The Bread (Scriptures)

Ok, still studying on these topics which are all tied together: The Bread/ The Flesh of Christ/ The Blood (Wine)--Basically, communion, and what Christ was referring to at the last supper when he spoke concerning his body and his blood.

Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou [art], and unto dust shalt thou return.

Something awesome about the Word of God, is that it is SO universal to itself, what i mean, is that it is so fitly framed and put together in such a way that all of the puzzle pieces just fit perfectly. In Gen 3:19, this is after the fall of man, when Adam and Eve have sinned and God is now giving them the consequences of "knowing Good and evil." Here is what is so interesting about this scripture:

Before Adam fell, he didn't have to work for anything. He didn't even eat bread, they ate from the trees in the garden of Eden. so, why would God tell them that they would have to work for, "by the sweat of his face," for bread? he is in fact restating this scripture and translating it when Jesus says in John 6:51 "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." He says this to them, because He is making reference to Gen 3:19. Before they fell, they already were eating Life, which was Christ, He IS THE TREE OF LIFE. His spiritual man and physical man were both on the same level together in the presence of God all of the time. When the fall occurred, man's spiritual man (so to speak) died, but his physical man stayed alive. Adam was so perfect before the fall, had experienced such magnificence of the Lord that it literally took his physical body 930 years to die, but his Spiritual Man fell when they ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. (i'm trying to make this as plain as i know how to, i hope it is making sense, if not it is because i am not a very good teacher.)

So, when Christ tells them that He is the Bread of Life, He is in fact saying, if i can translate in layman terms, what was undone is being made DONE through what i am about to do for you. If you will abide in me, receive what i am doing, and believe on Me, eat of Me, i will give you eternal life, i will feed your spiritual man forever. That is why he said (John 6:53): "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." He was saying that the food and drink that we take for our natural body, that body will perish. But we have a chance to become part of a body that will live forever in peace with God, if we will receive Him and what He has done for us.

Ok, then there is the scripture in Lev 6:16 that is rich as well.

Lev 6:16 And the remainder thereof shall Aaron and his sons eat: with unleavened bread shall it be eaten in the holy place; in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation they shall eat it.

Let me expound further, so as to reveal the types and symbols here. Aaron and his sons are the priests of God...selected by God Himself. What are we also known as His Believers, (1Pe 2:9) "a royal priesthood," when He says that in His Word of us, He is not talking about just pastors, He is referring to those of us that love Him and His Word. The Unleavened Bread is a type of Christ as well. Leaven is seen as a symbol for sin, and He was without sin...hence, UNleavened Bread, He is the Bread without sin. The priests would eat the unleavened bread or shewbread in the tabernacle in the wilderness, it was simply a foreshadowing of Christ. God has always been attempting to relay this message to His people (death, burial, resurrection), it's not a new message, it's just been lost through time.

This is one that is great!

Exd 12:8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; [and] with bitter [herbs] they shall eat it.

The flesh that they would eat is that of the lamb that the family would have taken to the temple to have sacrificed to God for an atonement (rolling away or back) of their sins. They were instructed that they had to eat the whole thing in that one night, not leave any for the next day. Just as, we have to take all of Jesus, and not just parts of Him, we can only serve Him as our master, not ourselves and Him. We would love ourselves and hate Him. Obviously, Jesus is the "Lamb of God," as spoken by John the Baptist in John 1:29. The "roasting with fire," is a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus Christ taking our punishment upon Himself. Fire is seen as a type of Judgment throughout the Word of God. He had not earned our judgment, but willingly took it for us, in our place. We just explained what the unleavened bread means, and the bitter herbs were a type of the bitterness of sin that He tasted, having never sinned Himself.

Awesome, huh? Who would have thought that the Word of God could be so rich, exciting, so tasty and meaty! The greatest part about this lesson here, is that i really intend to come back to it, go through it all again, and line by line study it out thoroughly...to chew on it and digest it so to speak. Because that is IN FACT what we are to do with the Word of God, being our DAILY BREAD...we should meditate on God's Word each and every day, asking Him to reveal Himself to us through it and in it. Amen? Ok, tomorrow, Rom 6:5!!! Yeah....