Exodus, Message 9: The Change of Diet to the Heavenly Christ as the Unique Food for God’s People

Crystallization-Study of Exodus, Message 9:

"The Change of Diet to the Heavenly Christ as the unique Food for God’s People"

Exodus 16 is not less important than Exodus 12 and 14, in terms of spiritual implications. Exodus 12 is about the Passover, typifying Christ as our Passover for our redemption, and Exodus 14 is about crossing of the Red Sea, typifying the experience of burial and resurrection with Christ through the baptism. Of course, these two are very precious experiences for all the believers. We are saved from God's judgement and condemnation. We are delivered from the world and the power of Satan. However,these are not all the experiences God wants us to have in our salvation. To gain full experiences of salvation, we also need the experience of Exodus 16. This event reveals a picture of twofold intention of our salvation: God wants to take the world out of us, and reconstitute us with His life.

1. God exposes Egyptian constitutions of His people and ‎takes Egypt out of them.

3 And the children of Israel said to them, "Oh, that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."
4 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not." (Exodus 16:3-4 NKJV)

Through the experiences of Exodus 12 and 14, the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt and was freed from the power of Pharaoh. However, the people had already been Egyptianised. Outwardly, they had been relocated to the wilderness where they had freedom to worship God and build up God's dwelling place. But inwardly, they were still full of Egyptian constitutions. God had taken His people out of Egypt. Now God was going to take Egypt out of His people. 

The children of Israel brought foods from Egypt. And now the foods were finished. God purposely allowed them to get hungry, so that their worldly desires and lusts would be exposed. God really wanted them to trust in Him, instead of lusting for any other things. He wanted them to have appetite for Him alone. 

The story also tells us that God's intention of saving His people was that He would be everything to them and do everything for them.

Let us learn from the story. God has done everything for our redemption. Christ died for us once for all. He wants to be everything to us and do everything for us.

Knowing this, are we still lusting for anything other than Christ, or are we putting our trust in Him in any situation? What is our appetite for? May our appetite be for Him alone!

The Lord Jesus promises that if our appetite is for His kingdom and His righteousness, He will surely take care of our physical needs. 

"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." (Matthew 6:33 NKJV) 

The apostle Paul is a very good example. He learned to be content in everything. His appetite was only for the Lord. He never murmured, but fully trusted in God in any situation.

10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again; though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity.
11 Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content:
12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:10-13 NKJV)

2. To reconstitute them by changing their diet.  

14 And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground.
15 So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, "This is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat. (Exodus 16:14-15 NKJV)

 Relocation from Egypt is not enough. God needed His people to have the experience of reconstitution as well. That is why He provided manna for them. As dieticians say, we are what we eat, God was going to transform worldly people into heavenly people by feeding them with the heavenly food (1 Corinthians 10:3).

Like the children of Israel, God does want to reconstitute us with the real Manna, Jesus Christ. Manna is just a shadow. Christ is the reality of it. He is the bread from heaven and bread of life. And if we feed on Him, we will live because of Him. He is our life and our life supply. The more we eat Him, the more we become heavenly like Him.

32 Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." (John 6:32-33 NKJV)

35 And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst." (John 6:35 NKJV) 

57 "As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.
58 This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever." (John 6:57-58 NKJV) 

One effective way of feeding on Jesus is meditating God's Word. Meditating the Word is not just reading the Bible like a textbook. It is thinking over the Scriptures again and again, and praying it back to Him. The Word is the sword of the Spirit, and we are to employing it by means of all prayer and petition.  

And receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God, By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit and watching unto this in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints. (Ephesians 6:17-18 Recovery Version) 

Are you hungry? Would you like to come to Jesus and enjoy feeding on Him now? Let us daily enjoy eating this Manna.

Thirayost Nimmanon (Tony)

Further reading

• The Holy Word for Morning Revival: Crystallization-Study of Exodus, week 9.
• Life Study of Exodus, messages 32-39.

  

Exodus, Message 8.2: The Continual War with Amalek

Crystallization-Study of Exodus, Message 8.2:

"The Continual War with Amalek"

The book of Exodus can be broadly divided into 2 parts. Chapters 1-17 are about God's dealing with enemies, whereas chapters 18-40 focus on the building up of tabernacle, God's dwelling place on the earth. 

In previous chapters, God delivered His children from the first 2 enemies, Pharaoh and Egyptians, which signify Satan and the world respectively. Here in chapter 17, God was going to deal with the last enemy before the tabernacle would be built up. This fight was going to be different, because it was in fact the first battle that the children of Israel had ever fought.

8 Now Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim.
9 And Moses said to Joshua, “Choose us some men and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.”
10 So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.
11 And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.
12 But Moses’ hands became heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.
13 So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this for a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.”
15 And Moses built an altar and called its name, The-Lord-Is-My-Banner;
16 for he said, “Because the Lord has sworn: the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”
(Exodus 17:8-16 NKJV)

Amalek typifies the flesh, our inner and life-long enemy.

The journey in the wilderness continued on. Since they left Elim, they had received wonderful provisions from the Lord. God miraculously provided them manna and water. They had been enjoying the provision of the Lord. And then, Amalekites came out to fight with them. Previously, the Lord had fought for them. At the Red Sea, all they had to do was walk through the sea on the dry ground. They did not have to fight with the Egyptian army by themselves. But now, they as the army of God had to engage in the warfare.

In typology, the manna and the smitten rock that supplied water for the people both represent Christ as our life supply (John 6:48-51; 1 Corinthians 10:4). Christ is the bread of life and the water of life. We have had abundant life supply from Christ. Not until we have had the enjoyment of daily eating and drinking of Christ do we have enough strength to fight against our inner enemy, the flesh, which is typified by the Amalekites. On the contrary, if we do not have continual fellowship with Christ, we will surely be defeated by this strong enemy. In fact, the flesh will not even bother coming to fight with us, because we submit ourselves to it already when we are walking in the flesh, not in the Spirit.

In contrast to sin, Satan and the world, the flesh is our inner and subjective enemy. We have been redeemed from our sin by the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross for us, as typified by the Passover. We have been delivered from Satan and the world through the process of getting out of the world and baptism, as typified by the exodus from Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea. Fighting against these enemies seems not so difficult compared to the flesh, because they are the enemies without, whereas the flesh is the enemy within. As the war between the children of Israel and the Amalekites would continue from generation to generation (Exodus 17:16), our fighting with the flesh is also a life-long process.

What is the flesh?

Flesh is simply the practical living out of our old man with its fallen nature. It is directly against Grace, which is God Himself coming into us as our life supply and enjoyment. Grace is God doing everything for us, in us and through us. Everything we do is flesh, whereas everything God does is grace. To reject Grace is to reject God. And we do need grace to overcome our flesh.

Why is the flesh so bad?

Of course, not all the works of the flesh look bad. Some of them seem to be very good. Even humility, love and kindness can be the works of the flesh if we do them with our own efforts. However, God cannot use them to accomplish His eternal purpose. The flesh, even good flesh, tries its hardest to frustrate us from enjoying the Lord, following Him, participating with Him in the building up of His Habitation on the earth and bringing in His kingdom.

The tabernacle could not be built up until Amalek had been defeated. Likewise, God's dwelling place cannot be built up until the flesh has been seriously dealt with. Sadly, the flesh has severely damaged the church throughout history. It has caused divisions and confusions among the believers. That is why dealing with the flesh is such a serious matter.

How can we defeat the flesh?

Now let us learn the lessons about how we can defeat the flesh from this wonderful story.

1. We must engage in the warfare.

Of course, God was able to wipe out Amalek in a millisecond by Himself. But that was not His way of doing it. He would like to do it through His people, with the leading of Joshua. It seemed to be impossible for them to win, as the children of Israel were not a strong army, having had no fighting experience. But with God, they surely could.

Like Joshua, we must fight the battle against our flesh. St Augustine noted, "Without God we cannot; without us, He will not." It is God's ordained way to fight against our flesh through us. He is not going to do it without our participation. Even though we are weak and our flesh is so strong, we know we will win the battle with God's help. We just need to humbly admit that we cannot do anything by ourselves, and totally depend upon Christ, knowing He is always by our side and always for us. He will surely help us win the battle when we engage in the warfare against His enemies for His name.

2. We must have prayer lives.

While Joshua was fighting against Amalek, Moses went up to the mountain to pray.

On the one hand, Moses represents Christ as our intercessor. He is now at the right hand of God interceding for us (Romans 8:34). On the other hand, Moses also represents us. To win the battle, we need to pray.

In the story, we see that it was impossible for Moses to raise His praying hand all the day. He needed help from His companions - Aaron and Hur. Furthermore, he needed a stone to sit upon. Aaron, Hur and the stone were needed for Moses' praying ministry, which was the key to the victory over Amalek.

Christ's prayer life is perfect. He is the only one who can pray unceasingly. He does not need any help. But we definitely do, because our praying hands are so easy to become heavy. God commands us to pray "unceasingly," but how can we do that? We need Aaron, Hur and the stone to support our prayer life. Without these supports, we can never have a successful unceasing prayer life, the key to win the battle against our flesh. What do these 3 represent?

Aaron obviously represents priesthood. To have Aaron is to have a continuous contact with the Lord. We must fellowship with Him regularly through Christ, our Mediator.

Hur came from the tribe of Judah. He therefore represents kingship. To have Hur is to be submissively obedient to the kingship of the Lord. A little disobedience can destroy our life. Even though we can never be 100% sinless in this life, we must seriously deal with all the sins that are exposed by the Spirit to our mind.

The stone/rock definitely represents Christ, our solid foundation, upon whom we rest. We are so easy to get weary. And Christ invites everyone to come to Him and have rest. We rest while we are praying.

 Thirayost Nimmanon (Tony)

Further reading

• The Holy Word for Morning Revival: Crystallization-Study of Exodus, week 8.
• Life Study of Exodus, messages 29, 47-49.