Thursday

Related Verses
John 6:9-10
9 There is a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what are these for so many?
10 Jesus said, Have the people recline. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men reclined, in number about five thousand.

John 6:48
48 I am the bread of life.

1 Cor. 15:20
20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

John 11:25
25 Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes into Me, even if he should die, shall live;

Eph. 1:20
20 Which He caused to operate in Christ in raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavenlies,

Related Reading
Wheat points to [Christ’s] incarnation, death, and burial, and following this the barley points to His resurrection, the resurrected Christ. How can we prove it? In the land of Canaan the barley always ripens first; among all the grains the barley is first. In Leviticus 23:10 the Lord said, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you come into the land which I am giving you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest.” When the harvest time came, the firstfruits of the harvest had to be offered to the Lord, and the firstfruits were clearly the barley. Now we must read 1 Corinthians 15:20: “Now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” All students of the Scriptures recognize that the firstfruits of the harvest typify Christ as the firstfruits of resurrection. We can prove by this that barley represents the resurrected Christ. (CWWL, 1961-1962, vol. 4, “The All-inclusive Christ,” p. 233)

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[Wheat and barley] represent two aspects of Christ, His coming and His going. They represent the Christ coming down to be the wheat and the Christ going up to be the barley…Have you experienced Christ as wheat? And have you ever experienced Christ as barley? What kind of experience of Christ is wheat? And what kind of experience of Christ is barley?

When Jesus fed the five thousand, he fed them with five loaves made of barley…If they were loaves of wheat, something would be wrong. But they were not wheat; they were loaves of barley. As barley loaves, they could feed five thousand people with twelve baskets of broken pieces left over. This is resurrection. Christ can only be rich to us in His resurrection. In His incarnation He is exceedingly limited, but in His resurrection He is so very rich. There is no limit to Him as the resurrected Christ. As Christ incarnated, He was just one grain, a little Nazarene, a humble carpenter. But when He came into resurrection, He was unlimited. Time and space and material things could limit Him no longer. There were five loaves, but in effect there were countless loaves. There was enough to feed five thousand, not counting the women and children, and the remains alone—twelve baskets full—were more than the original five loaves. This is barley. This is Christ in His resurrection. Christ in His resurrection can never be limited. (CWWL, 1961-1962, vol. 4, “The All-inclusive Christ,” pp. 233-234)

As the barley, Christ is unlimited. According to John 6, Christ fed more than five thousand people with five loaves of barley (vv. 9-10), and the fragments left over from these five loaves filled twelve baskets! This proves that barley is unlimited. On the one hand, we are growing the limited Jesus; on the other hand, we are growing the unlimited Christ. The riches of this Christ are unsearchable, and His power is profound. Like Paul, we can say, “I am able to do all things in Him who empowers me” (Phil. 4:13). By this unlimited Christ I am able to bear my wife, my children, and all the elders.

The sisters who live by the resurrected Christ can bear their husbands and all their children. Every husband gives his wife a difficult time. Sisters, do not expect to marry an angel. Every husband is troublesome. We husbands simply do not know how to sympathize with our wives. What then shall the sisters do? They must say, “We wives are more than conquerors because we have an unlimited Christ. The resurrected Christ is now in us, and He can bear anything.” Learn to grow the limited Jesus and the unlimited Christ. I can testify that I have Christ as both wheat and barley. I have an abundance of both wheat and barley on which to feed and with which to feed others. (CWWL, 1977, vol. 1, “The Kernel of the Bible,” p. 221)

Further Reading: CWWL, 1961-1962, vol. 4, “The All-inclusive Christ,” ch. 5