Bread of Spiritual Truth

Bread, we know, is the basic need of life. Certainly, the problem of accessing it consumes a significant portion of man’s energies and connects us with the great network of divine and human relationships.

When Satan launches his verbal attack against Jesus in tempting (testing) Him to turn stones into bread, Jesus assails him with, “Man does not live on bread alone.” He is quoting from Deuteronomy 8:3. "He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord."

This is not to intimate that Jesus was unconcerned about our daily bread for history clearly reveals God’s concern for our physical needs. God told Moses, "I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day." Exodus 16:4. Isaiah's vision of the future age included the promise: "They will neither hunger nor thirst. Isaiah 49:10a.

We do live by bread and economic justice is certainly a concern of Christianity. But, man does not live by bread alone. Jesus clearly understood how futile it is to treat the symptom without addressing the disease. Men are hungry, but the question is why? To my mind, the real cure to hunger is to remove the causes and these causes are in men’s hearts and souls.

Jesus taught us to pray, “Give us today our daily bread. But as sensitive as He was to the physical needs of man, He saw with penetrating insight the cause of the bread problem. He knew it was not an issue of bread alone but that it was rooted in spiritual deprivation and could only be resolved by saving people from their sins. Thus, He said, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” Matthew 4:4. Jesus knew that if men lived by the higher laws of the Father’s will, there would be no bread problem.

When we contemplate the factors upon which our bread depends, we cannot avoid the biblical notion of stewardship. The relationship between humans and the earth is obvious. The earth is our temporal physical home and out of its energy springs the nourishment of all life. It is amazing to realize how precarious our existence is here on planet earth. All that really stands between us and extinction is a thin layer of dirt which we call “topsoil.”

For it is from the minerals and other nutrients in topsoil that everything gets its existence, plants, trees, animals and man. Lose that and life as we know it ceases to exist. It is a vital resource and crucial to survival of all living beings. Our civilization depends on the fertility of soil, yet soil scientist Daniel Richter says the soils of the world have been so changed by humans that it is now appropriate to call this the "Anthropocene (or man-made) Age." And way back in 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said "The nation that destroys its soil, destroys itself."  

It occurred to me that the story of Eden is, in many ways, the story of man placed here in the Garden of Earth with its wondrous beauty to behold. We were to care for it, live off its fruits, develop life around it. But when we forget the Source of life, when we become exploiters and spoilers and sin against the land from which our existence depends, something in the land seems to strikes back and drive us from the garden into a desolate desert. We can trace this tragic story all through human history from Adam on; man’s sins against the land, his persistent failure to be good stewards of the earth and to understand his relationship to the soil out of which he himself was brought forth.

Not only that, but by our very existence here on earth we are involved in a world family. It cannot be denied that we are interconnected and must learn to love and live with each other, lest we destroy the earth and our existence with it. Unless we behave like a family, work together with each other in love, patience, understanding, and tolerance, we shall surely die.

God has written His Word into the nature of earth that man, to survive in it, must be good stewards. According to the United Nations World Food Programme (WPF), “even the world's population has grown 6-fold in the past 200 years; food production has grown even faster. In purely quantitative terms, there is enough food available to feed the entire global population of 6.7 billion people. And yet, one in nearly seven people is going hungry.”

So why is it that one in nearly seven people are hungry? Is it that God’s good earth will not give its abundance? Is it that the physical laws are malfunctioning or that Divine providence is inoperative? Of course not; it is because of a failure in the hearts and minds of man that is preventing Divine providence from getting through.

We cannot keep Christianity out of economics, or keep Christ shut up in a church. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” Jesus said. All the Kingdom laws are righteous laws. The laws by which the farmer gets his crops, the laws by which the chemist discover cures, all the laws of nature are the expression of His righteous will.

And yet, man does not live by bread alone. There are other higher laws than the laws of nature to which man must be obedient, must be cooperative as we seek to secure bread. Ethical, social, spiritual laws must be complied with before the providence of God can fully function for our good.

“Our Father, give us this day our daily bread.” Notice, “Our Father - our bread - give us.” Brotherhood is a law. Love, justice, righteousness; these are laws of humanity. In the blind rejection of these laws, the providence of God is virtually inactivated.

There is enough bread for the human family when we behave like a family; when we live by God’s laws of brotherhood and work cooperatively together in sharing the fruits of the garden and gifts of providence. Of course, there will never be enough to support us when we choose to engage in family quarrels, civil strife, economic war, and in greedy rivalry to corner and control the resources. When we fight over bread, leaping at each in battle for bread, we destroy the bread. When we forget that the bread is the Lord’s and start flinging it at each other, we recklessly contaminate the bread and corrupt ourselves.

Jesus took bread one night in an upper room and after giving thanks, divided it, gave it to His disciples saying, "This is my body given for you.” He took common bread and made it the symbol of His spirit. Material bread is necessary for existence, but without God there is no bread.

Apostle John reports Jesus declaring He is the “bread of life” and all those in Him will neither hunger nor thirst. Life then, means more than existence. Real LIFE is embedded in our relationship with each other and our relationship with God, a relationship of trust and obedience made possible only through Jesus Christ. Without Jesus, one may have existence, but not LIFE . Just as physical bread is essential to physical existence, so Jesus is essential to spiritual LIFE, He is our true Source of sustenance. The ravenousness of the human condition is ended when we know Christ and through Him know God. The restless spirit is calmed, the hungry soul is fed.

We thank God that ours is not a depleted planet yet. Wonderful energies are still in waiting to be discovered and put to good use. We have an abundance of untouched power in the waters, in the sun, in the soil, in plants and in the atom. God has prepared His earth to be a blessing to man. Let us not transform it into a barren land.

“Jesus replied: “I am the bread that gives life! No one who comes to me will ever be hungry. No one who has faith in me will ever be thirsty.”

Break Thou the bread of life, dear Lord, to me,
As Thou didst break the loaves beside the sea;
Beyond the sacred page I seek Thee, Lord;
My spirit pants for Thee, O living Word!

Bless Thou the truth, dear Lord, to me, to me,
As Thou didst bless the bread by Galilee;
Then shall bondage cease, all fetters fall;
And I shall find my peace, my all in all.

Thou art the bread of life, O Lord, to me,
Thy holy Word the truth that saveth me;
Give me to eat and live with Thee above;
Teach me to love Thy truth, for Thou art love.

O send Thy Spirit, Lord, now unto me,
That it may touch my eyes, and make me see:
Show me the truth concealed within Thy Word,
And in Thy Book revealed I see the Lord.

- Mary Ann Lathbury