In order to eat Christ as the solid food, as the produce of the good land, we must firstly have a harvest. The Lord has given us the land and the seed, and the rain is coming; however, He cannot give us a harvest. For this, we need to do the work of farming. Otherwise, we cannot grow Christ, and there will be no harvest. We have seen that manna comes altogether from the Lord’s side. He gives it, and we gather it and eat it. The eating of the solid food of the good land, however, is different. Although the seed and the land have been given, and although the rain has been promised, there will be no harvest unless we work the land.
It is the last stage of eating, the eating of the solid food in the good land, that constitutes the genuine worship of God. If we do not have a harvest, we not only have nothing to eat, but also nothing with which to worship our God. Both our daily living and our worship of God depend upon eating the harvest. Therefore, the harvest is crucial. We must farm the land and grow Christ so that we may have a harvest.
To have the harvest is simply to have something to eat. We do not yet have the way to eat it. Thus, after we have reaped the harvest, we must still learn how to eat the produce. According to our natural concept, once we have the harvest, we may eat it in any way, at any place, and at any time we choose. But according to the divine revelation in the Bible, there are some restrictions pertaining to the eating of the produce of the good land. Hence, we need to be very careful about this matter.
Some may say that because these restrictions are an Old Testament matter, they have nothing to do with us, the New Testament believers. I beg those who hold this view to change their mind. All Scripture was written for our benefit (Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 10:6, 11). The spiritual things concerning Christ and the church are so mysterious and abstract that, in addition to the plain words in the New Testament, God in His wisdom has given us the pictures in the Old Testament. These pictures portray the spiritual things revealed in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul allegorized the Old Testament. For instance, he allegorized the crossing of the Red Sea, the eating of the manna, and the drinking of the water that flowed from the rock (1 Cor. 10:2-4). According to Paul’s allegorization, the crossing of the Red Sea was baptism, and both the manna and the rock were Christ. If Paul had had the opportunity, he probably would have allegorized every item in the Old Testament. In order to understand the New Testament adequately, we must consider the figures found in the Old Testament. Take the example of the golden lampstands in Revelation 1. If we would understand the significance of these lampstands, we must consider the first mention of the golden lampstand, the lampstand in Exodus 25.
The entire history of the children of Israel was a type. The falling away of Israel into Babylon was a type, an allegory, of the fallen church, called the great Babylon. In Revelation 17 the Roman Catholic Church is called Babylon the Great. In like manner, the regulations concerning the eating of the harvest are all allegories, types, and shadows. Hence, they are full of meaning for us today.
Deuteronomy 12:17 and 18 say, “Thou mayest not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy corn, or of thy wine, or of thy oil, or the firstlings of thy herds or of thy flock, nor any of thy vows which thou vowest, nor thy freewill offerings, or heave offering of thine hand: but thou must eat them before the Lord thy God in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose.” In these verses the Lord seemed to be saying, “Tell the children of Israel that, when they enter into the good land and reap the harvest, they must set aside one tenth of the harvest. They have no right to eat this in the place of their choice. At the time of the feast, they must bring this top tenth to the place I have chosen for My name and for My habitation. This will be the unique place, and they all must bring the top tenth of their produce to that place.” If the children of Israel had eaten the top tenth of the harvest in any other place, it would have been a serious sin in the eyes of the Lord. If they had done so, it would have meant that they were doing what was right in their own eyes (Deut. 12:8). They had to learn to do what was right in the eyes of the Lord. The Lord commanded them, saying, “Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest: but in the place which the Lord shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee” (Deut. 12:13-14). The Lord seemed to be saying, “Don’t eat the tithe in the place of your choice—eat it in the place I have chosen.”