Doctrines (posted Tuesday, February 13 2007)

One of the main analogies in the Bible is bread. The Exodus generation received bread from heaven, in the form of manna. Unleavened bread is constantly mentioned throughout scripture. Jesus taught that He is the Bread of Life. The Communion ritual involves taking a piece of bread.

What does all of this Biblical bread stand for?

Bread for the Patriarchs

Much of what the Bible records in the Old Testament concerns the ritual observances of Israel towards Jehovah, but bread is used even earlier. In one of the first mentions in the Bible, bread and wine is used to mark the occasion when Abram is blessed by Melchizedek, a Gentile priest of Jehovah.

- Genesis 14:18-20 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand." Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

This ceremony occured long before there was a Mosaic Law, and before Abram was circumcised and became a Jew. Even at this early stage of Biblical history, bread is a symbol of God's provision and Grace.

Lot also provided bread baked without yeast as a welcoming meal for the two angels who visited him in Sodom and Gomorrah. This, along with the offer to wash their feet, was another pre-Israel sign of pleasure and graciousness, in this case for Lot to put them up for the night in his home.

- Genesis 19:1-3 The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. "My lords," he said, "please turn aside to your servant's house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning." "No," they answered, "we will spend the night in the square." But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate.

Bread under the Mosaic Law

The Jews ate bread prepared in a certain way for festivals and rememberance under the Mosaic Law. It was prepared without yeast or leaven, just as the bread prepared by Melchizedek for Abram. The Passover feast, one of the most important for Jews, was instituted as eating unleavened bread for a week in rememberance of God's deliverance from Egypt.

- Exodus 12:14-20 "This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD, a lasting ordinance. For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat - that is all you may do. Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is an alien or native-born. Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread."

The Passover required the blood of animals as a sacrifice, but it required the unleavened bread as a thankful reminder of God's provision in rescuing Israel from slavery in Egypt. Once again, bread represented God's Grace.

Not a month after leaving Egypt, the Israelites were grumbling against Moses and against God about their provisions. So the Lord rained down manna from heaven as yet another provision of His Grace towards his people.

- Exodus 16:2-4 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death." Then the LORD said to Moses, "I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions."

Here, daily bread was provided from heaven as a Grace provision from God even when His chosen people were discontent and not following His commands. A jar of manna was kept in the Ark of the Covenant as a reminder of God's Grace, for after Israel entered the Promised Land, they might too easily forget their reliance upon Jehovah.

- Exodus 16:32 Moses said, "This is what the LORD has commanded: 'Take an omer of manna and keep it for the generations to come, so they can see the bread I gave you to eat in the desert when I brought you out of Egypt.'"

Jehovah's tabernacle, and later the temple, had specially crafted tables for displaying show-bread as an offering before God. One interesting note is that the bread which was placed on the tables was called the bread of the Presence. Thus it was a reminder not just of His provision, but of his constant presence and identification with His chosen people.

- Exodus 25:30 Put the bread of the Presence on this table to be before me at all times.

- 2 Chronicles 4:19 Solomon also made all the furnishings that were in God's temple: the golden altar; the tables on which was the bread of the Presence;

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