FOOD
Terry W Lock
John 6: 31-33
Judges 6: 11-14
1 Kings 17: 2-10 (to “went to Zarephath”)
I have been thinking a little bit about this matter of food, food that God provides, food that is given freely and food that is given with reason.
Here in John 6 is one of the most remarkable things, because it is food that is given by the hand of God and the Lord is speaking here of Himself. That, of course, is the best food. So the Lord is speaking here to these persons who were speaking about what had happened historically in relation to the food that had come to the people while they were going through the wilderness, before they got to the Jordan. In all of those forty years they were provided with food by the hand of God, and they were provided with drink by the hand of God. These persons were living on that historical fact, that they had been given that food; but food is not historical. Food is present; food is now. If you do not eat food today or tomorrow and you do not eat it for the next two or three weeks you will die; food is for the present.
So these persons were speaking about what God had provided historically. Jesus speaks about what God provides at present, and that is a wonderful thing. They said, “Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, He gave them bread out of heaven to eat. Jesus therefore said to them, Verily, verily, I say to you, It is not Moses that has given you the bread out of heaven; but my Father gives you the true bread out of heaven”. What a wonderful thing that is. Beloved brethren, in any measure, whatever your appetite, whatever your desire, be it great or small, to feed on something of Jesus is wonderful. It builds up your soul; it sustains your spirit and sets you for heaven.
Now maybe you do not have a great desire, but I can say that in my life I have learned that it is good to create that desire, for God loves to give you the true Bread out of heaven, to give you something of Christ: something for your own soul; something which will bear eternal fruit for God and for you. So that is a most remarkable thing. We cannot live on things that are merely historical. Quite often we look, and rightly so, at ministry that has gone before, but the true Bread that comes down out of heaven is current. That does not set aside what has gone before, but you need to feed on what is coming now. And that is important.
There is the food that God provides directly, but then there is the food that God provides through others. Now here is this widow woman and you might ask why God chose a widow woman. Why did God dry up the torrent in the first place? Why did He not continue with that? Elijah was satisfied with what he had at the torrent; why did it not continue? Why did the ravens just not continue to bring food? God was moving forward in relation to this widow woman so that she could provide something for the man of God. He gave her opportunity to set forward His work in the testimony by this means. That is why He dried up the torrent, and that is why He stopped the ravens. That is a remarkable thing, beloved brethren. We ought to be able to feed and help forward somebody set for the testimony, to help them forward according to the mind of God, and have something to give them so that the testimony goes forward, so that the prophetic word can go forward. This widow woman was chosen for that; what a precious thing! There would have been times, I have no doubt without being fanciful, when this widow woman would have remarked to herself, thought upon it herself, how richly God had blessed her in allowing the prophet to come to her house. What a privilege to be able to provide, and to allow God to have the scope to provide, by you, something for the prophet. It is an exercise to have food according to God for an individual in the testimony.
But then we come to Gideon, and Gideon lived in a time when there was what was governmental in the discipline of God on the people of Israel. The trouble covered the whole land, which is quite a thing when you think about it. Perhaps there were some who might have told Gideon that he was not being subject to what was governmental of God. But Gideon is working out food for the people. There will always be adverse circumstances, beloved brethren; and there will always be limitations that God has allowed governmentally, until the Lord comes; but we will never overcome for the testimony in those circumstances without food. Gideon was not being lawless here; Gideon was looking for the well-being of the people. What he was doing did not step outside of what God allowed governmentally. Gideon was exercised in relation to the people having food; and protecting it, so that they could. That also is a very great exercise because this was not personal; this was in relation to the people of God testimonially at that time. He had this exercise, and without any instruction from anybody, without having it laid upon him other than what was there in his own heart, he went and procured wheat for this reason. It does not say how he procured wheat, or how all of that happened; all it says is that he was threshing wheat in the winepress. This was a hard place to thresh wheat. A winepress is round, and small, and cramped. I do not know how many of the brethren have actually seen one but they are very restrictive, and yet he is threshing wheat there. It took great exercise and hard work, but why did he do it? He had an exercise. While there was what was governmental of God on the whole scene, while there was great restriction, while there was smallness, he had an exercise that the people of God be fed. And God used him because of his exercise of heart. God speaks in relation to him this way - “And the Angel of Jehovah appeared to him, and said to him, Jehovah is with thee, thou mighty man of valour”. Why is he a mighty man of valour? Valour is seen in war and he has not fought a war. He has not done anything so far except thresh wheat. Eventually God would use him in a war to preserve the people, but God saw in Gideon’s heart the exercise to preserve the people by providing for them, and subsequently used him to deliver them. It is what God saw in the heart of Gideon. What a wonderful thing that is.
So, beloved brethren, these are just three things. And in a certain sense God provided all of them, but in two of them God used persons. May we be those persons, beloved brethren. May we feed on Christ, but because we feed on Christ may we be those persons who are able to provide for the individuals, and for the company, what is collectively going to be for God.
May we be encouraged in this for His Name’s sake.
Word in Ministry Meeting, Edinburgh
13 July 2021