As the children of Israel were crossing the Red Sea, the armies of Egypt pursued them. But the Angel of the Lord miraculously buried the armies of the Egyptians. This refers to our baptism. After we received Christ as our Redeemer, our life, and our nourishment, we crossed the Red Sea. This means that we were baptized. When we crossed the Red Sea in baptism, all the worldly forces, the Egyptian armies, were buried in the baptistry. After we were baptized, we found ourselves in the wilderness on the other side of the sea. We have been redeemed, we have been delivered, and now we are able to be for God. In Egypt, we were not good for God. But once we cross the Red Sea, we are good for God. We are no longer under God’s judgment, in Egyptian bondage, or in sin. God’s judgment, the bondage in Egypt, and sin are all over. We are free, purified, and absolutely good for the building of God’s house on earth.
Although the children of Israel had eaten the lamb and the unleavened bread, they still needed to take the heavenly element into them. If they were to be God’s dwelling place, they had to be heavenly. Hence, in the wilderness Christ came to them as the heavenly manna. As the Angel of the Lord, Christ is great. But as the manna, Christ is small, like coriander seed, and tiny, like frost. Our Christ is both great and small. In delivering us, He is great, but in nourishing us and making us heavenly, He is small. Hallelujah for the great Christ and for the small Christ! No one is greater than Christ, and nothing is smaller than Christ. He is great to deliver us, and He is small to nourish us.
If we want to eat something large, it must be cut into pieces and made small enough to eat. Praise the Lord that Christ is as small as a coriander seed. Although He is so small, He is full of life. He is a small seed, not a small grain of sand.
Exodus 16:14 says that manna is a “round thing.” Roundness in the Bible signifies eternity, that which is without beginning or ending. Although the Christ we eat is small, He is full of life and eternal. Exodus 16:31 also tells us that the manna was white, which indicates purity.
As the children of Israel ate this wonderful manna day by day, they gradually lost the smell of garlic. Instead, they had the aroma of heavenly honey, for the taste of manna was “like wafers made with honey” (Exo. 16:31). Many years ago, in Taiwan, our family doctor told me that his daughter’s skin had become yellow in color from eating carrots. She ate so many carrots that she expressed carrots. Likewise, if you eat a great deal of manna, you will become white, the color of manna, and you will express Christ.
My maternal grandparents ate a great deal of fish. They ate fish two or three times a day. Whenever my mother took me to visit them, I was bothered by the fact that everything in their home smelled of fish. My mother explained that, because my grandparents always ate fish, they naturally smelled like fish. Praise the Lord that we have a heavenly fragrance because we are eating the heavenly food, Christ. Christ is being wrought, constituted, into our being.
After the children of Israel were redeemed from God’s judgment and delivered from Egyptian bondage, they were transformed by eating the manna. They were changed from having the odor of garlic to having the fragrance of the heavenly manna. Thus, with the children of Israel in the wilderness, God eventually gained a dwelling place among His chosen, redeemed, delivered, and transformed people. We also have been freed from God’s judgment, from Egyptian bondage, and from the smell of garlic, and now we are good for the building of God’s tabernacle.
All this is a picture of Christ and the church. Christ is the delivering Angel, the speaking Moses, the redeeming and nourishing Lamb, the sanctifying unleavened bread, and the transforming manna. Oh, Christ is so much to us! Eventually, we are redeemed, delivered, enlivened, and transformed. We are no longer good for anything of Egypt; we are only good for God’s dwelling place. God’s glory filled the tabernacle in the wilderness. For God’s glory to come down means that God Himself comes down to earth to dwell in His habitation for His expression. The church today must be like this. Out of the enjoyment of Christ, the church comes into being to fulfill God’s purpose, that is, to express God and fully satisfy Him. Now we have the tabernacle as God’s dwelling place on earth.