Have you seen anyone who doesn’t want to eat anymore? I have. And their reasons are not far-fetched, they didn’t want to live anymore. While our next breath might not be tied to the next plate of food, it is actually tied to the last meal we took. The food we eat fuels us, and that includes water without which food doesn’t even exist. We truly may not be living to eat but we eat to live.
It’s then no wonder that Jesus while referencing a scripture didn’t say man shall not live by bread at all. Just that he shall not live by bread alone because he lives by it. He would even have us pray, ‘Give us this day our daily bread’ - Matthew 6:11. These are scriptures that dishes out real food, though drawing at spiritual points. In fact, after feeding thousands with spiritual meal, He would by no means prove too spiritual and take the spoken word as substitute for their physical meal. Matthew in his fourteenth chapter verse 19 records that He sat them down as though they were in for a banquet, gave thanks on the lunch pack of a boy and would feed them with real loaves of bread and fishes and a dozen of physical baskets of the sandwich left over! Perhaps, as takeaway packs for each disciple. Jesus, in that miracle reminded them of how the word of life in the mouth of Moses brought forth Manna, real food from spiritual realm in the wilderness. We are also reminded in II King 19:6 how Elijah was fed with physical hot baked cake with water by a waiter angel after expending sumptuous rounds of appetizer from a stingy bird, raven. Despite His drills of fasts, Jesus visited people and dined with them. He so dominated food in his fleshy time that He looked a little too tame for a prophet that the zealots almost called him a glutton and a winebibber. He turned water into wine without a winery. His disciples hardly fasted while He the bridegroom was around. In fact, Luke 24:43 revealed that Jesus even ate after His resurrection with the disciples. Invariably, God takes our feeding to heart and reassures us that if He provides for the sparrows, we shouldn’t worry about it. The story only changed when we follow Jesus simply for our daily bread or we don’t for the same reason.
This brings us to the essence of food. To both the disciples and the following crowd living to eat, Jesus would reveal the core of food and drink in a shock. That the physical food and drink are actually figurative expression of how important we should feed on the word of God. What! This is why He completed the earlier quoted scripture: man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which comes from the mouth of God. It’s interesting to know that He was saying this just before breaking a fast of 40 days and 40 nights. The crowd, having seen Him the embodied spiritual word multiply five loaves and two fishes into a feast, He could then turn to them and say, He the Word of God actually is the food and drink. In verse 35 of John 6, He made no secret about being the Word of God and saying, I am the bread of life! Little wonder He was born in Bethlehem, which means the house of bread, so He was a bread of life born in bakery!
And just per chance someone was laughing that out loud, it was no joke to the Pharisees when He said, “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.” This is was cannibalism, the scribes wondered, Moses warned against it in Lev 26:29, “Thou shalt not eat human flesh,” By the time put it point blank, adding the blood to it, “My flesh is bread indeed and my blood is drink! And whoever doesn’t drink or eat have no live in him.” He had made matter worse by as them to be vampires! The writer had to give the prevailing feel – this is hard word! This was where mammoth who had walked mileages with Him began to backtrack. Many never followed him again. Some regretted they ate from the miracle food by Him and must have felt like vomiting, evidenced by their disappearance such that only His disciples where left with him. And He would ask them too: won’t you also go? Before Peter answered Him, to whom shall we go, you have the word of life,” it seemed too late, even if we didn’t understand it, it’s you that have the words of life. The key call for wonder here is, why would Jesus peg life eternal on feeding on His flesh and drinking of His Blood?
We are back to Genesis; where man died to God. Was there anything there that had to do with food and the word of God? Yes, we found one too many. The popular story of the forbidden fruit. Why was it the loss of control over food the devil used as death pit to mankind? The answer is that it was control over food appetite that God hinged His words on.
Let’s savor that control or dominion conferred on mankind in Gen 1:29-30: “And God said, ‘See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food’; and it was so”- That was dominion over food gifted both to the man and woman CREATED in the Spirit image of God. Although neither have been formed from the soil or the rib respectively.
But then came the control over that food with an exception for the formed man to exercise. It’s noteworthy that the woman hasn’t been formed from his rib when this instruction to the formed man to enjoy the freedom of eating all but a fruit was given. That was because unlike the Spirit which is in the very image of God who is Spirit, the flesh didn’t know the difference between good and evil and couldn’t handle the sourness that comes with biting the poisonous fruit of disobedience. The formed man, in his salad days was to be shielded by eating the fruit of life and the word of God except the forbidden. “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” So, there’s a kind of eating that brings death and it comes by hearing the words of unbelief.
There she stood, naked like a baby and unashamed, protected from the tough meat like a baby until the serpent, a garden pet who wasn’t unfamiliar to her hissed and eased in, bringing in unbelief between her daily bread and the words of God, “Has God indeed said you shouldn’t eat of every tree of the garden?” And then it went on to suggest that her image isn’t the expression of the Spirit image of God by saying it’s the eating that would then make her be like God, yet she was created in a wise imagery of God just like Adam. “God knew that the day you eat of it, you would then be like Him, knowing good from evil.” So, when the woman saw that it was good for food, number one. Then eyes pleasing and wise making, she throated it!
Because God’s words were and are Spirit and life just as food is life to the flesh. He chose to attach life eternal or death to our eating of the fruit which shows we believe or disbelief His words. Continuous eating of the fruit of life symbolizes living by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge and evil simply denoted death by not living by His words. Which was why Adam and Eve died in the Spirit, the same day they ate of the fruit while their previously undying flesh became a borrowed heaped of mobile sand with chalice poison fuel offers until the breath stock lasts.
God sacked the spirit-dead flesh-dying mankind from that garden and said, so that He doesn’t put his hands on the fruit of life ALSO and live forever like God. So, it wasn’t only the forbidden fruit that poisoned man to death, because truly even God the Spirit agreed the fleshy man now knew the difference between good and evil like, Him after the poison of disobedience. It was our not living by the word of God with the fruit of life that led to the death cascade. To Adam, “… Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree…”. Same way Even listened to the serpent, there was a listening to the voice of unbelief linked to the eating. The lie advertised and sold in the good-looking fruit was a deathly promise of living forever like God. Yet she was made undying. Put straight, eternal life was lost on the heeding the words of death by feeding on the forbidden. No doubt, by tasting of the tree of that concocts the knowledge of good and evil, the fleshy man God was initially shielding from the poisoning of disobedience had now become like the Spirit Image in moral knowledge. But unlike the Spirit image who could handle both the good and the evil poison and exercise the dominion of restraint over it, the flesh however good would die from the evil.
Shamefully, the ground then became cursed for the sake of man who was not made to return into it until now. From just plucking and eating freely of the fruit of life from the dressed garden to tilling the wild field for food in order to eat from sweats; from walking head high upon the ground to bowing to it to toil the same until man couldn’t stand straight up again and fall on it to decompose into the same soil, it couldn’t be more obvious that mankind had just moved from fry pan to fire. And upon realizing that the cursed dust to which mankind returns was now the food for the cursed serpent, it seemed we should just hold this flesh with a pinch of salt. Man, in essence was the new food added to the devil’s menu. But that wasn’t the end of the food story.
Watch the Eden ouster, something interesting next happened towards the exit gate. “Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever, therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.’” Got it? It suggested that if man had reached back and ate the tree of life after this forbidden fruit, He was cured!
So, the cure to that eternal poison was mankind finding the Way back to eat of the tree of life! Eating of the word that has become flesh! And until Jesus came to become that flesh and blood, the devil kept using our loss of control over food appetite to feed its insatiable belly of hell. After all, man was made from the soil, and he the serpent had been cursed to feed on the soil. This was why, it was while they were eating and drinking among other things in Luke 17:27 narrative that the flood came in the time of Noah. Shamefully, laxity in control over food caught men up in the roasting time of Sodom and Gomorrah. Drunkenness wrested control from Lot’s family. It was on the morsel of porridge that Esau sold his birthright. Numbers 32 still pages how it was issues concerning loss of control over our food that made God decided that only 2 adults and kids would get to the promise land as others appetite was for Egyptians melon and cucumber. That’s not to include Moses whose case of anger still had to do with water. When God made it a given in the Bible that a mother can forget her suckling child, you would think it might be a translator error until you read of real story of nursing mothers eating their babies during famine – of course for food! By now, you can guess right what it meant that, their father had eaten the grape, and the children would keep having the sour teeth. The nothingness of our living to eat wouldn’t more manifest in the wise words of Solomon in Ecc 8:7, “all the works of man is for his mouth and yet his appetite is not filled.”
It’s then no wonder when the devil would tempt Jesus who had just demonstrated forty days and forty nights restraints over food, He went to what first? Food. He timed it so well at His fast-breaking time, “If you are indeed the son of God, turn the stones into bread.” Familiar voice of unbelief on a staple of food! Another slice of deceit of Jesus’ identity like Eve was deceived by the words of becoming like God which she was already before the fall. Jesus knew who He was, He was able to link the Word and the food, He knew He dominion over food and showed in His response that life in not living by bread separately. So, He told the devil, it’s a cocktail of the bread and the word that come from God, not bread alone, shoeing that word of life doesn’t come from him. He dominated food by the word of God. I doubt the prince of the world reason knew who He was.
Yet long before John 6 where we started from and where Jesus revealed Himself full blown, Jeremiah while negotiating Isrealis lifeline got the gist of the word and food, “your words were found and I eat them up!” I have been wondering what this guy was thinking. Jesus made it John-6 clear that He is word that mankind must eat and His Blood shed for our remission is the wine we must drink, otherwise we have no life in us. It wasn’t a suggestion; it is a matter of survival. It is because He is that tree of life that He said I am the vine! It takes a squeeze, bruising of the vine to get the wine, which is why it represented the Blood for our forgiveness. It takes a breaking of His body like broken bread for our body to be healed. You can see how useless it would be to live on bread alone? Or how religious, with a power-denying form of godliness it would have been just sharing bread believing the word of God. This was why Paul said, the food for the belly the belly for the food both shall perish in hell. It might just be a storm in teacup that the bread must be unleavened and the wine unfermented, just don’t live by bread alone, mix it with word of life.
By the way, this is not about applying Mosaic appetite rudder to food. Jesus already fulfilled the law, not spearing the food law which was to be to us as a schoolmaster to control appetite. He told us of how He approved David of eating sacred bread in the temple when hungry. The closest denial to food of any kind now is for expediency not because it’s not lawful as Paul in I Cor 8:13 would rather not eat if it makes a disciple fall. So, eating a particular food doesn’t make you filthier, not eating some doesn’t make you holier.
The essence of food now is remembering His words. That He controlling food, becoming the Passover food and His risen body not fed upon by the serpent has become The Way back to that tree of life so we can put forth our hand eat again and live forever. So, He looked at everything He could attach His death to so that we don’t forget, and it was our food. He knew we won’t forget to eat much as we won’t forget to live. Therefore, He told his disciples, do this in remembrance of me. In the tough words of Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones, “we are so dull and stupid as a result of sin that we might even forget the death of the Son of God and His agony and His shame on the cross… if the Lord Himself hadn’t that we should meet together, break bread and drink wine.” You see, He left the earth making a memorial of food. What we have in Jesus is the dominion over food by the feeding on the antidote. It’s by eating this word which is spirit into our souls until the day it’s ready to bring out the glorious body in the twinkle of an eye. That’s why the word is incorruptible, it can bring the incorruptible body at the second coming of Christ which is not food to the serpent when this corruptible belly soils with the dust. Jesus won’t stop there on food, He promised a feast, of the last supper, you can imagine how God reckon with our food.
You see, it’s not just the bread broken and the emblem of the wine themselves that births eternal life in us, it’s how much we have taken His words as food is to our lives. That’s why many after eating of the five loaves and two fishes turned back and wasted off like their fathers who also eat Manna – the food of angels made real by spiritual word and still perished in the wilderness as Jesus confirmed, but the disciples would not live by bread alone, they stayed with one with the word of life and the bread. That’s why the thief on the right hand of Jesus met with Jesus in paradise and would be at the last supper and yet Judas after eating the Passover or communion or what some call holy communion went ahead to betray Jesus. That word of life didn’t not just settle with the son of perdition however close to Jesus. This is why pretending to be feeding on the holy communion without the words it represents is feeding on bread alone, man can’t live by that! He remains dead as Adam because that would bring sickness and death like Paul warned. It is dangerous not to feed on the word itself as we discern his body broken for our healing at breaking the bread. Man shall not live by bread alone. Peter was almost brought to the boil also had Christ not repeatedly asked, do you love me more than food? Then He added what makes the physical food balanced, feed my sheep with the Word.
So, do you value His words like your life depends on your food! How hungry are your for His words! Jesus after being hungry would say my meat is do the will of God, His face was looking radiant like the Samaritan woman had fed Him with souls. In Jesus own words, “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.” So, eating Jesus flesh and drinking His blood is to our life as food and water is to our flesh! How hungry and thirsty are you for life eternal?
Olusola Olusanya - Topical Writer Bicqmag
BICQMag TEAM Salem Otto - Ghana Jeremiah Ishaya - Northern Nigeria Oluwatobi Shoyoye - Southern Nigeria Olusanya Racheal - Northern UK Odunayo Olashore - Canada
Olusanya Olusola - Southern UK
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