CHAPTER SEVEN
ENJOYING GOD BY EATING AND DRINKING HIM
Scripture Reading: Gen. 2:8-12; Psa. 34:8; 36:8-9; John 6:32-37; 7:37-39; Matt. 26:26-28; John 20:19-22; Rev. 2:7, 17; 22:1-2
GOD DESIRING MAN TO ENJOY HIM
BY EATING AND DRINKING HIM
In this chapter we will continue the matter of enjoying God. I want to emphasize that God is man’s enjoyment. Those who know the Bible and God’s heart realize that what pleases God the most is for man to enjoy Him. This enjoyment is not an outward enjoyment. Rather, it is an inward enjoyment that can be compared to the enjoyment one experiences when he takes in food and water. God intends that man enjoy Him by eating and drinking Him.
We need to remember the principle related to the first mention of an item in the Bible. The first time an item is mentioned sets a principle for later references to similar cases. This is a set principle. After God created man, He presented Himself to man as food. This was His appearing to man. After creation man’s existence was not independent of eating and drinking. It is wonderful to consider that in God’s creation He ordained that human beings must exist by means of eating and drinking. Without these two things man cannot survive. Man needs to eat and drink in order to sustain the functions of walking, living, and working. In order to have the strength to do various things, man must eat and drink sufficiently. Without eating and drinking, he cannot do anything. In fact, if he does not eat and drink for a period of time, he will die. This is a God-ordained principle. Every physical thing in the universe is a sign of the invisible and spiritual things. When the Lord Jesus was on the earth, He considered everything He encountered around Him as a sign of spiritual things. In the same principle, God’s ordination for man to eat and drink is a sign showing that He is man’s food. Man must eat and drink of Him before he can live and work.
The Lord Jesus Being Man’s Real Food
Everyone in the world thinks that the food he eats is real food and the water he drinks is real drink, but one day the Lord Jesus came and said that the real food was sent by God from heaven. This means that whatever grows from the earth is not real food. It is not real. Some new believers may not agree, saying, “The bread that we eat is real bread. How can you say that it is not real? The rice we eat every day is real food. How can you say that it is not real?” According to the Bible, there is a different assessment of what is real and not real. In God’s eyes, everything that belongs to this life, everything that is temporary and visible, is not real, because it does not last forever. We may say that a house we own belongs to us, but if it is burned down by fire, it is no longer ours. This indicates that the house is not real. Some sisters may wear an expensive watch. If the watch is stolen, it is no longer real to her. Anything that does not remain forever is not real. In the same principle, the food we eat cannot make us live forever; it cannot satisfy us forever. The water we drink cannot quench our thirst forever. Hence, they are not real. One day the Lord Jesus was by a well in Sychar and said to a woman that whoever drank of its water would thirst again but that the water that He would give was real, and those who drank of it would never thirst again (John 4:13-14). In another situation He told the Jews that He was the bread that came down from heaven and that those who came to Him would not hunger and that those who believed in Him would never thirst again (6:32-35). This is real food. The Lord’s words indicate that God’s ordination to eat and drink was merely a sign. Through eating and drinking, God intends to awaken man to his real need. When we are hungry or thirsty, we should remember that we have another need in our deepest part, and this need is our real need. Our experience proves this. After we are satisfied through eating and drinking, we still hunger and thirst in our deepest part. We are hungering and thirsting for the living God. God is our real food.