Food for life v23n29

Food for life!

V23 n29

Matthew 4:4, But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. KJV

In last weeks newsletter, we talked or shared about what it is that one is seeking as their primary source of food or nourishment. As we note that Matthew records that man should not live by bread alone, but rather by each and every word that proceeds forth from the mouth of God. So one has to ask themselves the question, what is it that is your primary concerns or thought for maintaining life, that for the physical, or that which pertains to the spiritual?

John 6:26, Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. KJV.

Though the miracle of the loaves was one of the most astonishing that ever was performed upon earth; and though this people had, by the testimony of all their senses, the most convincing proof of its reality; yet we find many of them paid little attention to it, and regarded the omnipotent hand of God in it no further than it went to satisfy the demands of their appetite! Most men are willing to receive temporal good from the hands of God; but there are few, very few, who are willing to receive spiritual blessings. (from Adam Clarke Commentary)

Why is it that you seek Him? Is it for that which will satisfy the appetite of the flesh and all of it’s cravings?

Oh! how seldom is Christ sought for his own sake. How natural is it for men to seek Christ for sinister ends and bye-respects! But to seek him only for outward advantages, is the basest abhors. Labour not for the meat which perisheth. (Wm. Burkitt’s commentary)

John 6:27, Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. KJV.

[Labour not for the meat.] That is, for that only, but also for the bread, etc. Our Lord wills every man to be active and diligent in that employment in which providence has placed him; but it is his will also that that employment, and all the concerns of life, should be subservient to the interest of his soul.

[But for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.] He who labours not, in the work of his salvation, is never likely to enter into the kingdom of God. Though our labour cannot purchase it, either in whole or in part, yet it is the way in which God chooses to give salvation; and he that will have heaven must strive for it. Everything that can be possessed, except the salvation of God, is a perishing thing: this is its essential character: it can last to us no longer than the body lasts. But, when the earth and its produce are burnt up, this bread of Christ, his grace and salvation, will be found remaining unto eternal life. This is the portion after which an immortal spirit should seek.

[Him hath God the Father sealed.] By this expression, our Lord points out the commission which, as the Messiah, he received from the Father, to be prophet and priest to an ignorant, sinful world. As a person who wishes to communicate his mind to another who is at a distance writes a letter, seals it with his own seal, and sends it directed to the person for whom it was written, so Christ, who lay in the bosom of the Father, came to interpret the divine will to man, bearing the image, superscription, and seal of God, in the immaculate holiness of his nature, unsullied truth of his doctrine, and in the astonishing evidence of his miracles. But he came also as a priest, to make an atonement for sin; and the bread which nourishes unto eternal life, he tells us, <John 6:51>, is his body, which he gives for the life of the world; and to this sacrifice of himself, the words, him hath God the Father sealed, seem especially to relate.

Infinite justice found Jesus Christ to be without spot or blemish, and therefore sealed, pointed out and accepted him, as a proper sacrifice and atonement for the sin of the whole world. Collate with this passage, <Heb. 7:26-28; Eph. 5:27; 2 Pet. 3:14>; and especially <Heb. 9:13-14>: For if the blood of BULLS and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth-- how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself WITHOUT SPOT to God, purge your consciences from dead works! The rabbis talk much of the seal of God, which they suppose to be 'emet (heb 571), or truth; and that this is a representation of the unoriginated and endless perfections of God. (from Adam Clarke Commentary)

John 6:30, They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work? KJV

[That we may see, and believe thee] That, having seen the miracle, we may believe thee to be the promised Messiah. They had already seen the miracle of the five loaves, and did not believe; and it was impossible for them to see anything more descriptive of unlimited power and goodness. Even miracles themselves are lost on persons whose hearts are fixed on the perishing things of the world, and whose minds are filled with prejudice against the truth. (from Adam Clarke Commentary)

Here the Jews tell our Saviour, that, before they will believe in him, they must see some sign from him, to confirm his doctrine, and prove him to be the Messias; they acknowledge Christ had wrought a great miracle in feeding five thousand persons with five barley loaves; but Moses fed their fathers in the wilderness, who were no less than six hundred thousand persons, with excellent manna from heaven, and this for forty years

together; from whence they would seem to conclude, that they had more reason to believe Moses than Christ: not considering that Moses was but an instrument to obtain, by prayer the manna at the hands of God: but Christ was an agent, and that, by a creating power inherent in himself, he multiplied the five loaves to the feeding of five thousand.

Note, here, From the Jews requiring a sign before they would believe, that he who publishes a new doctrine to the world, ought to confirm his mission by some miraculous operation.

2. That God honoured Moses, his messenger, very much, and Christ his minister much more, in that both of them wrought great and special miracles for the confirmation of their mission.

3. That the Jews not believing Christ to be the true Messias, upon so many attestations, and after his divine mission was confirmed by such miraculous operations, rendered their infidelity inexcusable, and their obstinacy invincible. (Wm. Burkitt’s commentary)

What demands do you place on God, before you will believe and act upon that which His Word asks of you?

John 6:31, Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. KJV

[Our fathers did eat manna in the desert] Their argument seems to run thus: Thou hast, we grant, fed five thousand men with five loaves and two small fishes; but what is this in comparison of what Moses did in the desert, who for forty years fed more than a million of persons with bread from heaven: do something like this, and then we will believe in thee, as we have believed in Moses. (from Adam Clarke Commentary)

John 6:33-35, 33 For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. 34 Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. 35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. KJV

Is that which you have been seeking, the spiritual nourishment that will sustain you? Often times the solution is right before us, but one has not allowed themselves the opportunity to see or observe in the proper light.

[Lord, evermore give us this bread.] Either meaning, "Let the miracle of the manna be renewed, and continue among us forever:" or, "Let that bread of which thou hast spoken, become our constant nourishment." The Jews expected that, when the Messiah should come, he would give them all manner of delicacies, and, among the rest, manna, wine, and spicy oil. From the following extract, we may see where Mohammed got his Paradise. "Many affirm, says Rab. Mayemon, that the hope of Israel is this: That the Messiah shall come and raise the dead; and they shall be gathered together in the garden of Eden, and shall eat and drink and satiate themselves all the days of the world. There the houses shall be all builded with precious stones; the beds shall be made of silk; and the rivers shall flow with wine and spicy oil. He made manna to descend for them, in which was all manner of tastes; and every Israelite found in it what his palate was chiefly pleased with. If he desired fat in it, he had it. In it, the young man tasted bread, the old man honey, and the children oil. (from Adam Clarke Commentary)

Aren’t we many times like Israel, that we look for all of our comforts and rewards here? Has one forgotten, that He said that His kingdom was not of this world? Are you seeking first the kingdom of God?

John 6:50-51, 50 This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. 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. KJV

Do you balk, or hesitate when it comes to receiving the things that God has for you? Do you struggle with that which the Word asks of you?

In these verses our blessed Saviour resumes his former doctrine, namely, that he is the object of saving faith, and the bread of life, which he compares with the manna, the bread of Israel. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, which manna was an illustrious type of Christ. Thus both came down from heaven; both were freely given of God without any merit or desert of men; both in a miraculous manner; both at first unknown what they were, and whence they came; both equally belonging to all: both sufficient for all, poor and rich.

The manna, white in colour, so clear is our Lord's innocence; pleasant like honey, so sweet are his benefits: beaten and broken before eaten, Christ on his cross, bleeding and dying; giving only in the wilderness, and ceasing as soon as they came in to the land of promise, as sacraments shall vanish, when we enjoy the substance, in heaven. But though manna was thus excellent, yet the eaters of it were dead; but such as feed upon Christ, the

bread of life, shall live eternally in bliss and glory. I am the living bread which came down from heaven, if any man may eat of this bread, he shall live for ever.

Here we learn, 1. What a miserable creature man naturally is, in a pining and starved condition, under the want of soul food.

2. That Jesus Christ is the food of souls, which quickens them that are dead, and is unto the needy soul all that it can need; such spiritual food as will prove a remedy and preservative against death, both spiritual and eternal. I am the living bread. (Wm. Burkitt’s commentary)

Will you become a partaker of His divine nature?

That you may know Him,

In the service of Jesus Christ.

From Australia,

Larry Gazelka