I was a Christian for years before I realized that God needs food. I was not aware that God is hungry. Then one day I read Numbers 28:2, which says that the burnt offering is the bread of God. The burnt offering is food for God. God is hungry; God needs something to satisfy Himself, and this something is the burnt offering offered by His people. Do you satisfy God day by day? God commanded the children of Israel to present the burnt offering every day both in the morning and in the evening. God needs this kind of food. Many Christians may talk about glorifying God, but God would reply that He is hungry. He needs food. You may say that you will go to the mission field to glorify God, but God would say that He desires food from you today right where you are.
How can we know that we are offering food to God? It is when we are satisfied. When we are satisfied, surely God is satisfied by the food we offer Him. If God is not satisfied, we can never be satisfied. So many missionaries are working day and night on the mission field, but are not satisfied. If they would be honest, they would say that although they are doing much work to glorify God, yet they are so hungry. That is a strong proof that God is also hungry. God needs food, and that food is just the burnt offering. We must be absolutely for God. When we offer Christ as our burnt offering, we have the deep conviction that we are satisfied, and our satisfaction is just a proof of God’s satisfaction.
We must be clear which life is the life that is absolutely for God. Our life is just the life for self; it is not a life for God. Regardless of how much we train ourselves to be for God, eventually we will be just for ourselves. In principle it is similar to a monkey which has been trained to eat like a man. Regardless of how much you train him to eat food in a human way, eventually the monkey will revert to his own way, because he has only the monkey life. How can a monkey behave like a human if he does not have the human life? In the same way, our life is a life for self and not for God.
I have heard others saying that a certain person is self-centered. You may say that that person is self-centered, but I will ask, “What about you?” I am not worried about that person being self-centered. I am the same. In a sense, we may be more self-centered than the person of whom we are speaking. Suppose I ask the wives if their husbands are self-centered. If they say that their husbands are self-centered, then I would ask whether the wives are self-centered. We are all self-centered. There is no need to condemn others for being self-centered; we are all the same.
But hallelujah! There is another life we can experience. We can be one with Him; we can rely upon Him. We can be one with Christ as our burnt offering. He is the life in us which is absolutely for God. Our life may be self-centered, but His life is God-centered.
According to the record of Leviticus 1, those who present the burnt offering must kill it, flay or skin it, and cut it into pieces. Then they must wash all the inward parts and the legs with all the other parts that must be burnt. But we must realize that we are unable to kill, to skin, and to cut into pieces. Our life is unable to do this. The life for killing, for flaying, for cutting, and for washing is altogether Christ. Do you think that you can cut yourself into pieces? You cannot! There is only one life which is able to do this, and that is Christ.
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