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God wants to change our diet to a diet of Christ as the real manna sent by God the Father for God's chosen people to be reconstituted with Christ and to live because of Christ to become God's dwelling place—Exo. 16:1-36:
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Although God's people had been brought out of Egypt into the wilderness of separation, they were still constituted with the element of Egypt, signifying the world; God's intention was to change their element by changing their diet in order to change the nature of His people; He wanted to change their being, their very constitution, to make them a heavenly people constituted and transformed with the heavenly Christ.
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For forty years God gave the children of Israel nothing to eat but manna (v. 35; Num. 11:6); this shows that God's intention in His salvation is to work Himself into the believers in Christ and to change their constitution by feeding them with Christ as their unique heavenly food, thereby qualifying them to build up the church as God's dwelling place; in fact, after being reconstituted with Christ, the believers themselves become the dwelling place of God—cf. 1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16; 1 Tim. 3:15; Heb. 3:6; Rev. 21:2-3.
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God's way to deal with the flesh of His people is to put it aside and not to feed it; for this reason He changes the diet of His people and sends them food that their flesh does not like; the mixed multitude and the people of Israel both abhorred and were bored of the heavenly taste of manna and lusted for the worldly taste of the Egyptian food—Num. 11:4-9; 21:5.
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The Egyptian diet denotes all the things that we desire to feed on in order to find satisfaction; America is the leading country with respect to the Egyptian diet, the worldly entertainment; whatever we desire, hunger, and thirst after is the diet according to which our being has been constituted.
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On the one hand, the heavenly manna nourishes us and heals us; on the other hand, it eliminates the negative things in us.
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How marvelous it was that God gave the people nothing except manna; this indicates that He gave them nothing except Christ; may the Lord take away the desire and hunger for anything other than Christ!
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By feeding on manna, God's people eventually became manna; our constitution must be rearranged through the eating of Christ so that the church as the dwelling place of God may be built up; may the Lord change our diet so that we may be reconstituted with Christ and become God's dwelling place—Matt. 16:18.
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Along with the change of diet, we need a change of appetite; the Lord Jesus said,”Work not for the food which perishes, but for the food which abides unto eternal life”—John 6:27:
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By food, we mean anything that we take into us for our satisfaction; Christ Himself is the only food that does not perish; this food abides unto eternal life.
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Whatever satisfies, strengthens, and sustains us is our food; the unique food that we take for our sustenance, strength, and satisfaction must be Christ alone.
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All those who have been regenerated need to change their diet for a change of appetite; God's intention is to cut off the worldly diet and to limit us to a diet of heavenly food, which is Christ.
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We all should be able to say,”The Lord is the only One who satisfies me. Apart from Him, I have no satisfaction. I am daily strengthened and sustained by Christ. He is the only food on which I rely.”
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The unique food that we take for our sustenance, strength, and satisfaction must be Christ, and the one unique ministry in the New Testament conveys Christ as the unique food for God's people—Num. 11:5-6; cf. Acts 1:17, 25; 2 Cor. 4:1; 1 Tim. 1:12; 2 Cor. 3:6.
Morning Nourishment
Exo. 16:35 And the children of Israel ate the manna forty years, until they came to inhabitable land;…until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.Num. 11:6 But now our appetite has gone; there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.
John 6:51 I am the living bread which came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever…
According to God's economy, we should live on Christ and on Christ alone. Christ should be our unique diet, and we should live by Him. We should not seek to live on any other food. Whatever satisfies, strengthens, and sustains us is our food. The unique food we take for our sustenance, strength, and satisfaction must be Christ. However, many believers do not take Christ as their unique source of satisfaction, strength, and sustenance. Instead, they are trying to be satisfied, sustained, and strengthened by other things. Because God wants us to live on Christ, we should be sustained, strengthened, and satisfied by Christ alone.
God wants to change our diet. His intention is to cut off the worldly diet and to limit us to a diet of heavenly food, which is Christ. Because terms such as temptation and loving the world have been used in a light way in Christianity, I prefer not to use them in speaking of the divine revelation in Exodus 16. I wish to inquire concerning your diet. On what are you living day by day? What do you take in to satisfy, sustain, and strengthen you? We all must face these questions and answer them. We all should be able to say,”The Lord is the only One who satisfies me. Apart from Him, I have no satisfaction. I am daily strengthened and sustained by Christ. He is the only food on which I rely.” (Life-study of Exodus, p. 418)
Today's Reading
The people in the world, however, live by many different kinds of foods, …things such as education, sports, and amusements. Just as there are supermarkets for physical groceries, there are also psychological and religious supermarkets for psychological and religious groceries….Before we were saved, we were in Egypt enjoying the Egyptian diet with all the other unsaved people. But we have been saved and have made our exodus out of Egypt. Now God intends to change our diet. However, we may still desire to sit by the fleshpots in Egypt, to feed on cucumbers, melons, onions, leeks, and garlic, or to enjoy fish from the Nile. Therefore, we face the problem of having more than one element in our diet. We also have the problem of living on many things other than Christ. For example, although I encourage the young people to get a good education, I must remind them not to live on education. Education should not become our diet. From the time I was saved at the age of nineteen, Christ has been my satisfying food. I have obtained certain good things, but none of these things has satisfied me even once.The Christ who is our food is the Christ who has become subjective to us. He is the processed God indwelling our spirit as the all-inclusive Spirit. On the one hand, Christ is in heaven as the Lord of all; on the other hand, He is dwelling in our spirit as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit… We fellowship with the Spirit in our spirit….He is within us subjectively! The main purpose for His being so subjective to us is that He may be our food, our life supply. Anything which is to be our food and life supply must be something that can enter into us and then be assimilated by us. It must be taken in and become part of the very tissue and fiber of our being…. Whenever we eat a certain food, we join ourselves to that food.
For example, when I eat fish for dinner, I join myself to the fish. In the same principle, when we eat Christ as our real food, we are joined to Him and become one spirit with Him [cf. 1 Cor. 6:17]. Hence, the Christ who is subjective to us, to whom we are joined and with whom we are one spirit, is our food, our heavenly manna. Feeding on Christ and living by Him should not be an occasional practice. Rather, it should be the way we live twenty-four hours a day. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 417-419)
Further Reading: Life-study of Exodus, msg. 35