From manna to true bread
For millennia, bread has been one of the most important foods. It satisfies hunger and sustains life. Whether baked from wheat, rye, barley, millet, rice, or even potato flour, for many it remains the most important staple food. In the synagogue of Capernaum, Jesus declared: “Very truly I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. This is the bread of God that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. This is the bread that came down from heaven. It is not as our ancestors ate and died. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.”Joh 6,32-33 and 58).
Bread played a significant role in the ceremonial practices of ancient Israel: “But Melchizedek, the king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. And he was a priest of God Most High.” (1. Mose 14,18)After the battle with the Kedor-Laomer, Melchizedek refreshed Abraham's soul with bread and wine and bestowed a special blessing upon him. The Israelites ate unleavened bread during the Exodus from Egypt because they had to leave the land in haste: "They baked unleavened bread from the raw dough they brought with them from Egypt; for it was unleavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not stay any longer and had not prepared any provisions for the journey." (2. Mose 12,39).
The manna was the food of God's people in the desert. God said to Moses, "See, I will rain down bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather daily what they need for the day, so that I may test them, whether they walk in my law or not." (2. Mose 16,4).
For Abraham, breaking bread with Melchizedek signified lived human fellowship. When we Christians partake of Jesus, the Bread of God, we not only experience connection with one another, but we are also connected with Jesus and with the Father. The unleavened bread of Israel is a reminder of the flight from Egypt and the start of a new life. For Christians, it is the exodus from sin and the entry into a new life in the Kingdom of God. The natural food that God gave his people Israel in the desert is a model of the spiritual food that God gives us today. At its core are his Word and the person of his Son, Jesus Christ. Christians rejoice that Jesus, the Bread from heaven, nourishes and preserves our lives until we arrive in the fullness of eternal life. Jesus says, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever." (Joh 6,51).
God the Father has raised us from the earthly world to a higher plane in Jesus Christ: “He raised us up with him and seated us with him in heaven in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace according to his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” (Eph 2,6-7)Jesus Christ is the true bread that gives eternal life.
by Don Mears
More articles on this topic:
