#4: One of the Great Metaphors
The Bread of Life
This is the fourth in a series of the 12 greatest metaphors for life.
The breath of life: a person can live three minutes without air.
The shelter of life: in harsh climes a person can live 3 hours without shelter.
The water of life: a normal person can live three days without water.
The bread of life: bread represents the basic sustenance of life, food. If you are seeing a trend, you might have guessed that the average person can live about three weeks without food.
The Bread of Life
Bread is often called the staff of life because it has been such a fundamental part of man's diet and existence from the beginning of history. A quick survey of the topic in the Old Testament shows:
Bread is first mentioned in Genesis 3:19 as part of the curse -- "by the sweat of your face You will eat bread."
The patriarchs serve bread all throughout Genesis.
Bread is part of the passover celebration (Exodus 12:8).
Bread is incorporated into temple worship (Exodus 25:30).
While the children of Israel wander through the wilderness for 40 years — God rains down bread from heaven to feed them.
But we get the true metaphor of the bread of life in the New Testament.
Jesus Is The Bread of Life
When the crowds are hungry, Christ multiplies loaves of bread to feed them. Christ cares about the physical needs of people. But — He is more concerned about their spiritual needs. This is why He reprimands the people for seeking Him only for physical nourishment (John 6:26). He tells the people, "I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died...I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh” (John 6:48-51). Jesus was referring to His death and resurrection.
Today we memorialize this act of grace by eating the bread of communion. The physical "piece" of sustenance represents the spiritual "peace" we can have through Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life.
In light of this beautiful metaphor, the Christian must ask an important question today.
Is bread good? Or is bread bad? When we appeal to Scripture, the answer is clear. Why then are so many Americans opposed to eating something as fundamental as bread? There are answers and we will share them in future posts when we begin discussing the topic of food in our Biblical Health Study.
We serve a good God who cares about both our physical and spiritual bodies. Please share His goodness with others by sharing this post on your favorite social media.