Exodus 16:36 says, “Now an omer is a tenth of an ephah.” If we read Numbers 18:26-30, we will see that the tenth part denotes a special portion that was reserved for the priesthood. This indicates that the hidden manna was not for the congregation in general but for the serving priests in particular. If as children of God we do not eat manna, we will have only open manna, not hidden manna. Without the hidden manna we will not be able to function as priests. On the contrary, we will simply be among the general public, part of the congregation. But if we eat, digest, and assimilate the manna, we will have hidden manna. Spontaneously the manna we eat causes a transformation that transfers us from the general congregation to the priesthood. The more we eat of Christ, the more function we will exercise. In this way we will become a functioning priest, a priest in reality and practicality. Every proper priest is an overcomer. If we eat the open manna, Christ will become the hidden manna. This hidden manna will constitute us into an overcomer.
The contents of the Ark—the hidden manna, the budding rod, and the tablets of the covenant—are arranged in a particular sequence. First, we must enjoy the hidden manna. Then out of our enjoyment of the hidden manna our rod will bud. When we enjoy the hidden Christ in such a deep way, there will be the budding, the blossoming, which refers to the spread of the resurrection life and to glorification. As a result, we will have the law of life, signified by the tablets of the covenant. The inward law of life, the inward working of the Spirit of the Triune God, is operating within us, infusing the element of God into our being and making us a corporate reproduction of Christ as the standard model. In this way God can have the fulfillment of His eternal purpose.
When we enjoy the hidden manna, we will partake of the budding rod, which signifies our experience of Christ in His resurrection as our acceptance by God for authority in the God-given ministry. If we enjoy the hidden manna, we will bud, for the issue of enjoying the hidden manna is the budding rod. How much we will bud with life depends on how much we eat of the hidden manna. If we bud, blossom, and yield almonds, others will know that we are the authority. When we enjoy Christ as our life supply in such a hidden and mysterious way, we will experience the rod budding with authority in resurrection life. If we are to be a true minister of the word or a genuine elder in the church, we need to have this kind of authority in the resurrection life of Christ.
According to Exodus 16:34, we read that Aaron placed the pot with an omer of manna “before the Testimony to be kept.” Since the golden pot with the manna was in the Ark (Heb. 9:4), the Testimony here must refer not to the Ark but to the tablets of the law that were in the Ark (Exo. 34:1, 29; 25:21; 40:20). The law is a testimony of what God is. Hence, the fact that the manna in the golden pot was placed before the Testimony indicates that manna corresponds to God’s testimony, God’s law, and meets its requirements. When we take Christ as our heavenly life supply, Christ as the hidden manna preserved in the divine nature within us causes us to correspond to God’s testimony and to fulfill its requirements, thereby making us God’s expression. In the words of Romans 8:4, the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in those who walk according to spirit.
If we suffer persecution from others yet remain with and in the Lord, He will be the hidden manna to us. A particular portion of Christ, a special portion, will be our hidden manna. This special portion will become our support and our strength. We can endure suffering and live in a situation in which no one else can live, because we daily enjoy the Lord Jesus as a special portion, the hidden manna.
In Old Testament typology, the hidden manna was in the Holy of Holies. In the New Testament reality, the Holy of Holies may refer to the church. In the church life Christ is our hidden manna. Because Christ is hidden, those outside the church do not know where we obtain our energy to attend many church meetings week by week. Our supply comes from the hidden Christ, whom we eat as our food. When we come into the church, we enjoy something hidden, Christ as our hidden manna, for our supply.
In ancient times the eating of manna was related to the building of the tabernacle as God’s dwelling place. Today the eating of Christ as the hidden manna is also related to the building of God’s dwelling place. In Revelation 2:17, the Lord promised the overcomers in Pergamos, saying, “To him I will give a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, which no one knows except him who receives it.” Enjoying Christ as the hidden manna produces transformation. In the Bible a stone signifies material for God’s building (Matt. 16:18; 1 Pet. 2:5; 1 Cor. 3:12). In our natural being we are not stones but clay. Because we received the divine life with its divine nature through regeneration, we can be transformed into stones, even precious stones, by enjoying Christ as our life supply (2 Cor. 3:18). If we do not follow the worldly church but enjoy the Lord in the proper church life, we will be transformed into stones for the building of God. These stones will be justified and approved by the Lord, as indicated by the color white, while the worldly church will be condemned and rejected by Him. God’s work of building the church depends on our transformation, and our transformation issues from the enjoyment of Christ as our life supply.
The white stone is for God’s building. We cannot be built up together in the church life because of our peculiarities, our particular, peculiar traits. Therefore, we need to be transformed so that we will be delivered from our peculiar traits and be no longer natural. Yet when we are transformed, we can be properly and adequately built up with others. God’s building, the building of the church, depends upon our transformation, and our transformation issues from the enjoyment of Christ as our life supply.
In Revelation 2:17 the Lord also said that “upon the stone” would be “a new name written, which no one knows except him who receives it.” A name designates a person, and the new name here is the designation of a transformed person. Every transformed believer as a white stone bears “a new name...which no one knows except him who receives it.” Such a new name is the interpretation of the experience of the one being transformed. Hence, only he himself knows the meaning of that name. As we eat the Lord Jesus as the hidden manna, we will have certain experiences and the Lord will write a new name upon us. This new name is simply the new designation of what we are. Since this new name is based upon what we are according to our experiences, others cannot know what it is. This is truly the greatest blessing. This involves our being, for it is related to what we are. The greatest blessing is not what the Lord gives us but what the Lord makes us.
The Lord’s promise of the hidden manna to the overcomer in the church in Pergamos corresponds to the parables in Matthew 13. The Greek word translated “Pergamos” means “a fortified tower,” which is like the great tree in Matthew 13:31-32, in which everything was exposed for outward show. In principle, however, the precious things are hidden (v. 44). In this age Christ is the hidden manna. Therefore, we must be the hidden church. We must learn to be hidden and not exposed. We should not advertise ourselves in a worldly way. To do so is to be married to the world and to commit spiritual fornication. It is not only to have idol worship but also to become an idol. Since this is the age for Christ to be hidden, we as His Body must also be hidden. Then we will enjoy Him as the hidden manna.
The more we are hidden, the more we will experience Christ as the hidden One and experience the white stone (Rev. 2:17). White in Revelation signifies being justified, approved, and accepted by the Lord (3:4-5, 18). We should not try to be accepted or admired by people. We must not be afraid to be criticized and persecuted. Rather, we should try to be justified and accepted by the hidden Lord. When we become the hidden ones, we sense the Lord’s hidden approval. Upon the white stone is a name that the Lord gives. This name is known only by us and the Lord; no one else knows it because it is a secret. We need to have hidden experiences of Christ. Then there will be something secret between us and Him.