Now let us go on to see something concerning the animal life. Oh, the aspects of Christ in the land are so many and rich! We not only have the vegetable life, the plant life, but also the animal life. There are two kinds of life. With the Lord Jesus Christ, there is the aspect of the vegetable life and the aspect of the animal life.
The vegetable life is the life that generates, that multiplies. It is the life that is always generating and multiplying. A grain of wheat falls into the ground; it dies and is buried. What happens? Thirty, sixty, or one hundredfold of fruit will be produced. This is generation; this is multiplication. Therefore, the aspect of the Lord Jesus Christ which is represented by the vegetable life is that of generating and multiplying. This is one aspect.
But there is another aspect. We must remember that before the fall, before man had sinned, the food which God ordained for man was of the vegetable kingdom, not the animal. It was after the fall, after man had sinned, that for his diet the blood must be shed. Animals were not required for human consumption before the fall, but when sin entered, man must include them in his food. Without sin, there was no need of redemption through the blood, but after the fall, because of sin, the blood was required. If we are going to live before God, we must partake of redemption through the blood. What then does the animal life signify? It signifies the redeeming life, the sacrificing life. After man fell and sinned, such a life was required that he might live before God.
These are the two aspects of the Lord’s life. On one hand, His life is a generating life, and on the other hand, His life is a redeeming life. The Lord said in John 6, “My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink,” and “he who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life” (vv. 55, 54). We have to enjoy Christ as the redeeming One.
Perhaps by now you feel that you have learned something. You have learned how to apply Christ as the wheat, as the barley, and as so many kinds of trees. You rejoice. But you must realize that you can never simply apply Christ as the barley, because you are a sinner, you have sinned. To this very day, you and I are sinners. Whenever we would apply Christ as the wheat, as the barley, as the vine, as the fig tree, as the pomegranate, and as the olive tree, at the same time we must apply Him as the lamb, as the One who died on the cross, shedding His blood to redeem us from our sins. With all the offerings in the Old Testament, there was always the offering of an animal with the offering of the vegetable. You know what Cain did. He offered vegetables without something of an animal, and he was rejected by God. Whenever you would enjoy Christ, you must realize that you are sinful. You must ask the Lord to cover you with His precious blood and cleanse you once more. You cannot simply enjoy Christ as the plant, as the wheat or as the barley. You have to enjoy Him as the plant with the animal. You must enjoy Him as the generating life and at the same time as the redeeming life.
One day a couple, a brother and a sister, came to see me. They said. “Brother, we know your stomach is not so strong, so we have prepared some food for you. We would like to invite you to come to our home for dinner.” I replied that I was so willing to do so. When I went there, they had indeed prepared some good food, and they had prepared it very nicely. When they spread the table, it was quite colorful. There was the green, the red, the white, and the yellow—it looked most pleasing. But I shook my head. My wife noticed and asked, “What is the matter? Why are you shaking your head? Don’t you like this food?” “I like it,” I said, “but it is not scriptural; there is nothing of the animal.” All that was prepared was of the plant life. There were vegetables, vegetables, and more vegetables, and some fruit, but there was no meat. There was nothing of the animal. “Do you think that I am not a sinner?” I asked the sister. “Do you think that I do not need to take the Lord as the slain One, that I do not need His blood at this very moment?”
Now you understand. You cannot simply experience Christ as the plant life, as the vegetable life. You are sinful. Whenever you offer the meal offering, you must also offer something of the animal. Whenever you take Christ as your life, as the wheat, as the barley, as the fig, or as the pomegranate, you must at the same time take Him as the bullock or as the lamb. He is the One who was slain on the cross, shedding His blood to redeem us from our sins.
One day a brother came to me, saying, “Brother, whenever I hear you pray, you always say, ‘Lord, cleanse us with Your precious blood that we may enjoy You more and more.’ Why do you always ask the Lord to cleanse you with His blood?” “Brother,” I answered, “don’t you realize that you still have a sinful nature? Don’t you realize that you are still living in this corrupt and defiling world? Are you not defiled from morning to evening by many things?” Whenever we come to experience Christ and apply Him as our life, we must realize that He is not only the plant life, but also the animal life. We must always apply Him as the redeeming One, as the Lamb who has been slain, that we may enjoy all the riches of His generating life.
Now we come to two more items—milk and honey. The good land is a land flowing with milk and honey. Can you tell to which life the milk and the honey belong? Do they belong to the animal life or to the vegetable life? Notice how the Holy Spirit arranges them in the Word. In Deuteronomy 8:8 the honey is put with the plants: the wheat, the barley, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranates, the olive tree, and then the honey. And in Deuteronomy 32:14, the milk is put with the animals: the cattle, the flock, the milk, and the butter. The Holy Spirit is very fair. He put the honey with the plants, and He put the milk with the butter and the animals. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is well aware that for the most part, honey has to do with the plant life. It is derived mostly from the flowers and the trees. Of course, a part of the animal life is involved—that little animal, the bee. Without the flowers we cannot have honey, and without the bees we cannot have honey either. We must have flowers and we must have bees. These two cooperate; these two lives are mingled together, and honey is produced. But honey, for the most part, belongs to the vegetable life.
What about the milk? We can say that the greater part of milk belongs to the animal life. But indeed it is the product of both the animal life and the vegetable life. If we do not have the pasture, if we do not have the grass, even though we have the cattle and the flock, we cannot have milk and butter. Which is the better food: the milk, or all the fruit of the trees—the vine, the fig, the pomegranate, and the olive? Yes, they are all good, but which is better? I believe we all realize that milk is better than all the fruit of the vegetable life. Why? Because with both milk and honey, we enjoy the mingling of two kinds of life. You see then that both these items are of the vegetable and of the animal lives.
What is the meaning of this? What aspects of the life of Christ do the milk and the honey portray? When you enjoy Christ as the wheat, the barley, the vine, etc., and at the same time you enjoy Him as the bullock and as the lamb, you will realize that the Lord is so good, that the Lord is so sweet and so rich to you, just as milk and honey. Especially when you are weak in spirit and you come to the Lord to experience and apply Him, you sense that He is the milk and the honey. You sense the riches and the sweetness of the life of Christ. Oh, the goodness of milk and the sweetness of honey! Christ is so good! Christ is so sweet! He is a land flowing with milk and honey. This experience is produced from the two aspects of the life of Christ, the generating and the redeeming life. The more you realize Him as the wheat and the barley and so forth, and at the same time as the cattle and the flock, the more you will enjoy Christ as milk and honey.
We have seen three kinds of waters and at least eight kinds of food. Oh, how rich Christ is to us! We must have such an adequate and full experience of Him, not just as the living water, but as so many kinds of food. We must enjoy Christ to such an extent that the life within us may be matured. Then there will be a building for the Lord and the warfare with the enemy. We will consider this in the next chapter.