive life and nourishment from them. Those who have experienced this can testify that when we read the Bible with a heart to absorb God, it becomes food to us. Even a commandment such as husbands loving their wives can become food to us when we receive it in the way of absorbing God. When we do this, we are filled with God’s supply and His presence as we love our wives. While we are loving our wives, God is life to us. The commandment—love your wife—becomes eternal life to us. The more we receive this commandment to love our wives, the more we sense God’s presence, supply, and life.
In the same principle, if we read the portions of the Bible that command children to honor their parents, with a heart to absorb God, we will receive this commandment as our food. Then when we obey this commandment to obey our parents, we will sense the moving of the Holy Spirit; we will experience the Holy Spirit as life to us. The more we honor our parents, the more we will be filled and satisfied, and the more we will eat and drink God and be saturated with His life. This is what it means for God’s commandment to be eternal life to us.
The Lord Jesus Being Food to Man
through His Word
The entire Bible, from the first word to the last, is God’s word. It is God’s expression and His breathing out. God’s word is God Himself. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This Word is our Lord Jesus. This is wonderful. The Lord Jesus is God’s Word because He is God’s expression and explanation. He manifests God; hence, He is the embodiment of God. When man receives Him, man receives God Himself. With the Word is life, nourishment, and supply. God is contained in the Word; hence, when a man receives the Word, he receives everything that God is.
When the Word came to the earth, He was received in the way of food. He said that He is the bread that came down out of heaven to be eaten by men. The hearers, however, were confused. The Lord sympathized with their weakness and explained to them, using the type of the offerings. When the Jews celebrated the Feast of the Passover, they slaughtered a lamb, shed its blood for the remission of their sins, and ate the meat of the lamb. Every Jew was familiar with this. The Lord said that His flesh is true meat and that His blood is true drink. This means that they were to eat Him in the same way that they slaughtered and ate the passover lamb. The lamb was slaughtered to meet the need of man’s sinfulness and emptiness. When the lamb was killed, its blood was shed for the remission of sins, and its flesh was eaten for the satisfaction of man. Since the Jews understood the type, they should have also understood that the Lord was the Lamb prepared by God for them. He was killed, His blood was shed, and His body was broken. His shed blood redeemed man from his sins, and His broken body released His life to enter into man for man’s satisfaction. His flesh is true food, and His blood is true drink. Those who eat His flesh and drink His blood eat Him, and those who eat Him will live because of Him (6:55-57).
The Jews, however, were confused when they heard these words. They wondered how this man’s flesh could be their food. This word was too hard for them, and they could not receive it. Brothers and sisters, the Jews were confused, and we are often confused when we read John 6. For this reason the Lord Jesus also said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing” (v. 63). He was not giving them His visible flesh as food. If they ate His physical flesh, they would still die; they would not have lived. It is the Spirit who gives life. This proves that the Lord did not intend for them to eat His visible flesh but to eat the invisible Spirit. His desire is to enter into man’s spirit as Spirit, to be man’s food and man’s life, and to cause man to live by Him. Here the subject of the Spirit is introduced. Prayer is to breathe in the Spirit with our spirit. It is to touch the Spirit with our spirit.
Because the Lord was concerned that the people would still not understand, He continued, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (v. 63). This shows that the Lord is food to us in two ways—first as the Spirit and second as the Word. In other words, the Lord today is first the Holy Spirit, and second the Holy Bible. He is the Spirit and the Word. Today we can breathe in the Spirit by prayer, and we can touch the Word by reading. The Lord is in the Spirit, and He is also in the Word. He is Spirit, the Word is the Spirit, and the Lord is the Word. Hence, the Lord, the Spirit, and the Word are three in one. The Lord is in the Spirit, and He is also the Spirit. The Lord is in the Word, and He is also the Word. The Word is also the Spirit. Let me repeat: Our Lord is in the Spirit, and He is the Spirit. He is in the Word, and He is the Word. Not only so, the Word is the Spirit. The three are one. He is the Spirit for us to breathe Him in; this is to pray. He is also the Word for us to read; this is to study the Bible.