While the Lord Jesus was at a wedding feast in Cana (John 2:1-2), the wine ran out (v. 3). A wedding feast signifies the pleasure and enjoyment of human life, and wine, the life juice of the grape, signifies life. Because wine, unlike water, derives its source from grapes, it comes from something living. Wine signifies life, for the wine of the grapes is the life of the grapes. Thus, the enjoyment of man depends on the life of man. When the life is brought to an end, all enjoyment is gone. Hence, the wine running out symbolizes the human life running out. When the wine, the center of the enjoyment of the wedding feast, runs out, the pleasure of the wedding feast is gone. This signifies not only that the enjoyment of life is over, but also that human life is finished. When our human life is ended, all our enjoyment is also gone.
After the wine ran out, Christ changed water into wine (vv. 6-9). Here water signifies death, as in Genesis 1:2, 6; Exodus 14:21; and Matthew 3:16. The Lord Jesus marvelously changed this death water into wine. Since the water signifies death and the wine signifies life, Christ’s changing water into wine signifies that He changes death into life. When in our experience the Lord Jesus changes our water into wine, our death into life, the wine in our “wedding feast” will never end. Because we have been regenerated, life with its spiritual enjoyment will last forever. We shall have an eternal wedding feast, a feast not in our natural life but in the new life, the divine life, received through regeneration.
It is significant that the changing of water into wine is called “the beginning of signs” (John 2:11). The first mention of anything in the Scriptures sets forth the principle of that thing. Therefore, the first sign here sets forth the principle of all the following signs (John 3:2; 4:54; 6:2, 14, 26, 30; 7:31; 9:16; 10:41; 11:47; 12:18, 37), that is, to change death into life. The Lord’s changing water into wine establishes the principle of life-changing death into life.
In John 6:9-14 we have the sign of Christ’s feeding five thousand men with five barley loaves and two fishes. In The All-Inclusive Christ we point out that the significance of barley is different from that of wheat (John 12:24). Wheat signifies the incarnated Christ, and barley signifies the resurrected Christ. The Lord told His people in Leviticus 23 to offer the firstfruits of their harvest each year. In the land of Palestine barley ripens earlier than any other crop and is the first of the harvest. Hence, it typifies the resurrected Christ (Lev. 23:10), who is our life supply. Therefore, the barley loaves signify Christ in resurrection as food to us. The number five, composed of four, representing the creatures (Rev. 4:6), and one, representing the Creator (1 Cor. 8:6), signifies responsibility. This indicates that five barley loaves signify the resurrected Christ, who is able to bear responsibility.
Barley, of course, is of the plant life. In typology, the plant life is for generating, for producing. The two fishes are of the animal life and signify the redeeming aspect of Christ’s life. The number two means testimony (Rev. 11:3). The two fishes are a testimony that Christ is sufficient to bear responsibility in feeding us.
The barley loaves of the plant life signify the generating aspect of Christ’s life, and the fishes signify the redeeming aspect of His life. As the generating life, Christ grew on the land, on the God-created earth. As the redeeming life, He lived in the sea, the Satan-corrupted world. In order to regenerate us He grew on the God-created earth for producing life, but in order to redeem us He lived in the satanic and sinful world. Just as fish can live in salty water without being salty, so Christ could live in the sinful world without being sinful and without being affected by the world. In His redeeming life, as typified by the two fishes, Christ lived a victorious life in the “death waters” of the sinful world. It is significant, therefore, that He fed the people with barley loaves and fishes. This indicates that He fed them with the generating life and the redeeming life, the life that overcomes death.
We need Christ as both our regenerating life and our redeeming life. When He died on the cross, blood and water came out of His side (John 19:34). The blood is to redeem us, and the water is to generate us. Christ’s shed blood accomplished redemption for us, and the water from His wounded side imparted His life to us. Now we can understand why the five barley loaves were accompanied by the two fishes, which signify the animal life for redemption. The Lord is signified by both the barley loaves and the fishes, for He is the plant life to generate us and the animal life to redeem us. Eventually, the feeding with Christ’s resurrection life results in eternal life. This is the reason He said, “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which abides to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give you” (John 6:27). The significance of this sign in John 6 is that we need to feed on Christ as our life and life supply.
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