For the sake of His economy, God is very concerned about man’s eating. Immediately after God created man, He did not give him a list of things to do and not to do. Instead, He placed him in front of the tree of life and charged him concerning his eating, saying, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it” (Gen. 2:16-17). God did not command man to love his wife or to worship and serve God. Rather, He strongly charged him to be careful about his eating. God seemed to say, “If your eating is proper, everything will be all right. But if you eat improperly, you will die. Eating is a matter of life and death.” If man eats properly, he will have the life he needs.
After man had fallen, God came in to save him. In His salvation God also charged man to eat, this time to eat the lamb, the unleavened bread, and the bitter herbs (Exo. 12:1-10). If we would be saved, we must eat the Lamb with the unleavened bread and the bitter herbs. Our being saved depends upon our eating of Christ. By eating Christ as the Lamb, the unleavened bread, and the bitter herbs, we are redeemed, delivered, and purified. After we have been redeemed from God’s judgment and delivered from the bondage to the world, we must journey through the wilderness. In order for God’s purpose to be accomplished, He charged the children of Israel to eat manna as they were journeying in the wilderness. Thus, God charged man to eat the tree of life, to eat the lamb, and to eat the manna. By eating Christ as the Lamb and as the manna, we are saved, we follow Him in the wilderness for the fulfillment of His purpose, and we become God’s dwelling place on earth.
The matter of eating is also related to the temple established in the good land. If you read Deuteronomy 12 carefully, you will see that, as the children of Israel were about to enter the good land, God charged them with respect to their eating. The children of Israel were told to “eat before the Lord” in the place which the Lord had chosen out of all their tribes to put His name there (Deut. 12:7, 5). The eating mentioned in Deuteronomy 12, 14, 15, and 16 is related to the worship of God. In order to have the proper worship of God, we must eat. According to the natural, religious concept, worshipping God depends upon doing the right thing. This concept is wrong. In religion it is a matter of doing, but in God’s economy it is a matter of eating. Only by eating properly can we worship God and fulfill His purpose. Therefore, when the children of Israel were about to enter the good land, God commanded them to take care of their eating. By eating they worshipped God, by eating they defeated the enemy, by eating they built the temple, and by eating they brought in the kingdom of God. For the children of Israel, eating was everything. Eating is the way.
Do you want to worship God? Then you must eat Jesus. Do you want to accomplish God’s purpose to build up His temple? Then you must eat Jesus. Do you want to defeat God’s enemy and bring true peace to God’s people? Then you must eat Jesus. If we want to bring in the kingdom of God, we need to eat the Lord. In the last stage of eating, the eating in the good land, all the enemies are defeated, the ground is gained, God’s temple is built, and the kingdom of God is established.
The Christ we eat in this last stage must be greater than the Lamb or the manna; He must be the rich produce of the good land. Christ is a rich, spacious land, producing many kinds of food and minerals. The Lamb and the manna cannot compare with the good land. In our experience, Christ is firstly the Lamb, then the manna, and ultimately the good land. No doubt, you all are enjoying Christ. But what kind of Christ are you enjoying? Are you enjoying the Christ as the Lamb, the manna, or as the land? Some of us are enjoying Him only as the Lamb, some others also as the manna, and others even as the land.
Like a large family, the church should offer three diets: one for the babies, one for the strong, and one for the old ones. For the fulfillment of God’s purpose, we should neither be babies, nor should we be old. We need to be mature, but we should not be old. One day in the church in Anaheim I declared that there is no retirement in the church life. In the church life we have growth and maturity, but we do not have retirement. Although I am seventy-two, I think of myself as twenty-two because I daily eat the produce of the good land. In the early years I ate a great deal of Lamb and manna. Now I eat wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, and olives. I also enjoy Christ as the animal life. This is the reason I am strong with Christ.