Ed. #6 - Pass The Bread Please or Let Them Eat Cake
This entry was posted on 5/3/2007 7:17 AM and is filed under Promises.
It was the 1700's and Louis XVI was King of France and his beautiful queen was Marie Antoinette. There was extreme poverty and the peasants were in the streets clamoring for food and it was told to the aristocratic queen, "The people have no bread". It is alledged that her haughty reply was, "Let them eat cake!".
Now, "Bread" in the Bible is referred to as the "staff of life" or provision of bread or food (Ezekial 4:16). In the 1950's the cool cats would say, "hey man, got any bread?" meaning money. No matter what generation we talk about we will see that "Bread" is very important to life.
Jesus knew all this when he said in John 6:35, "I am the bread of life". Is it any wonder that Jesus was born in Bethlehem which, in Hebrew, means house of bread or you could say house of life. In John chapter 6 "bread" is mentioned 13 times and "loaves" 4 times. I think you get the point.
In John chapter 6 Jesus has performed a miracle by turning 5 barley loaves and 3 fishes into enough food to feed a multitude with 12 baskets left over. He then walks on water and goes to Capernaum and the multitudes follow him. Some translations say, "mixed multitudes" meaning that there were many curiosity seekers in the crowd who weren't necessarily interested in his message, but just in the bread.
Just what is (not was) his message. It is this: John 6:35 - I am the bread of life; he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. He said this after explaining that Moses gave the Hebrews manna, (which means, what is it), from heaven for bread in the wilderness but his Father gives them true bread from heaven. (which is Jesus himself).
The curiosity seekers were looking for miracles and food for their bodies but Jesus tells them in verse 27, "Labor not for meat which perishes, but for that meat or food which endures unto everlasting life . . .". Then in the following verses: 40) And this is the will of him who sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. 41) I am the bread that came down from heaven. 44) no man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him . . . 48) I am that bread of life . . . 50) This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat therof, and not die. 51) I am the living bread which came down from heaven (notice that when Moses asked God in Exodus 3, who shall I say sent me? God replied, "say I AM THAT I AM"). If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
If you study the rest of John 6 you will see the basis for Holy Communion. The next time you receive communion "think on these things". If you are not sure that you qualify for these promises or for communion, for that matter, just go to Romans 10:9 and receive the Lord Jesus as your savior and you will be sure.
'Till next time,
Glory to God,
Hal Mitchell
