God Desiring Man Not to Work for Him 
but to Eat and Drink Him

After God created man, He did not say to man, “I am the Creator. Worship Me, serve Me, and work for Me.” God did not do this. In His first contact with man He presented Himself to man as food in the form of the tree of life. He did not ask man to do anything. Rather, He made Himself available to man as food. He did not want man to toil for Him; He wanted man to enjoy Him. He presented Himself to man as food in the way of life. In other words, He became man’s life in the form of food. This is a crucial matter.

If we were Adam and Eve standing before the Creator, we would probably respectfully confess: “Let us worship our Creator, serve Him, stand before Him, and wait for His command. Let us work for Him. Let us please Him.” This is what we would do, but this is not in the Bible. Jehovah did not intend this for man. He had no intention that man would do anything for Him. When the Creator came to Adam and Eve, He did not come in His status as the Creator, sitting majestically on a throne and demanding worship and service. There is no trace of this. Rather, in effect, He was saying, “I have presented Myself to you as the tree of life, with the fruits of life hanging from its boughs. I have created you and ordained that you should live by eating and drinking. This means that you should eat and drink Me. I am the food you need. I am like the tree of life that is placed in front of you. My desire is that you would receive Me. Although I am on the throne and you are on earth, My pleasure is to enter into you and be mingled with you. However, I cannot enter into you unless you receive Me. I will not force you to receive Me. You must choose Me and take Me into you.” Brothers and sisters, this is not too much. This was God’s intention at the beginning when He placed Adam and Eve in front of the tree of life.

Some have asked me, “Brother Lee, how do you know that the tree of life refers to God?” If the tree of life in Genesis 2 does not refer to God, what else can it refer to? Psalm 36 clearly says that with God is the fountain of life (v. 9). God is the source of life. Life is in God. The Bible clearly says that when the Lord Jesus came, life was in Him. He is the life, and He came that man may have life (John 1:4; 10:10). These words are clear. The tree of life that man was placed in front of in Genesis signifies God Himself. It also signifies that God is life to man.

As soon as man was created, God placed Himself in front of man in the form of food. He did not come as a God demanding worship and service. He came as food. In effect, He said to man, “Eat Me. Do not be concerned with loving your wife or obeying your husband. I know that if you do not eat Me, you will beat your wife and rebel against your husband. If both of you do not eat Me, surely you will argue with each other about everything. But I also know that if Adam eats Me, he will love his wife. And if Eve eats Me, she will obey her husband. If you eat and drink Me every day and are filled with Me, you will surely be a loving couple. The love with which one loves is simply Me. If you eat Me, you will have love. The obedience with which one obeys is also Me. If you eat Me, you will have obedience. When I enter a husband, there is love, and when I enter a wife, there is obedience. When electricity operates in a bulb, it is light; when it operates in an amplifier, it is sound; and when it operates in a fan, it is wind. As soon as a bulb receives electricity, it lights up. As soon as an amplifier receives electricity, it produces sound. As soon as a fan receives electricity, it moves and produces wind. I do not need to give you any laws. I do not need to require anything of you. I only need to minister Myself to you. However, I also must warn you. If you eat something other than Me, you will die, because only I am life. Apart from Me everything else is death.”

It may seem as if this is a simple illustration, but we need to be deeply impressed with this picture. We may still have the concept that we should worship and serve God and that we need to work for Him. Before the Lord’s grace came to us, we loved the world and sin. After being revived and loving Him, our thought is to worship, serve, work, and be zealous for Him. Formerly, we loved the world, sin, and evil things. Now we are zealous and want to serve God and do good things. However, both the evil things we did and the good things we want to do are related to the same tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:9). We still have not seen the tree of life. The tree of life is not related to doing evil or doing good. The tree of life does not need anything from us. It indicates that all things are ready for us to come and enjoy. The fatted calf has been killed, the blood has been shed, the flesh of the lamb is available, the unleavened bread is prepared, and all things are ready. Do not come to worship, serve, or work. Come and eat!

The first picture unveiled in the Bible has nothing to do with our work or effort but with our eating. A Chinese expression describes some people as “a pair of shoulders with a big mouth.” This refers to people who eat all the time, and while this may not be a compliment as far as man is concerned, it is wonderful to God. He simply wants us to eat.

Some may ask, “If we do not need to worship or serve Him, what should we do? If all these things are related to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and do not have anything to do with God, what should we do? If God wants us to eat Him, drink Him, and breathe Him, where is He? How can we do this?” I know this question is in us. But for the moment we should not worry about this. Forget about doing things. It is all right if we cannot serve and work for Him. Instead, we should say to Him, “Lord, I cannot do anything. I cannot worship and serve You. I know that it is wrong to try to do things for You, but what should I do?” If we can groan before the Lord this way, we will breathe in God. When we say, “Lord, I can’t make it,” we are breathing Him in. When we say, “I am wrong in this and I am wrong in that,” we are taking in another breath. Even saying, “Lord, I am confused. I do not know what is proper anymore,” this is another breath. We should thank and praise the Lord. This is to breathe out our sorrow and to breathe out our sin. We cannot breathe out without breathing in, and once we breathe in, God comes in, and His element increases within us.

Whenever we breathe deeply, we first must breathe out and then breathe in. The more we breathe out, the more we can breathe in. We do not need to pray that much, nor do we need to spend that much time to worship or serve God. We need to see this picture in the Bible—God first appeared to man in the form of food. He had absolutely no intention for man to worship Him. I can say this boldly even though some theologians may condemn me. They may say that it is heresy to say that God does not want man to worship Him. But I now have the boldness to speak of God’s desire for man because I know that He presented Himself to man in the form of food.