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In order to know the real meaning of eating in Leviticus 11, we need to know the significance of eating:
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To eat is to contact things outside of us that could affect us inside (vv. 1-23):
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Eating is not merely contacting something but also receiving something into us (Jer. 15:16).
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Once a thing is received into us, that thing can be digested inside to become our constituent, that is, our being, our constitution.
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We all are a constitution of the food that we eat and digest; what we digest becomes our constitution (John 6:53-57).
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Taking in the Lord to digest and assimilate Him so that He may become life to us is signified by our eating the bread of the Lord's table (vv. 50-51, 57; Mark 14:22):
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Eating the bread of the Lord's table indicates that the Lord comes into us as our life supply, and then the bread becomes us, the food becomes us, and we become the bread (1 Cor. 10:17).
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There is not only an organic union between us and the food that we eat, digest, and assimilate; we are also mingled with the food that we assimilate into us:
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In a similar way, when we take Christ as our food, we are mingled with Him (John 6:53-57).
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Eating, digesting, and assimilating food involve an intrinsic mingling of the food with our being; eating, digesting, and assimilating also involve a becoming, for the food that we assimilate becomes our very being (Ezek. 3:1-3; John 6:57, 63).
Morning Nourishment
Mark 14:22 And as they were eating, He took bread and blessed it, and He broke it and gave it to them, and said, Take; this is My body.1 Cor. 10:17 Seeing that there is one bread, we who are many are one Body; for we all partake of the one bread.
The first thing we need to consider in relation to discernment in diet is the significance of eating. To know this significance is to know the real meaning of eating in Leviticus 11.
To eat is to contact the things outside of us that could affect us inside. This especially refers to our contacting of people. When we...contact something that is outside of us,...[it] has nothing to do with us. However, if we eat that thing, it can affect us inside. In Leviticus 11 the things we eat signify people, and eating signifies our contacting of people. (Life-study of Leviticus, pp. 313-314)
Today's Reading
To eat is not merely to contact something but also to receive something into us. Once a thing is received into us, that thing can be digested inside to become our constituent, that is, our being, our constitution. We all are a constitution of the food we eat and digest. Eventually, what we digest becomes us; it becomes our very constitution. This indicates that contacting people is an important matter. If we intend to live a holy life as required by the holy God, we need to be careful about our contact with people. Our contact with certain kinds of people can cause us to be reconstituted and thus make us another kind of person. Whatever we contact we will receive, and whatever we receive will reconstitute us, making us a different kind of person from what we are now. (Life-study of Leviticus, p. 314)Taking in the Lord to digest and assimilate Him that He may become life to us is signified by the eating of the loaf on the table. Whenever we come to the Lord's table, we see a loaf. That loaf is not merely for display; it is for us to eat. When the
Lord Jesus instituted His supper, "He took bread and blessed it, and He broke it and gave it to them, and said, Take; this is My body" (Mark 14:22).
The bread on the table is not for us to analyze or merely think about; the bread is for us to take in, to eat, as our life supply. This bread should be digested and assimilated by us to become our very being. The significance of this is profound.
Eating the bread of the Lord's table indicates that the Lord comes into us as our life supply and then actually becomes us. If we consider the matter of eating, we shall realize that the food we eat eventually becomes us. We may say not only that the food becomes us, but even that we become the food. Not only is there an organic union between us and the food we eat, digest, and assimilate; we are mingled with the food we assimilate into us.
It is a serious mistake to say that mingling is not scriptural. How could anyone reasonably deny the fact that we are mingled with the food we eat, digest, and assimilate? In fact, assimilating food into our being goes beyond mingling. We do not have the words to describe this. However, we do know that we are mingled in a deep way with the food we eat. In a similar way, when we take in the Triune God as our food, we are truly mingled with Him. In order for the food we eat to become our life, it must be mingled with us. The principle is the same with taking in the Triune God as our food.
We have pointed out that eating food involves something much more than an organic union between us and the food. Actually, eating, digesting, and assimilating food involve an intrinsic mingling of the food with our being. What we eat actually becomes part of us. Hence, this is not only a mingling; it is also a becoming. The food we digest and assimilate becomes part of our very being. For this reason, after we have thoroughly digested and assimilated our food, it is impossible for it to be located within us, because it has become a part of us. We use this matter of assimilating food to illustrate the deep significance of eating the bread of the Lord's table. (Life-study of Mark, pp. 383-385)
Further Reading: Life-study of Leviticus, msg. 36; Life-study of Mark, msg. 44