"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled." (Matthew 5:6)
These words teach us that righteousness may be obtained by eating and drinking; that we are to eat it and drink it. For when one is hungry and thirsty, and then is filled, it is only because he has eaten and drank that for which he hungered and thirsted.
Plain Language
There is not nearly so much figurative language in the Bible as most people suppose. Someone reads a text that is beyond his experience, and because it seems impossible to him he says, "O that is figurative language."
Of what it may he figurative he cannot tell, but it eases his mind to think that it does not mean exactly what it says; for if it does not mean what it says, and he does not know what else it means, it is evident that he is freed from any obligation in the matter. This is the way the Word of God is made of none effect.
We shall get along much better if we settle it in our minds that God knows His own mind; that He knows exactly what He wishes to say, and just how to say what He means; and that when He says a thing He means it. Surely we cannot go wrong when we take the Lord at His word.
Suppose it should happen on some occasion that He did not mean just what He said, and we should take His words as though He did mean them as He said them, do you not see that He could not condemn us for believing what He himself said? "He that believes is not condemned." (John 3:18)
If a father jokingly tells his child something, and the child confidingly takes the father at his word, and mischief follows, it is clear that it is the father that is to blame, and not the child. It is an honor to the father, that the child didn't think he could mean anything different from what he said; and a disgrace to him, that he abused the child's confidence. But God does not joke with His children. He says to us, "Let your Yea be yea, and your Nay, nay." (James 5:12)
And He does not ask anything of us that He is not himself. Therefore we may believe that "Every word of God is pure; He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him. So when we read," (Proverbs 30:5) "O taste, and see that the Lord is good," (Psalm 34:8) we may believe that His flesh is true meat, and His blood is true drink. (John 6:55) When we read that the children of Israel in the desert ate spiritual meat, even Christ himself, we are to believe the fact. In believing the statement we shall find knowledge of the utmost value. We do not believe the words of the Lord because we understand them, but we believe them in order to get understanding. "For the Lord gives wisdom; out of His mouth comes knowledge and understanding." (Proverbs 2:6)
Eating the Body of Christ
The Lord said to the children of Israel, "I will rain bread from heaven for you." (Exodus 16:4)
And Jesus said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven." (John 6:41)
What else can we believe, therefore, but that it was the body of Christ that they ate? We may doubt, and say, "How can this be?" just as the unbelieving Pharisees did; but we shall find that doubt means death. Someone may exclaim, "But Jesus himself shows us that He does not mean that we are actually to eat His flesh and drink His blood, because He says, 'The flesh profits nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life.'"
You should read more carefully than that. It is true that Jesus used the words just quoted, and meant just what He said; but it is not true that He said that we were not really to eat His body and drink His blood. He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you have no life in you." (John 6:53)
He would not immediately deny what He had said. We should see in these words of Christ, not a denial of His former words, but an evidence that in His words we find His body and His blood. The words of the Lord are not merely empty sound, but they are real things. They are good food, and may be eaten. "Your words were found, and I did eat them; and your word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart." (Jeremiah 15:16)
Read with great care the following verses: "And you shall remember all the way which the Lord your God led you these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you, and to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments, or no. And He humbled you, and suffered you to hunger, and fed you with manna, which you knew not, neither did your fathers know; that He might make you know that man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord does man live." (Deuteronomy 8:2-3)
Too often the words, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God," (Matthew 4:4) are taken as though they meant that bread is in opposition to the Word of God. But the texts tell us that God gave the children of Israel bread in order that they might know that man lives only by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. That is to say, God would teach us that in the bread which He gives us, He gives us His Word.
Bread from Heaven
If we but think of the origin of bread, we shall see that this is so. Bread comes from corn, and corn is grass. "God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, ... and it was so." (Genesis 1:11)
There was nothing in the earth until God spoke, so that the grass came forth from His word. His word was the seed that was sown. Nothing grows but from the word of the Lord. The grain that the farmer sows contains the word of life, else it would never spring up. So when we eat the bread that is made from the grain, we are really and truly eating the word of the Lord.
But the word is life, and Christ is the life; so in the bread which God gives us, He gives us the life of Christ. It was therefore no figure of speech, but an actual truth that Christ uttered, when He said to His disciples as He handed them the bread, "This is my body." (Luke 22:19)
Think what would happen if men recognized every mouthful of food that they ate as being the very body of Christ. Would they not eat with reverence? They would constantly remember and acknowledge that their life comes from God, and that it is His life that they are using, and not their own. This would teach them that they are not their own. (1 Corinthians 6:19) Consequently they would be continually passive in His hands, for Him to live His own life in His own way.
But this would be righteousness, for His life is only righteousness. So by eating and drinking they would be filled with righteousness. We can have only one life at a time, and the life which God expects us to live is the Christian life. But we get our daily life only by eating the daily bread that God gives us. So we see that God expects that by the food which He gives us we are to receive strength to live the Christian life.
Of course it is understood that when we say that we are to live the Christian life, we mean that we are to let Him live it in us; for He alone is our life.
Satisfied with Good
But we are to hunger and thirst after righteousness. Our desires are to be only for that which is good. The Lord gives that which is good. He does not withhold any good thing from His children: "For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly." (Psalm 84:11)
From above He sends down every good gift and every perfect gift: "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." (James 1:17)
He says, "Eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." (Isaiah 55:2)
Our natures are corrupt, and our appetites perverted, so that we desire things that are not good. This has been so ever since the fall.
"The woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and that it was to be desired to make one wise." (Genesis 3:6)
But it was not so. The tree was not good for food. It brought death. We are therefore to learn that not what we may naturally desire, but what God gives us, is good.
This does not mean that our whole life is to be one continual longing after things that we like, but dare not take. No; the lesson that we should learn from our first parents as well as from the children of Israel is that "we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted." (1 Corinthians 10:6)
Thank the Lord, He satisfies our mouth with good things. He teaches us to desire the good, and to find delight in it. The way of life is not one of unsatisfied longing. The good Father "opens His hand, and satisfies the desire of every living thing." (Psalm 145:16)
Receiving It Fresh from God
The sum of all this is that we are to hunger only for those things that convey to us the life of God in its freshness and fullness. We are to train our appetites to desire only the things that God says are best for us.
There are plants in which the life of God has been so perverted through the curse that they are only death to those who eat. These we should not touch. There are plants, such as tea and coffee, which, while they do not, as ordinarily taken, cause immediate death, yet have no life-giving power. They excite, but do not strengthen. The only power they have is in the line of death.
It is evident that such things cannot be taken to the glory of God, for it is not to the glory of God that His children should be slaves to that which destroys. In taking these things, not to mention tobacco, which is wholly poisonous, and altogether filthy, one is not taking the pure life of the Lord. Consequently they are against the Christian life, for everything that is not of the Lord is against Him.
There are other things that are food, but not the best food. The flesh of animals is food, that is, it will give strength to the body, but it is not perfect food. At the best, it is one degree removed from the food as God prepares it for us. In eating the flesh of animals, we get our food second hand, to say nothing of the defilement from the evil dispositions and the diseases of the animals themselves.
But out of the ground the Lord God makes to grow food that has no taint of evil about it, and when He gives us the best things, it is, to say the least, very ungrateful to pass them by, and take that which is inferior. Not only is it ungrateful, but it shows disregard for His life. It shows that we would rather gratify our desires than receive the fullness of His life.
Life Only by Faith
Therefore since God gives us food in order that we may have life, and the life which He wishes us to live is His own perfect life of righteousness, it is evident that if we eat only the food which He tells us is the best, and eat it in faith, as coming from Him, and bringing Him to us, we shall have that perfect life from day to day.
But we must remember that the best things taken without recognition of Him are not life, but death. The children of Israel ate food direct from heaven, and yet they died, because they did not eat in faith. So whoever does not discern the Lord's body in his eating and drinking eats and drinks damnation to himself, and not righteousness.
It is evident that no one can discern the Lord's body where it is not, so that it is impossible to eat and drink righteousness in that which is not food nor to get it perfectly in that which is not perfect food; but the mere eating of the best things is not sufficient; we must take them in humble and thankful recognition of God. When this is done, life and righteousness must follow as surely as the word of God is life. "He that eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." (1 Corinthians 11:29)
This is true without any qualification. The Lord's Supper is the model meal, to show us that in eating and drinking pure food we are eating the Lord's body and drinking His blood. It is thus that we get His life. But if we do not take those things in which His life is clearly to be discerned, or do not recognize Him in the good things that we do eat, we eat and drink to no purpose. Our eating and drinking in such case is only to death.
A little thought must make this apparent to everybody. What will be the end of those who know not God? It will be destruction. (See 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9, and Psalm 9:17) What does it profit a man to have lived threescore years, if at last he sinks into perdition? Would it not have been better for that man if he had not been born? To what end was all his eating and drinking? To nothing but destruction. If he had recognized the Lord in all his ways, he would have been eating and drinking to life, but since he does not recognize the Lord, he is taking only death, instead of life. "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." (Romans 14:23)
Because of sin, disease and death are in the world. So sickness and death come from rejecting or ignoring the Lord, who is life.
Not a Trivial Matter
Is it not evident that the matter of proper eating and drinking is not a mere fad? It is not a matter of no consequence, for God has not spoken about things that are useless.
And let no one imagine that this means that we are to go into "Jewish bondage." Far from it. The bondage of the Jews did not consist in their obedience to the word of the Lord, but in their disobedience. The Lord would have us free from bondage; but when we do not have the life of His word, we have nothing but bondage. He would have us eat that which is good, and delight in fatness.
"Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfies not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." (Isaiah 55:2)
He would have us delivered from every evil thing that tends to enslave and destroy life. He would have us enjoy the absolutely perfect freedom of His own life. "O taste, and see that the Lord is good." (Psalm 34:8)--Present Truth, November 24, 1898.