The beginning of this lesson goes back to the lesson for last week, for it grows out of the miraculous feeding of the five thousand men, besides women and children, with five barley loaves. One must have that event in mind in order to appreciate the words of Jesus that are recorded in this lesson.
The people that remained on the side of the sea where the miracle was performed, saw that Jesus was not there the next morning, and they knew that He did not go with the disciples, and that no other boat had come and gone, and they, therefore crossed the lake to find Him. Their first question indicated that they were moved chiefly by curiosity. "Rabbi, when did you come here?" (John 6:25)
This may seem a perfectly natural question; but it indicates that they were yet children, attracted by mere externals, and not having minds educated to grasp realities. They wondered, but did not believe. All the world will yet be astonished at Christ: "Kings shall shut their mouths at Him." (Isaiah 52:15)
Yet few will believe the truth concerning Him. Those who really know and trust the Lord will not be carried away with childish wonder when they see a miracle, for they will know that He always does great things, and that miracles are but His natural actions. They will take it as a matter of course that He does miracles, but will be filled with that which is far higher than mere wonder, namely, with appreciation of that which His mighty acts reveal, and with love for His great goodness.
Jesus saw at once how shallow were the feelings that prompted the people to seek Him, and said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, you seek me, not because you saw the miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labor not for the meat which perishes, but for that meat which endures unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you; for Him has God the Father sealed." (John 6:26-27)
He had fed them with barley bread, which had satisfied their physical hunger; but that could not keep them from getting hungry again, and He would have them seek food which would give constant and enduring satisfaction. He said: "I am the bread of life; he that comes to me shall never hunger, and he that believes on me shall never thirst." (John 6:35)
Compare John 4:14 and 7:37-39. We see that the reason why those who come to Jesus, believing on Him, never hunger and thirst any more, is not that one meal satisfies them for ever, but that His life in them affords a constant and inexhaustible supply of nourishment. Their souls are continually nourished by the water of life and the hidden manna, just as is the tree that grows by the ever-flowing stream.
It seems almost incredible that the very next day after feeding from the loaves that multiplied in the hands of Jesus, anybody could have been so blindly unbelieving as to say to Him: "What sign do you show then, that we may see, and believe you? What do you work? Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, Hegave them bread from heaven to eat." (John 6:30-31)
To ask for a sign after such a miracle as had been wrought the day before, would have been the grossest impertinence, if it had not been that the people were blind. They could not see that they went through the very same experience that their fathers went through in the desert. They would have eaten bread from heaven, but they were as unconscious of it as their fathers were.
It was not Moses, but the Lord, who gave the people manna in the wilderness. And that was literally bread from heaven. "Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no." (Exodus 16:4)
It was "spiritual meat." "And did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank ofthat spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ." (1 Corinthians 10:3-4) "Men did eat angels' food." (Psalm 78:25) "And He rained down manna upon them to eat, and gave them food from heaven. Man did eat the bread of the mighty: He sent them food tothe full." (Psalm 78:24-25,RV)
It was "the bread of the mighty," even of "angels that excel in strength." (Psalm 103:20)
Yet they died, because they did not eat in faith. They all ate, "But with many of them God was not well pleased; for they were overthrown in the wilderness." (1 Corinthians 10:6) "So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief." (Hebrews 3:19)
That manna was their daily food, by which their bodies received nourishment, yet if they had received it in perfect faith, recognizing the Giver in the gift, they would never have died. Their food would have done for them what it does for the angels in heaven. God gives himself in all His gifts. He gave the Israelites manna, in order that they might know that "man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." (Deuteronomy 8:3)
In the eating of their daily bread, they were to see that God gave them something greater than that. The bread which they saw and handled with their natural eyes and hands was not the Word of God, yet it was given them in order that by it they might grasp that Word.
The bread that we eat, if it be pure and uncorrupted, is indeed the body of Christ, as Jesus himself said, "And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body." (Matthew 26:26) "For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which He was betrayed took bread: And when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me." (1 Corinthians 11:23-24) and as He demonstrated before the thousands; for no one can contemplate that miracle, in which Jesus took five small loaves in His hands, and fed many thousands of people, and had much more left after all were filled than there was at the beginning, without seeing that the bread which the people ate came from His own person, from His life; they were literally feeding on Him.
Yet it is possible, and very common, to feed upon the bread that comes from heaven, without receiving any real life from it. This seems to many so self-contradictory that they do not believe it. In that, they are no different from the Israelites, who ate the manna in the wilderness, or the Jews who were fed with the five loaves by Jesus. When Jesus said that His flesh is the true food, and that without feeding upon it no one can have life, they asked, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" (John 6:52)
Yet He had done it, and they did not know it. It is all a matter of faith. The flesh of Jesus of Nazareth could not profit anybody, even though they could have cut it off and eaten it; for: "The flesh profits nothing." (John 6:63)
Nevertheless it would have satisfied hunger for the moment, just as bread does; and so we see that our daily bread profits us not at all unless we eat it in faith, learning from it that God has a wealth of life to bestow, which cannot be contained in anything that our physical senses can comprehend. If our daily food does not teach us this, we might just as well never have eaten. The practical lesson is that the life is more than meat. "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?" (Matthew 6:25)
We are not to live mere physical, sensual lives, but to be wholly spiritual. The seeming paradox in this lesson (it is indeed a paradox to mere human understanding, but straightforward truth as God sees) is the same as that of having these natural, corruptible, fleshly bodies, and yet not being in the flesh, but in the Spirit. "So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwells in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to liveafter the flesh. For if you live after the flesh, you shall die: but if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live." (Romans 8:8-13)
Although our natural bodies call for food day by day, we are not to eat to gratify appetite, nor even for the mere satisfaction of our hunger, but solely that we may glorify God. He who eats for this purpose, will never sell his birthright for a mess of pottage. He will no more compromise the truth, for fear that he may starve, if such a thing were necessary, than dishonor God in his life. He will desire food solely that he may have strength to serve God, and therefore he will never forsake the service of God to any degree whatever, in order that he may eat.
Such a one, and such only, will derive the highest physical benefit from his daily food; for no one can really have the life that now is, without the godliness that secures to him the life to come. The spiritual is the only real and lasting. Nothing but Christ is worth having. He gives all the value there is to everything we have, and when we do not consciously take of Him, we have nothing. Let us then, not blindly, but with intelligent faith, constantly pray, "Lord, evermore give us this bread." (John 6:34)--Present Truth, June 28, 1900--International Sunday-School Lesson (not part of the original "Gospel of John" series, but included because relevant)--John 6:22-40.