Feasting on the Bread of life?

In Scripture, BREAD is normally “food, especially bread or grain for making it” yet Jesus called Himself the Bread of life hinting that “bread” has a spiritual sense. The Hebrew language gets its word for bread from a root word that means “to feed on” but figuratively implies consuming or devouring in battle, to make and fight a war. Could it be that eating bread hints at more than a daily physical necessity?

“Bread” appears about 300 times in Scripture. Most of these are about literal bread. Some refer to manna, a mysterious food that God supplied when His people were delivered from slavery in Egypt and wandered in the wilderness. However, this root word was also used to describe armed conflict. In Deborah’s song of victory after a battle, she describes the reason for the conflict:

When new gods were chosen, then war was in the gates. Was shield or spear to be seen among forty thousand in Israel? (Judges 5:8)

Idolatry brought God’s people into a physical battle. This is also true in the spiritual realm; failing to put God on the throne of my life will result in a spiritual battle because I will be open to attacks from Satan. This is in line with the verse that says: “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)

But what does war have to do with the word that is used for bread? Is this a typo? Or does Jesus make the connection when He was tempted in the wilderness and made this statement?

And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” (Matthew 4:3–4)

Physical bread is needed yet is of no value when it comes to resisting evil. For that, I need the Word of God which is described here as “rhema” or a special word for the need of the moment, and in this context, that need is a Word from God that enables me to go to war and defeat the liar who is attacking me! It is not about a dough but about spiritual power from God’s Word.

This connection enriches the request for daily bread in the Lord’s prayer as it is followed by the request for forgiveness and spiritual protection:

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. (Matthew 6:11–13)

The ordinance of communion also has overtones of needing the strength of God to overcome the trials of life. Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take, eat; this is my body.” (Matthew 26:26) He was not talking about physical nourishment but spiritual reliance on Him. He said so with a declaration and a promise:

I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever . . . . unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him . . . . Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” (John 6:31-58)

His disciples grumbled at this “hard saying” and He said to them, “ . . . It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (John 6:60–63) linking bread with spiritual and eternal life, a life involving a battle against evil for which we need the life and power of Jesus Christ, the bread of life, to win. Baked bread will not do it.

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Meditate on what food does for me and how that necessity compares to Jesus and my need for Him — every day and for all that I do. Without bread, I become weak and unable to function or even think properly. Without Bread I am useless when the enemy shoots his lies at me. Like physical food is available in a great variety for physical needs, Jesus feeds me in many ways that are perfectly suited to my spiritual needs, mostly the need to do battle as I serve Him.