My tummy is dancing to the aroma of baking bread wafting through my house. I bake bread quite often because it is one of the little pleasures of life that just adds an air of warmth and comfort to the home. When my family prays “give us this day our daily bread” I want that bread to be straight out of the oven. Honestly, I believe the daily bread of the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ is, in context, speaking of God’s Word, but I desire my family to have fresh bread, both physical and spiritual.
A few thousand years ago, a baby was born in the little town of Bethlehem in Judea who would change the world forever. Bethlehem is a Hebrew word which literally means ‘House of Bread.’ The baby’s name was Yeshua (Jesus, to the English-speaking world). How very appropriate that He would be born in the ‘House of Bread’ because He would later refer to Himself as the Bread of Life:
And Jesus (Yeshua) said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger… (John 6:35)
The name Yeshua literally means salvation. Therefore, when the Angel of the Lord appeared to Yosef (Joseph) in a dream, He was saying about Miriam (Mary) that she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name SALVATION: for he shall save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21),
Like all mothers-to-be, Mary had anxiously awaited the arrival of her ‘Salvation’ for a long time. Can you just imagine Miriam looking into the face of this beautiful newborn baby with joyful tears saying “Alas, Salvation has finally come?”
Much of the world has chosen this time of year to reflect on the birth of Yeshua. However, I would like us to take a few moments to reflect on Him as the Bread of Life; which isn’t hard to for me to do as I sit here engulfed in the delectable aroma of baking bread.
In the first chapter of the book of John we read:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God….… [John 1:1-4] Jumping to verse 14 we read: And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
So we see that the God caused a part of Himself, His word, to be made manifest in a tangible body, the body of the babe Yeshua. I know this is all pretty difficult for our finite, human minds to fully comprehend. Even so, Yeshua is the Son of God and designates Himself as the Bread of Life (amongst other descriptions).
John goes on to say:
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. (John 6:35)
Unquestionably Yeshua, living as a man in a physical body, needed food for sustenance. Nevertheless, he understood that physical bread only satisfies our temporal bodies for a short time. He therefore emphasized the urgency of nourishing oneself with spiritual food; that which quenches the soul’s hunger always:
And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. (Luke 4:1-4)
In other words, because our bodies soon perish but our souls are immortal, feeding ourselves spiritually must be our priority. But how do we partake of the bread of life? By every word of God! In the beginning was the Word… and the word became flesh. To read God’s Word is to partake of the Bread of Life.
How can the bread satisfy, though, unless it is fresh? Unlike oven-baked bread which becomes stale very quickly, spiritual bread stays fresh forever and its nutrients never diminish. Nevertheless, we should never be satisfied to live on yesterday’s bread.
Remember, Yeshua taught us to pray:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
I pray that in the same way the enticing aroma of fresh-baked bread stimulates our appetite and creates anxiousness to partake of this fresh, warm comfort food, that thoughts of our precious Lord will fill our hearts and minds in the same way. May we all become desirous to start each day with a fresh, ‘warm slice’ of the Bread of Life.
Rays of Light 
Thank you Susan for writing this.
Love ya,
Denise
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Amen, good word!
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I do not typically reply to posts but I will on this situation.
my God, i thought you had been heading to chip in with some decisive insght on the finish there, not go away it
with ‘we go away it to you to decide’.
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Shalom Susan!
My name is Anders and I found your blog today and I read some of what you wrote.
I want to comment about who the historical Rabbi Yeshua – the Messiah – was. In order to determine this, we can study the Messianic prophecies.
I share this only to be helpful!
If you read the prophecy in Isaiah 7-9 in Hebrew and related verses of the Hebrew Bible you will see that king Hizkiah was a partial fulfilment of that prophecy and he was a human, and not divine, nor a ‘Saviour’. Thus, neither the Messiah would be divine, nor a ‘Saviour’. The historical Messiah called Rabbi Yeshua taught his followers to pray to the Creator, not to pray to Jesus. One is forbidden to pray to any human according to Torah; and one is forbidden to pray to or worship Jesus. [Documentation
Many redactions of the “gospels” are well documented; and the claim that the Messiah was divine, or a divine Son, wasn’t taught by the followers of Rabbi Yeshua – called the Netzarim -which was a Jewish group in good standing in the Pharisaic community. That they were a group in good standing in the Jewish community – proven by that the Pharisees defended the brother of Rabbi Yeshua – implies that they didn’t claim the Messiah was divine or a ‘divine Son’. Furthermore this implies that many of the statements in ‘gospel of John’, which you quote, were never taught by Rabbi Yeshua.
Following the historical first century man, the Messiah called Yehoshua, requires according to the Jewish Bible, to follow the Torah – the Instruction manual of the Creator; and this leads oneself into an immensely meaningful relationship with the Creator – blessed is He.
All the best!
Anders Branderud
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Anders,
I want to thank you for taking the time to respond to my writings. Obviously we are not in agreement, but it does bless me that you would be concerned enough to take the time to share your thoughts with me.
You see I did not delete your comment. You are certainly entitled to your interpretation of scripture as am I. If we were to approach this subject in an intellectual manner, we would be as elk with antlers tangled undoubtedly. This is is not necessary. We are obviously on different sides of the fence in our beliefs–with the exception of Torah. I firmly believe in the observance of Torah; it is many of the rabbinical traditions which I question as valid. I believe also that Yeshua is the prophecied Messiah for many reasons.
But we cannot both be correct. I will therefore pray that if I be wrong that the God of Avraham, Yitzhak, and of Yisra’el will remove my blinders and show me truth. Likewise I will pray that if it be you who is mistaken that the God of Avraham, Yitzhak, and of Yisra’el will remove your blinders and show you truth.
Until such a time as this, I bid you shalom.
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