The Bread of Life
I just can't help it! ... Wherever I look in the Old Testament, I see Jesus! Over and over again our Lord and Savior is present throughout the entire course of the redemptive history of God and his people. The latest place I've found the Savior is in Leviticus 24.
Leviticus 24:5-8 says,
You must bake twelve loaves of bread from choice flour, using four quarts of flour for each loaf. Place the bread before the LORD on a pure gold table, and arrange the loaves in two rows, with six loaves in each row. Put some pure frankincense near each row to serve as a representative offering, a special gift presented to the LORD. Every Sabbath day this bread must be laid out before the LORD. The bread must be received from the people of Israel as a requirement of the eternal covenant.
This offering was a sign of the eternal covenant between God and man. In the time of the old covenant the bread was given as an offering from man back to God. When Jesus came and the new covenant was ushered in, the bread of life was given by God to man.
Jesus said, (John 6:27) Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.
-- Jesus came to fulfill all the righteous requirements of the law. Including being the bread of life. He was a perfect and spotless offering for sin given to a perfect heavenly father. He met the requirements... He paid the price... He did all the work required by giving his life on the cross... By putting faith in Jesus we accrue all the benefits of this righteous work.
(I love that Jesus says he, as this bread of life, receives God's seal of approval! ... Faith in Jesus is the one and only God approved method to be made right with him!)
--Reliance on the old ceremonies and sacrifices was met and surpassed by the perfect offering Jesus presented in laying down his life for the sins of the many. He came down to give life eternal to those who would put faith in him.
John 6:35 says, Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty."
--Jesus meets every single one of our needs. His presence in our lives is all we need. The ever-changing circumstances of life will waver and shift continuously, but with Christ we are constantly secure and safe in his strong embrace!
--I am constantly amazed and satisfied by the work and sufficiency of Jesus in my life. I need only look at who I was as a person just a few years ago and compare it to who I have become today. The more I have given Jesus first-place in my life the more he has transformed me by his grace and power. He is daily my bread of life. When I feast on him... His love... His word... His truth... The more he pours out through: The words I speak... The attitudes and feelings that fill my heart and mind... The actions that I carry-out... The ways I interact within the relationships I am blessed to be a part of...
They are all radically different only because Jesus is living and reigning and ruling in my heart and life.
Who I am as a teacher is totally different than who I was just a few years ago.
Who I am as a husband is dramatically different than who I was when I started out.
Who I am as a man has changed completely since Jesus has been given more and more control of my life.
I can only stand now and praise God for the glorious gift of the bread of life. The more I partake of it the more my life becomes like that of Jesus!
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