REMEMBERING THE LORD BY EATING AND DRINKING HIM
Many of us have been taught that in the Lord’s table meeting we should remember the Lord by exercising our mind to recall how the Lord was the One on the throne in the heavens, how one day He became a little child born in a manger, how He lived in a carpenter’s home, how He came out to carry out His ministry, how He was persecuted, arrested, tested, sentenced, and brought to Calvary, and how He was put on the cross. I had this kind of remembrance many times when I was young.
However, in Matthew 26:26 the Lord said, “Take, eat; this is My body,” and in Luke 22:19 He said, “This is My body which is being given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way He spoke of the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant established in My blood; this do, as often as you drink it, unto the remembrance of Me” (1 Cor. 11:25). What is the way to remember the Lord? The proper remembrance of the Lord is not to recall Him but to take Him in. God’s concept is that we must eat Him.
GOD IN CHRIST AS OUR FOOD REVEALED IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
The Passover Lamb
God in Christ to be our life in the form of food is revealed, typified, and prefigured in many ways in the Old Testament. For instance, at the time of the Passover there was not only the sprinkled blood; there was also the meat of the lamb for the people to eat with the unleavened bread (Exo. 12:3-11). Many in Christianity pay their full attention to the sprinkling of the blood, but they neglect the eating of the lamb. We must realize that the sprinkling of the blood is for the eating of the lamb. The sprinkling of the blood upon the doorposts of the children of Israel was a covering, but at the time that they were to leave Egypt, they needed food to sustain them. Under the covering of the blood they could eat the meat of the lamb so that they would be prepared to walk out of Egypt.
The lamb of the Passover was a type of Christ (1 Cor. 5:7). Today Jesus is our Passover Lamb. His blood was sprinkled for us (1 Pet. 1:2), and He Himself is good for food. When we believe into the Lord Jesus, we eat Him under the covering of His blood. Today Christianity preaches the sprinkling of the blood yet neglects the matter of eating Jesus. Under the sprinkling of the blood we need the eating of Jesus. Christians who have been saved for many years may never have realized that their need is to eat Jesus. We all need to eat Jesus.
Manna
After the people came out of Egypt, they entered into the wilderness and wandered for forty years. Day by day they ate manna (Exo. 16:35). Many Christians know that manna is a type of Christ, but when I was in Christianity I never heard anyone say that we have to eat Jesus day by day. Some did say that we have to take the word from the Bible as our daily portion. This is not bad, but it is not good enough. We need to realize that manna is a type not only of the word as our daily portion; manna is Jesus Himself. Jesus is our daily food, our daily portion.
The Good Land
After the people entered into the good land and they ate of the rich produce of the land, the manna ceased (Josh. 5:12). The good land is Christ (Col. 1:12; Eph. 3:8). I hope that you all will read The All-inclusive Christ, published by Living Stream Ministry. It helps us to see that Christ today is the rich land, flowing with milk and honey. He is so rich, but we must labor on Him.
Manna is wonderful, but manna has an aspect which is not so good: God never asked His people to worship Him with manna. Manna was good but it could not constitute a proper worship to God. However, God did ask His people to worship Him with all the rich produce of the good land (Deut. 12:11). They had to bring all the offerings—the cattle, the firstborn ones, and the top produce of the good land—to God as their worship.
By the foregoing word we can realize that beginning from Genesis 1 there is always the concept of eating: eating the tree of life, eating the manna, and eating the rich produce of the good land.
(Enjoying the Riches of Christ for the Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ, Chapter 5, by Witness Lee)
