35. Forever Food: Provision in Purpose
“Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, ‘Rabbi, eat.’ But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’” (John 4:31-32)
The disciples had gone into the town looking for food for Jesus. They had left Him by the well because He was tired. Maybe they had a discussion about what food to buy Him. Whether they had or not, they certainly returned with food to eat. However, Jesus is no longer sitting tired and hungry at the side of the well. He is fully engaged in another round of ministry.
The disciples are concerned about Him. They “urge” Him to eat. But Jesus is not living under the demands of His flesh and blood needs, He is being refreshed by something much more lasting than mere food. He is doing His Father’s will.
“ So the disciples said to one another, ‘Has anyone brought him something to eat?’ Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.’” (John 4:33)
Jesus is not saying that as long as you are doing the Father’s will and finishing it, you do not need to eat. But He is trying to teach His disciples a vital lesson. It was the lesson that the people of Israel failed to learn and, as a result, wandered around in the desert for 40 years. God graciously provided for their physical needs, food and water, but they continued to be bound by the concerns and demands of their physical needs.
The lesson they were supposed to learn was that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. This does not merely mean that we all need to listen and obey the words of God if we are going to have the right direction in life. This means what it literally says. Man was never supposed to just live on physical food because we are not primarily physical beings. We are spiritual beings, made in the image of God and with the breath of God in us.
If we believe and receive Jesus, we are made spiritually alive again and we need now to learn to live like spiritual beings, like the children of God. Our spirit needs refreshment every bit as much as our physical body and it is much more important. We need to feed our spirits. And the spirit is fed by doing and finishing the will of God. In other words, by hearing and fully obeying the Word of God.
The life of God does not just flow aimlessly in many different directions. The life of God flows through the will of God. The river of God flows in the direction of His purposes. If we are out of His purposes for our lives we are away from the river of His spiritual provision for us (and maybe the physical provision too).
Jesus told us, during the sermon on the mount, that if we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness “all these things” necessary for our physical wellbeing get added to us (Matthew 6:33).
Jesus is always in the river of God’s purposes and provision and He is trying to train the disciples to live there too.
Jesus could have been resting at the well, He was physically tired and hungry. But His Father wasn’t finished and so, tired as He was, Jesus didn’t stop either, trusting that the Lord would replenish and refresh Him. He understood what He wanted His disciples to understand, so that their lives and ministry wouldn’t be bound and restricted by their physical limitations.
IF GOD IS STILL WORKING THEN THE RIVER IS STILL FLOWING.
It is probably worth saying here that some of us might have a different problem. We may be in the will of God and working hard in those purposes, maybe too hard sometimes. It is possible to keep working after God has stopped, or slowed down in those purposes, using this scripture as our reasoning for pressing on. We can end up in disobedience by not heeding the leading of the Holy Spirit (sometimes speaking through our closest family and friends) and the equally clear commands of scripture for days and seasons of rest for recuperation and restoration. Sometimes the river of God turns aside into a seemingly quiet pool before beginning its journey again. If we keep ploughing straight ahead, believing that our sacrifice is more important to God than our obedience at that point, we also find ourselves outside of the flow of God’s grace and will soon be operating in soul power rather than Spirit power which, in my case, generally ends up with negative consequences not just for my wellbeing but for that of those closest to me as well.
Sometimes it is more difficult to hear “stop” rather than “go”, especially if we are in ministry momentum. Maybe the Lord is not putting out a “Stop” sign so much as a “Yield” sign. Time to submit to this next period of the purposes of God in our lives, which is for rest.
Jesus goes on to explain what He saw His Father doing, which kept Him going too. He saw His Father in the harvest field. With the physical eye, all you could see was a woman at a well. But Jesus saw His Father in the harvest field and so He went to work with Him.
“Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.” (John 4:35)
Jesus knew that not only was there purpose for the worker in the harvest field, there was also provision. There was fruit to be had from the work, but also wages to be received.
“Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together” (John 4:36).
When the harvest is reaped, the harvester receives both a “wage” and the “fruit” of their labour. This is where Jesus is going to get His spiritual food and refreshment, from the proceeds of reaping. The Life of God is in the will of God, the provision is in the purpose. We can easily imagine the life-giving joy that Jesus experienced when so many Samaritans believed in Him. The fruit of His labours would have satisfied in a way that washed over any weariness He might have experienced in doing them.
At this point, it is worth reminding ourselves that all that we do in obedience to God bears fruit for eternal life, one way or another. We often though aren’t seeing fruit where God sees it. Sometimes we have pre-conceived ideas of what the fruit should look like. Then when that doesn’t happen, we conclude, wrongly, that we are not bearing fruit.
If we continuously abide in the vine of relationship and obedience with God we will bear much fruit, as Jesus taught His disciples in John 15:5. However, it might not look like fruit to us, or perhaps the type of fruit that we originally wanted to see. We can miss the joy of fruit in our lives by not recognizing or valuing it the way God does.
However, this life of God in the will of God is not just found in the fruit, which is just as well for those of us who may feel that we have been working away in the harvest field for many years with little to show for it, especially compared to what God is doing through others. There are also wages for the workers. The wages are not reliant on the fruit, they are simply the rewards for the obedience. The wages are being received as the work is being done.
God’s life is with us and working through us whether we are outwardly fruitful or not. His daily presence, comforting and strengthening. His daily power enabling and encouraging. His daily voice, calming our fears and leading us through. These are just a part of the wonderful “wages” for a child of God walking with God in the purposes of God. And they will follow us forever. Jesus appears to be saying that the wages are “for eternal life” not just the fruit.
God promised Abraham, the father of faith, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” (Genesis 15:1)
Our greatest, most refreshing and enduringly life giving reward is Him. It is to be with Him and experience more of Him every day and many times every day. He is most powerfully present in the centre of His purposes.
Jesus finishes His lesson to the disciples by explaining to them that the work of God is a team effort.
“For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.” (John 4: 37-38)
Is Jesus saying that He was reaping what His Father had sown through others? Maybe. It certainly means that the work of God is a team effort and we are never meant to do it all ourselves. We don’t get refreshed in our spirits by going beyond the boundaries of His call on our lives. That can wear us out as much as not doing the will of God. We just have to do our part.
It seems the disciples got this lesson. They demonstrated that on one of their subsequent visits to the region. In Acts 8, Philip the evangelist went to Samaria preaching and demonstrating the gospel. Many Samaritans believed but then needed different types of ministry to help them grow as Christians. So the apostles in Jerusalem sent Peter and John down to help solidify the work.
One sows, the other reaps. But both reap the rewards. Fruit and wages. Food that godless men “know not of.”
Are we in the river of God’s life giving purposes? Are we living by every word that proceeds from His mouth? Are we looking for what the Father is doing, to get involved with Him?
Even as Christians, our spiritual lives will begin to look seriously malnourished if we don’t.
