The Bread of Life
I know that in our “carbs are the enemy” culture, I shouldn’t love bread as much as I do. Still, few things compare with the smell of fresh baked bread. It is comforting and satisfying. Fresh made bread never lasts in my house. There is just something about taking it from the oven and watching the butter melt that makes our mouths start to water. Historically, bread has long been a major part of humanity’s life. In fact, some sort of bread exists in every culture of the world. Bread is life itself. Without it, finding a way to keep your family fed would have been a lot harder.
Therefore, it makes sense that God would instruct Moses to build a table on which the tribes were represented by loaves of bread. According to the NIV Bible Study notes written by Ronald Youngblood and Walter Kaiser, Jr., The loaves represented a perpetual offering from each of the tribes that symbolized the fruit of their labor while acknowledging that everything they had came from the Lord. Because bread was so essential to their survival, the tribes of Israel were declaring their complete dependance on the Lord. Deuteronomy 8:17-18 says, “You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms His covenant, which He swore to your forefathers, as it is today.”
Bread is life. God is life. The Table of Showbread was an acknowledgment of our tie between God and life. Nothing we have comes to us unless God provides it, not even our talents or gifts. We are who we are because God placed the ‘ingredients’ in our innermost being. Could we live without bread? We could, but would we want to? In our modern society, we don’t depend as heavily on bread, but ancient man would not have been the same without it. Bread was relatively easy to make and required little to prepare – a grinding rock and a hot rock would work in a pinch. More than that, the grains used to make bread would last (if stored correctly) for years.
Jesus declared, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4) Furthermore, the Apostle John declared Jesus to be that word. (John 1:1) Bread ensured that life continued and prospered on this earth. Jesus, as the Word of God and the Bread of Life (John 6:35), made it possible for humanity to prosper into eternity. Without Jesus, our understanding of God would not be fully realized, our salvation not complete. Jesus feeds our souls with the best God has to offer.
They say, if you want to sell your home, bake bread before an open house. The smell is inviting and comforting and will make people feel like they belong. How much more inviting would it be if our homes, our lives, ‘smelled’ like Jesus? Do the words we say put off the sweet aroma of the Bread of Life? Do we make people want to sit and stay awhile as they listen about our Savior? May your home be filled with the intoxicating aroma of Christ’s love.
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