October 31
Numbers 11: 4: And the mixt multitude
that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again,
and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? 5: We remember the fish, which we did
eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the
onions, and the garlick: 6: But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at
all, beside this manna, before our eyes. 7: And the manna was as
coriander seed, and the colour thereof as the colour of bdellium.
Wherever God has established the
preaching of Christ in truth, God is raining down angel’s food better than that
in the wilderness. (Ps 78: 24-25) Christ
is the true Bread from heaven. Giving his flesh in place of his people he
satisfied the justice of God and gave his people life. By the declaration of
this good news, he makes his people willing to believe on him. (Jn 6: 30-66) He
continues to feed believers this Bread from heaven through a steady diet of the
preaching of Christ and his works.
But sadly, like as the mixed
multitude and the natural children of Israel longed for the variety of foods Egypt
offered, many forsake the gospel in their lust to return to the variety of
works with which their former religion enslaved them. Hearing one message of Christ
and his works, rather than their own works, makes them say, “Now our soul is dried
away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.” Nothing at
all, beside Christ! Who can say such a thing? Those who regard Christ as a
small, insignificant thing, like coriander seed. So before long, they follow the
false disciples in Christ’s day that “went back, and walked no more with him.”
(Jn 6: 66)
Yet, when the Holy Spirit forms Christ
within his child, that same gospel, like coriander seed, is abundant with fullness
of Life (Jn 1: 16) From Christ’s fullness, he gives us ears to hear his voice
in the gospel. So we hear Christ promise us, as he promised the church in
Pergamos, that those who overcome (repenting from our works and believing Christ)
shall “eat of the hidden Manna.” That is, by drawing us to Christ with a teachable
heart, he makes us feast upon the Manna which God hides from the wise and
prudent. (Rev 2: 17; Lu 10: 21) And like
the coriander was “as the colour of bdellium” we are given a “white stone”, Christ,
the Pearl of great price. He is precious to us because in Christ we are given “a
new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth” Christ through
faith. (Rev 2: 17) Our new name is Christ’s name: “the LORD our Righteousness.”
(Jer 23: 6; 33: 16)
Therefore, unlike those who lust to
return to the bread and bondage of their works, having this precious Pearl with
this priceless name, we are like the “merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who,
when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and
bought it.” (Mt 13: 45) So when asked will we give up angel’s food for religion’s
garlic and leeks, we say with Peter, “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the
words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ,
the Son of the living God.” (Jn 6: 68-69)