If there is a distance between us and God, we may enjoy the open manna, but we cannot eat the hidden manna. If we would partake of the hidden manna, there must be no distance between us and God. In the Holy of Holies we enjoy something of Christ that all those who are far off from His presence cannot taste. Consider the service around the tabernacle in the Old Testament. The Levites served in the outer court, and the priests served in the outer court and also in the Holy Place, where they arranged the bread of the Presence, trimmed the lamp, and burned the incense. But when the high priest entered into the Holy of Holies, there was hardly any work to do. Here, in the Holy of Holies, the high priest ministered directly in the presence of God. Here, in the Holy of Holies, the ministering one enjoys the hidden manna. The hidden manna is that portion of Christ that we enjoy in the presence of God when there is no distance between us and Him.
The farther we are from God, the less service we have toward Him. The closer we are to Him, the more service we render to Him. Eventually, when we enter into the presence of the divine glory in the Holy of Holies, all service ceases. Here we have only the presence of the Lord and enjoy the hidden Christ, the hidden manna. It is here that we have direct fellowship with the Lord and know His heart and His intention. It is here that we can be charged with Him, with His intention, and with all He wants us to do. In this way we become a person who knows His heart and His intention. When we are such a person, His commitment will be ours. We have God’s commitment because we are in His presence. We know that we are in the presence of God because we realize that there is no distance between us and God.
The hidden manna cannot be enjoyed by those who live outside of God; it is enjoyed only by those who live in the Holy of Holies before God’s face. Those who stand on the Lord’s side to maintain His testimony will be able to experience Christ as the hidden manna. They will have Christ as their life supply, but the flavor of that supply will be the hidden manna, which others do not know. Others will not be able to touch or taste the Christ that these overcomers experience and enjoy. If we seek fame or position, we will have no share in the enjoyment of the overcomers; we will not taste, touch, or experience the hidden manna. If we desire worldly fame and are married to the world, we cannot enjoy the hidden Christ before God.
When we become intimate with Christ, on some occasions we are so close to God that while touching the divine nature and partaking of it we are beyond the world, every situation, our self, and even our natural being. Everyone who enters into the Holy of Holies is with the High Priest. Christ, our High Priest, is in the Holy of Holies, and we also must be there. We must also be the priests in the Holy of Holies where the golden pot is. If we would be in this place, we must be beyond the world and every kind of situation. We must be beyond being bothered by people. When we are beyond all situations, good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant, we are in our spirit touching the Ark and the golden pot. If we would partake of the hidden manna, we must constantly be in our spirit touching the divine nature.
To eat the hidden manna is something absolutely outside of the world. While the worldly church is going down into union with the world, we are coming up from Egypt to the wilderness, from the wilderness to the good land, from the good land to the tabernacle, from the outer court to the Holy Place, and from the Holy Place to the Holy of Holies. After we have entered into the Holy of Holies, we must still dive into the Ark, touch the golden pot, and enjoy Christ as the manna hidden there. The more worldly the church becomes, the more we need to enter into the Holy of Holies to eat the hidden manna. If we would enjoy it, we must abide in the deep intimacy of God’s presence. We must be in His divine nature where there is nothing worldly or distracting and where there is the intimate fellowship between us and God. Some of us who have had this experience of the hidden Christ have said, “Lord, I do not care for the world. I care only for You, Lord, not for any human relationship or friendship. Lord, I am willing to drop every tie. Lord, now I am thoroughly free, and I love You from the depths of my being. I love You without anything frustrating me.” When we say this to the Lord, we are in the golden pot, in the intimacy of the divine nature, partaking of the hidden Christ.
The manna preserved in the golden pot was the center of the tabernacle, God’s dwelling place in the Old Testament. Likewise, the Christ whom we have eaten, digested, and assimilated is the center of our being as a part of the church, God’s dwelling place today (2 Tim. 4:22; Eph. 2:22). The Christ whom we eat as open manna spontaneously becomes hidden manna by being digested and assimilated into our inner being. The focal point of God’s building today is the Christ eaten, digested, and assimilated by His people.
The open manna, the manna that lay on the ground every morning, was for the enjoyment of God’s people in a public way. However, the omer of manna placed in a pot (Exo. 16:33) was hidden and was not for the congregation in a public way. The amount of manna kept in a pot before Jehovah was one omer, the same as the amount gathered and eaten by the people (vv. 16-18). In spiritual experience, this indicates that the amount of Christ we eat is the amount we can preserve. As we partake of Christ day by day, we are also preserving Him. The amount of Christ we preserve depends on the amount of Christ we eat. The more we eat Christ, the more we preserve Him.
The fact that the Christ we eat is the Christ we preserve indicates that whatever we eat of Christ will become a memorial in generations to come. The Christ whom we eat and enjoy will be an eternal memorial, because such a Christ becomes our constitution, enabling us to build up and even to become God’s dwelling place in the universe. Nothing of what we are, what we have, or what we can do is worthy of remembrance. Only the Christ who has become our constitution is worthy to be an eternal memorial. Everything else may change, but our experience of Christ will remain for eternity.
When some Christians are in eternity, they may not have very much of Christ to remember. Because they are not eating much of Christ today, they will not have much of Him to recall in eternity. However, if we are right with the Lord day by day and eat Him consistently, we will have much to say about Him in eternity. We will recall the wonderful times we had in the church life eating Christ and enjoying Him. Whatever we enjoy of Christ in the church today will become an eternal memorial. This memorial will be preserved in the presence of God, even in His being. This hidden manna is a memorial of Christ as the supply to God’s people for the building of God’s dwelling place.