Deuteronomy 8:9 says the good land is also “a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.” Stones are for building, and a mountain signifies God’s kingdom. Daniel 2:35 says, “The stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” Christ is the stone that smites the nations, and the mountain is the kingdom of God. God’s building brings in God’s kingdom. The tabernacle in the wilderness could not bring in God’s kingdom. Only the temple built in the good land could bring in the kingdom of God. David fought the battle, subdued the enemy, and prepared the ground for the building of the temple. Solomon actually built the temple. When the temple was built, the kingdom of God was established on earth.
When the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they had the tabernacle, but they did not have the kingdom. There was no way the kingdom could be established with the tabernacle because the Israelites did not have the stone, the iron, or the brass. They were not yet able to fight the battle to gain the ground for the building of the temple. When they entered into the good land, they stopped eating manna and began to eat the produce of the land (Josh. 5:12). They no longer ate something that came down from heaven, but something that grew out of the earth.
The manna from heaven had no minerals in it. But foods such as wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, and olives, contain minerals. In these solid foods there are iron and copper. Although not all these foods are sweet, they are substantial. Manna, on the contrary, was sweet, but it was not solid. Manna could not produce stones; it could only produce wafers. Some saints are lovely, sweet, soft wafers. These saints are good for tasting or for exhibition, but they are not good for fighting. No one can fight a battle with wafers or honey. I am happy to see that there are many stones in Germany. My intention in coming here is not to taste wafers. My burden is to fight, to smite the enemy. For this, we need stones, iron, and brass. Now is the time to fight the battle against religion and to build up the temple for the establishment of God’s kingdom.
I would ask you to consider what you are eating today. Are you eating the Lamb, the manna, or the rich produce of the good land? Praise the Lord for those who are eating the Lamb! But they must progress to a higher type of eating, progressing from eating the Lamb to the eating of the manna. We thank the Lord for those who are eating the manna, but they also must go on to the highest eating, the eating of the rich produce of the good land. In your Christian life, the eating of Christ must progress from the Lamb and the manna to the solid food of the good land. You need to eat the wheat, the barley, and all the other foodstuffs that have the minerals to make you strong stones, iron, and brass for God’s building and for the fighting of the battle.
We must build the temple and fight the battle so that God may have the kingdom. This is what God needs today. The tabernacle is not adequate. God needs a temple with a city in a kingdom with the kingship and the fighting capability. The Lamb energizes us to leave Egypt, and the manna nourishes us and constitutes us with the heavenly element. Although both of these items are good, they are not good for fighting. No one will fight a battle with a lamb or with manna. We need solid food with minerals in it. We need to be rocks, not wafers. We need weapons made out of iron and brass. Oh, we need stones, iron, and brass to build up the temple, to establish the kingdom, to fight the battle, and to defeat the enemy! When we come to this point, we have reached God’s goal. Here we not only have the tabernacle; we have the temple with the city in the kingdom. As His people eat the solid food and take in the minerals that make them stones, iron, and brass, God has His kingdom.
By now we all should be clear concerning three kinds of eating: the eating in Egypt, the eating in the wilderness, and the eating in the good land. The eating of the Lamb is the initial eating, the eating of the manna is the higher eating, and the eating of the solid food with the minerals is the highest eating. The first eating strengthens us to escape the world, and the second enables us to be reconstituted with the heavenly element that we might be the tabernacle. But neither is adequate for the solid building, for fighting, or for establishing God’s kingdom. In order to have all this, we must proceed to the highest eating, the eating of the solid food with the minerals. These minerals make us rocks for God’s building that the kingdom may be established, and they make us iron and brass to fight the battle to subdue the enemy.
I am sure you all are eager to know how to eat solid food, and I am burdened to share the way with you. Eating the manna is easy, and eating the Lamb is even easier. But it is not easy to eat the solid food that contains minerals. One chapter covers the eating of the Lamb and two chapters, the eating of the manna. But whole books in the Bible are devoted to the eating of the solid food with the minerals. If you want to know how to eat the solid food, you need to read the whole book of Leviticus, a book that is not easily understood. You also need to read Numbers and all the books from Deuteronomy to 1 Kings.
Once we are in the good land, we shall no longer eat manna, for our supply is the rich produce of the land. In order to eat this rich produce, we must firstly live in the good land. If we still live in the wilderness, we cannot eat the solid food. In the wilderness there is no wheat, no barley, no grapes, and no figs; there is just manna.
Secondly, we need to labor on the good land. We need to till the ground, sow the seed, water the seed, cultivate the soil and then reap the harvest. The good land in which we are living is Christ. Day by day we need to work on Christ. Morning watch, prayer, and dealing with the Lord are all aspects of working on Christ. Sometimes in morning watch we may till the ground and sow the seed; at other times we may water the seed or cultivate the soil. Do not be lazy and say, “It does not matter whether or not I have morning watch, pray, or spend time to deal with the Lord.” It makes a great deal of difference whether or not you do these things. We need to labor on Christ. We all must be diligent to work like farmers. We must till the ground, remove the weeds, cultivate the soil, water the seeds, and even kill the damaging bugs and snails.
Snails are subtle; they hide themselves under various coverings, and they mainly come out at night while we are sleeping to eat the tender herbs. Recently I was wondering why some of the plants around my house were not growing. At first I thought this was due to the lack of sunshine. Eventually I learned it was because the plants were being eaten by snails. One day I found thirty snails in a certain large plant. There are many “snails” in our Christian life. Hence, we cannot afford to sleep. If we wake up early in the morning, we shall see how much these “snails” are eating our Christian life. Taking care of these “snails” is part of laboring on Christ.
If we labor on Christ as the good land, our harvest will be rich in both crops and flocks. After we reap the harvest, we shall have wheat, barley, vines, figs, olives, and pomegranates. In addition to all the plant life, in the good land there is the animal life—the oxen, the cattle, the sheep. This is the harvest of our rich experience of Christ. As we shall see later in these messages, the top ten percent of our harvest must be kept for the Lord. In subsequent messages we shall consider in detail how to eat the solid food, the food that makes us stones, iron, and brass for the building of the temple, the establishing of the kingdom, and the defeat of the enemy.