Dr. Barclay with Something to Think About - BREAD

 BREAD

Bread is mentioned more than 340 times in the NKJV of the Bible.  The first mention of it is in a curse, when God told Adam “…Cursed is the ground for your sake…in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread…” (Genesis 3:17,19).  Man has been working and labouring to obtain bread to survive ever since.  Bread was, and remains today, a staple of man’s diet. Whether it was for survival - “Now there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very severe…”(Genesis 47:13) - or for ceremony - “Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High,” (Genesis 14:18) - bread has played an important role. 

It was during the Hebrew enslavement in Egypt that they would have become familiar with the Egyptian practice of using leaven (or yeast) in the bread making process. Therefore, for the Hebrews, leaven became synonymous with sin, and so to leave Egypt entirely behind, God commanded the Hebrew people to eat unleavened bread beginning at the time of the Passover.

And they shall eat…unleavened bread…Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses.  For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel…So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt…”
(Exodus 12: 8,15,17)

Unleavened bread thus became synonymous with sinless bread or bread without sin. This is why Christ, when confronted by Satan in the desert and challenged to “…command that these stones become bread,” (Matthew 4:3) replied by saying “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God,” (Matthew 4:4).  Christ Himself was that Word.  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” (John 1:1,14).

So Christ became for us “…the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger” (John 6:35) because “…I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly,” (John 10:10).  In other words, if you only have what the world offers you will survive, but if you take in the sinless Bread then you can really live.

It’s important to realize that much of the Bible has an allegorical as well as a literal meaning.  Taking bread is as essential for our physical being as taking the Bread of life is for our spiritual life.  Christ did this at the Last Supper when He broke bread and said “This is (symbolic of) My body which is given for you, do this in remembrance of Me,” (Luke 22:19).

Jesus used this symbolism in a number of ways in addition to the Communion. When talking to the disciples he said: “How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread?—but to beware of the leaven [sin] of the Pharisees and Sadducees,” (Matthew 16:11).  Then He stated “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst,” and “…he who eats this bread will live forever” (John 6:35,58).

He who receives Christ takes in the bread of life with all its’ benefits.  It’s as simple as that.  What more is there to think about?