Day 7: Jesus is Our Daily Bread

Day 7: Jesus is Our Daily Bread

Happy Sabbath! I pray that you are being blessed in this spiritual journey and renewal of your relationship with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. While some may object to posting or reading anything online during the sacred Sabbath hours (Isaiah 58:13-14), I believe that God would want us to use all at our disposal, including technology and the internet, on the Sabbath Day in order to share God’s Word (Matthews 24:14). 3ABN and Hope Television use satellite transmission on the Sabbath, so why not us?

I have been blessed in knowing that some of you are taking this New Year’s 30 Day Spiritual Journey as a challenge to “beef” up your spiritual life and increase your spiritual muscles. In the end, that’s what it’s all about. Getting to know Jesus, more intimately and deeply (Phillip. 3:8-11) like the apostle Paul, and remembering the what the Lord says in Jeremiah 9:23-24.

“This is what the LORD says:
   “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom
   or the strong boast of their strength
   or the rich boast of their riches,
but let the one who boasts boast about this:
   that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness,
   justice and righteousness on earth,
   for in these I delight,”
            declares the LORD.” (NIV)

I want to know God more deeply and intimately, don’t you? Somewhere in my spiritual journey I read, “Knowing God is the most important pursuit in the world.” I believe that to be as true today as when I first read it almost 15 years ago. Knowing God. Are you ready to know Him better today, during the sacred hours of the Sabbath? If so, then come along!


Manna from Heaven


God never ceases to amaze us in how He providentially provides for the daily needs of all of His creatures, including mankind. He brings up the sun each morning, provides warmth, shade with clouds, oxygen to breath, and food to eat. What a mighty God we serve! In the Old Testament, there is a very special story about how God provided the daily need and daily sustenance of His people, the nation of Israel. It’s found in Exodus 16. After leading them out of Egypt into the wilderness toward the land of Canaan, the Israelites began to complain to Moses and Aaron. We want some meat! We want some Kentucky Fried Quail! So God providentially provided catered meals in the morning and evening for His people: Manna in the morning, and quail in the evening. All they had to do was to step outside their tent and pick it up from the floor. Wow! Notice how Moses, the man of God, records it in Exodus 16:4-5.

“Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not. And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.” 

The people where to gather food every day to be eaten on that day, but on the sixth day (or Friday) they were to gather twice as much as normally did (Sunday thru Thursday). Notice Exodus 16:13-15:

“So it was that quails came up at evening and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay all around the camp. And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground.  So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was.

And Moses said to them, “This is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat.  This is the thing which the LORD has commanded: ‘Let every man gather it according to each one’s need, one omer for each person, according to the number of persons; let every man take for those who are in his tent.’ 

God provided the daily bread or Manna, for his people to eat each morning. In the evening, they got to eat quail, which reminded them of the fleshpots of Egypt they grew accustomed to eating while in Egypt for 400 years. God heard the complaints of his people, and he provided their daily need and sustenance. However, the one prohibition for the gathering of manna was that they were only to gather as much as they could eat Sunday thru Thursday. Those who gathered more for the following day discovered it has rotted and spoiled with worms. On Friday, the sixth day of the week, they were commanded to gather twice as much because on the Sabbath, or seventh day of the week, no manna was to be gathered. The Sabbath, or Seventh-day of the week, was Holy unto God. Notice Exodus 16:17-26:

“Then the children of Israel did so and gathered, some more, some less. So when they measured it by omers, he who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack. Every man had gathered according to each one’s need. And Moses said, “Let no one leave any of it till morning.”  Notwithstanding they did not heed Moses. But some of them left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them.  So they gathered it every morning, every man according to his need. And when the sun became hot, it melted. 


And so it was, on the sixth day, that they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. And all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. Then he said to them, “This is what the LORD has said: ‘Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil; and lay up for yourselves all that remains, to be kept until morning.’” So they laid it up till morning, as Moses commanded; and it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it. Then Moses said, “Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to the LORD; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.”

Daily Provision of Bread and Manna


God is amazing! For 40 years in the wilderness, the Israelites received catered meals each day from God. They ate the bread that God provided for them. The Manna became their “Daily Bread.” They had to find ways to cook it, and probably got creative with it. Manna pancakes, manna sandwiches, manna burgers, manna nuggets, Manna McMuffin, Kentucky Fried Manna, etc. You get the picture. What was important was that they eat it each day and remember that God was the one who was providing their daily food. They gathered it six days, but on the Sabbath, no one was allowed to leave their tent to gather it in the campground, for there was no manna on the Sabbath. This story of the giving of the manna teaches us that before God gave the children of Israel the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, which included the Seventh-day Sabbath commandment, the nation of Israel already knew about the Seventh-day Sabbath and had been keeping it for at least 40 years or so.  However, there is a much deeper and greater lesson to learn.


Our Daily Bread and Manna


As wonderful as this story is about God’s amazing provision for his children, if we stop here we miss a great lesson. Jesus Christ Our Lord referred to this story and made an astounding application and interpretation for us. In John 6:32-35, the Beloved Disciple John records the following:    

“ Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.  For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.” And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” John 6:32-35

Notice how Jesus is reinterpreting the story of the giving of Manna in the Old Testament. The Manna is not the true bread of Heaven, but Jesus is! He goes on to make an amazing promise for those who will believe and receive Jesus as the bread of life. In John 13:47-51, Jesus says:

 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.  I am the bread of life.  Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.  I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” John 13:47-51

What an amazing promise. If we believe in Jesus as the bread of life, we receive eternal life. He invites us to eat of this bread, which is his body (or flesh).

“Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.  For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.  He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.  As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.  This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.” John 6:53-58

At first, this sounds strange. Eat the flesh of Jesus and drink his blood. However, Jesus was not speaking about literally eating his flesh and blood, but about doing it spiritually. Notice John 6:63:

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”

So Jesus is not asking us to be vampires or cannibals, but is asking us to eat his body spiritually and to drink his blood spiritually. Jesus will never ask us to do something that is impossible or sinful. (Should I have sex before marriage, should I drink alcohol or take a hit from this joint?) So, what does eating his body spiritually and to drinking his blood spiritually mean for us today? How can we accomplish that task in our daily lives?


Jesus interpretation of the Eating and Drinking His Body and Body


The apostle John records for us that “Jesus is the Word of God (logos) made flesh” in John 1:1-3, 14. Jesus is the audible and spoken Word of God made flesh. Whatever God wanted to tell the world, the Jews, and the New Testament Church,  God did by speaking through Jesus and the writers of the Old and New Testament. God inspired the writers of the Bible through the spirit of Prophecy ( or testimony of Jesus). Today, to eat the body and flesh of Jesus means to read, study, and feed on God’s Word, the Holy Bible. When we read the Bible, it satisfies our spiritual hunger and helps to produce in us more of the character and image of Jesus Christ, “which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).  Furthermore, just as natural food gives us sustenance and strength and is converted to energy, so eating the written Word of God will give us true spiritual life. 


What about drinking Jesus’ blood? 


Remembering that blood in the Bible is a reference to life (see Leviticus 17:11), to drink Jesus blood must mean to receive Jesus' life into our heart. How do we do that today? Again, it is only by having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ that we can receive his life or drink his blood spiritually. You see, unless we have a faith relationship with Jesus we can’t be a Christian at all. We need to eat the body of Jesus (read the Bible each day), and drink the blood of Jesus (receive Jesus life through a daily devotional life with Him) each day. That is the promise of Jesus to us today. 


Conclusion


So going back to story of the giving of the Manna in Exodus 16, we learn that Jesus is telling us that we need to go and gather manna, “Our Daily Bread”, each morning. We must gather it six days of the week (Sunday thru Friday), so that on Sabbath (the seventh-day of the week), we can have food to eat for ourselves and not be hungry. What does this look like today for you and me? I believe Jesus is telling us that in order to have real spiritual life and eternal life, we need to have a daily relationship with Him throughout the whole week. During the first six days of the week, we must daily go and eat bread (read the Bible) in order to have the life of Jesus produced in us, just like natural food in the digestive system produces blood! Then on the Sabbath, when we come together to worship and praise God with others, we will have an experience with God that I can share with others. We won’t just go to church to look for a blessing or to receive a message from God, but we will bring a blessing and already have a message from God that we received during the whole week. The Sabbath will be the icing on the cake, because all week we have been baking our daily bread in the oven of Heaven! So go on, start baking the bread of a true relationship with Jesus as you study His Word and receive His Life into your heart today!


Practical Steps for today


The first step is to Surrender your life today to God in prayer – Matthew 11:28-30. Through prayer, we can be joined with Jesus throughout the entire day.


The second step is to Receive God’s Word (the Body of Jesus, “The Word made Flesh”) into your heart and into your soul today (John 6:53-43).  Jesus is the answer to the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:11 that says, “Give us today our daily bread.” Jesus is our daily bread. Eat your daily bread by choosing just one story from the gospels to read, meditate, and pray about that will transmit Jesus’ life to you today.


The third step is to Receive Jesus’ life as your life. Accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior today. Acts 16:31. Recognize and accept His perfect life as the only guarantee of making it to Heaven. His life, death, and resurrection are your “ticket to Heaven.” (Colossian 2:13-14)


The fourth step is to Ask God for the baptism of the Holy Spirit – Luke 11:9-13; Mark 1:8. God wants to bless you abundantly today. Ask Him to guide you and fill you with the Holy Spirit.


The fifth and final step is to Go out in peace and enjoy this beautiful Sabbath with you Creator and Friend (Isaiah 56:1-7; John 16:33). Don’t let anyone rob you of the joy of fellowshipping, walking, and enjoying this beautiful gift of God’s presence in your life today. Be blessed! 


~ Pastor Salvador Garcia