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In Canaan the people of Israel ate the produce of the good land—Josh. 5:11-12:
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In the third stage of eating, they ate the rich supply of the good land, which constituted them further to be an overcoming people.
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The good land was a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranates, olive trees with oil, and honey, all of which typify the unsearchable riches of Christ—Deut. 8:8; Eph. 3:8.
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By enjoying the riches of the good land, the people of Israel conquered the tribes in the land, established the kingdom of God, and built up the temple as God’s dwelling place on earth—Josh. 5:11-12.
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These three stages typify the three stages of the believers’ enjoyment of Christ by eating Him—John 6:51-57; 1 Cor. 5:7-8; 10:3-4; Phil. 1:19:
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By their eating in the first two stages, the believers are energized to leave the world and are constituted with Christ as the heavenly element—John 6:51-57; 1 Cor. 5:7-8; 10:3-4.
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To reach the goal of God’s economy, we need to progress until we enter into the highest stage of eating Christ as the rich produce of the good land so that we may overcome the spiritual enemies, be built up to be God’s dwelling place, and establish God’s kingdom on earth.
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As we eat Christ as the produce of the good land, we are constituted with Him and are made the same as Christ in life, nature, and expression for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ—Eph. 4:16.
Morning Nourishment
Deut. 8:7-10 For Jehovah your God is bringing you to a good land…; a land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates; a land of olive trees with oil and of honey; a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity; you will not lack anything in it….And you shall eat and be satisfied, and you shall bless Jehovah your God for the good land which He has given you.Consider what you are eating today. Are you eating the Lamb, the manna, or the rich produce of the good land?…In your Christian life, the eating of Christ must progress from the Lamb and the manna to the solid food of the good land. You need to eat the wheat, the barley, and all the other foodstuffs that have the minerals to make you strong stones, iron, and copper for God’s building and for the fighting of the battle. (CWWL, 1977, vol. 1, “The Kernel of the Bible,” p. 206)
Today’s Reading
We must build the temple and fight the battle so that God may have the kingdom. This is what God needs today. The tabernacle is not adequate. God needs a temple with a city in a kingdom with the kingship and the fighting capability. The Lamb energizes us to leave Egypt, and the manna nourishes us and constitutes us with the heavenly element. Although both of these items are good, they are not good for fighting. No one would fight a battle with a lamb or with manna. We need solid food with minerals in it. We need to be rocks, not wafers. We need weapons made out of iron and copper. Oh, we need stones, iron, and copper to build up the temple, to establish the kingdom, to fight the battle, and to defeat the enemy!…As His people eat the solid food and take in the minerals that make them stones, iron, and copper, God has His kingdom.These minerals make us rocks for God’s building so that the kingdom may be established, and they make us iron and copper to fight the battle to subdue the enemy. It is not easy to eat the solid food that contains minerals. One chapter [cf. Exo. 12] covers the eating of the Lamb, and two chapters [cf. Exo. 16; John 6:22-71], the eating of the manna. But whole books in the Bible are devoted to the eating of the solid food with the minerals. If you want to know how to eat the solid food, you need to read…Leviticus,…Numbers, and all the books from Deuteronomy to 1 Kings. Once we are in the good land, we shall no longer eat manna, for our supply is the rich produce of the land. In order to eat this rich produce, we must first live in the good land…. In the wilderness there is no wheat, no barley, no grapes, and no figs; there is just manna.
Second, we need to labor on the good land. We need to till the ground, sow the seed, water the seed, cultivate the soil, and then reap the harvest. The good land in which we are living is Christ. DAY by day we need to work on Christ. Morning watch, prayer, and dealing with the Lord are all aspects of working on Christ. Sometimes in morning watch we may till the ground and sow the seed; at other times we may water the seed or cultivate the soil. Do not be lazy and say, “It does not matter whether or not I have morning watch, pray, or spend time to deal with the Lord.” It makes a great deal of difference whether or not you do these things. We need to labor on Christ. We all must be diligent to work like farmers. We must till the ground, remove the weeds, cultivate the soil, water the seeds, and even kill the damaging bugs and snails.
If we labor on Christ as the good land, our harvest will be rich in both crops and flocks. After we reap the harvest, we shall have wheat, barley, vines, figs, olives, and pomegranates. In addition to all the plant life, in the good land there is the animal life—the oxen, the cattle, and the sheep. This is the harvest of our rich experience of Christ. (CWWL, 1977, vol. 1, “The Kernel of the Bible,” pp. 206-208)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1977, vol. 1, “The Kernel of the Bible,” chs. 4-5; Life-study of 1 Corinthians, msg. 50; CWWL, 1961-1962, vol. 4, “The All-inclusive Christ,” ch. 14