The Final Events.
Life from the Word.
Part Forty in a Series.
https://www.secondcoming.org/blog/
The Jews found it difficult to believe the words of Christ, that He would give them Himself to eat. They said, “How can this man give us flesh to eat?”
Jesus repeated the statement still more emphatically and then said: “It is the Spirit that quickens, the flesh profits nothing; the words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life.”
If each one of them could have eaten the flesh of Christ as He stood there, and the flesh which they ate had been replaced, so that they could continue to eat of it, taking it into their stomachs, and assimilating it, they would have received no lasting benefit from it. No spiritual good would have come to them.
That was what they had already done, when they ate of the bread which came from the life that was in His body; but they had not profited by it. “The flesh profits nothing, the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life.” John 6: 63
“By the word of the Lord where the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth”. Psalms 36:6
He spoke and said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding seed after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth; and it was so.” Genesis 1:11.
All plant life is but the manifestation of the life of the word of the Lord. The life that was in His word caused the corn to grow in the beginning and that same life has caused it to grow ever since. Therefore, all the food that men have to eat is that which comes from the word of God.
We cannot see the life in a grain of wheat, but when we eat the bread that is made from it, we experience it. But the physical strength which we receive from the food is but the working of the word of the Lord. If we do not recognize and acknowledge God in this, we get nothing but physical strength; but if and everything we see and acknowledge God, we receive of his life of righteousness. He says: “In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.” Proverbs 3: 6
When God directs our paths, those ways will be right; for “as for God, His way is perfect.” Psalms 18:30. The people who ate of the loaves in the desert, did not believe the Lord, and did not recognize His life, and so they derived no spiritual life from it.
Sadly, so it was with the children of Israel in the desert. “They believed not in God and trusted not in His salvation; though He had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven, and had rained down upon them manna to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.” Psalm 78: 22-24.
The Final Events will end with the splendor of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ also known as the Parousia. The Signs of Parousia are detailed in the Final Events Blog series and emphasize the Imminent Return and Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and the Love of the Father for all mankind.
Although they were indeed feeding from the life of Christ, they received no spiritual life, because of their blind unbelief. In the giving of the manna, God was giving the same lesson that Christ gave the multitude of five thousand in the desert, namely, that His word is life, and that “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”
The manna was the test of their loyalty to the law of God, and especially to the Sabbath as the seal of that law.
But in the manna they were taking in Christ, if they had only realized it. Therefore, we are to learn that if we but allow Christ to dwell in our hearts by faith in His word, -not a part only in heart, but the whole, He will bring into our lives the keeping of the whole law, including the Sabbath.
Every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God is necessary for our lives.
It is customary among Christians to return thanks whenever they eat. There is just as much reason for giving thanks when we drink, or when we receive any other of God’s blessings.
“In everything give thanks; For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
Sadly, giving thanks is so often a mere form. It is often done because it has become the custom and not from the heart. What does it really mean?
Just this: That our food and drink, and everything necessary for our life, comes from God. It is all a manifestation of His love for us. But since “God is love”, the manifestation of His love is but the manifestation of His life. In partaking of the bounties of His love, we are partaking of Him.
Now if we continually recognize this, and acknowledge it, whether we eat, or drink, or whatsoever we do, all will be done to the glory of God. We shall live as in His immediate presence. Knowing that His life is righteousness, and that His word is his life, our thanks for food will be thanks for His word.
Who cannot see that such a life must necessarily be a righteous life? With our daily food we should be feeding upon Christ, and so of course upon His righteousness. This is what God wishes us to learn from the account of the giving of the manna. It was their life, and had they recognized Christ in it, their life would have been the righteousness of the law. But our daily food comes from God just as surely as theirs did.
May God and His Spirit help us, to learn from what the Israelites and Jews neglected.
The Final Events.
Life from the Word.
Part Forty in a Series.
https://www.secondcoming.org/blog/
The Final Events will end with the splendor of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ also known as the Parousia. The Signs of Parousia are detailed in the Final Events Blog series and emphasize the Imminent Return and Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and the Love of the Father for all mankind.
