Today, we continue our weary traveler series. Listen in as I chat about a few layers of bread's symbolism in the Bible, an essential sustenance for both the body and soul. This episode attempts to knead together the rich narrative of bread cited 492 times in Scripture, as we explore its place from Genesis to the miraculous manna of Exodus, and how it intertwines with our faith journey today. Drawing inspiration from old and New Testament traditions, we will reveal how bread is not only a reminder of God's provision but also a powerful metaphor for the Word of God that fuels our spiritual endurance.
As we break the 'bread of life' together, we'll reflect on the profound unity and nourishment we discover in Christ, inspired by the teachings of 1 Corinthians 10:16-17. Our communion bread is more than a ritual; it's a tangible symbol of our collective identity in Jesus, providing spiritual sustenance that fosters growth within our community of believers. Join us for this episode as we extend encouragement especially for YOU, and celebrate the shared strength we gain from our faith's divine nourishment with others.
Remember, weary traveler you won't be weary long... Listen in next week for another episode of weary traveler essentials.
Now get out into the world and be a woman who intentionally encourages another!
Today, we continue our weary traveler series. Listen in as I chat about a few layers of bread's symbolism in the Bible, an essential sustenance for both the body and soul. This episode attempts to knead together the rich narrative of bread cited 492 times in Scripture, as we explore its place from Genesis to the miraculous manna of Exodus, and how it intertwines with our faith journey today. Drawing inspiration from old and New Testament traditions, we will reveal how bread is not only a reminder of God's provision but also a powerful metaphor for the Word of God that fuels our spiritual endurance.
As we break the 'bread of life' together, we'll reflect on the profound unity and nourishment we discover in Christ, inspired by the teachings of 1 Corinthians 10:16-17. Our communion bread is more than a ritual; it's a tangible symbol of our collective identity in Jesus, providing spiritual sustenance that fosters growth within our community of believers. Join us for this episode as we extend encouragement especially for YOU, and celebrate the shared strength we gain from our faith's divine nourishment with others.
Remember, weary traveler you won't be weary long... Listen in next week for another episode of weary traveler essentials.
Now get out into the world and be a woman who intentionally encourages another!
#women #podcast
Speaker 1:
Good morning Encouragers. It's Jo. Happy Monday. So a weary traveler this is what we've been talking about. Last week, if you listened in, you would have heard me talking all about this concept of being a weary traveler and this kind of grief-filled season that I've been in. Well, I want to continue our series and begin the first portion of the weary traveler necessities. So, as you can imagine, when you're traveling, you need some stuff to survive your journey, and this couldn't have come at a better time. This recording Although I've been thinking and praying about these episodes for quite some time, I am trying to record them more in live action, so typically I would record them before today being Monday, the day my podcasts come out, but I've been traveling, literally traveling with my family and a friend and her children, so we didn't get back to one in the morning this morning, so I am legit recording coming to you as an actual physical weary traveler.
Speaker 1:
Could it be better? I'm feeling it and living it, so I just think God is good in His timing, as always. Alright, so the first necessity, if you will, that a person would need if they are traveling would be food, wouldn't it Basic necessity? It doesn't matter what kind of trip you're taking. You could do a weekend like I did just now. You could do a month's backpacking trip across Europe. I don't know. Imagine, just imagine, dream for a second on any kind of trip you'd want to take. What would you need? One of the basic things Food, right, basic nourishment.
Speaker 1:
And when we look at scripture, it's unbelievable how many references there are to the very basic food item bread. Bread Couldn't be more basic right Bread and water. And I did a little research about this, just thinking through this message, this encouragement. And the bread is mentioned 492 times through scripture, 492 times from Genesis to Revelation. It has unbelievable amounts of symbolism and meaning behind it, more than I can do in a five-minute encouragement, that's for sure. We use it for celebrations, the Jewish faith uses it for celebration as well as Christian faiths, and it's rooted in scripture. It's from the beginning of time, from the beginning of man and the creation. We have been reading, thinking and being encouraged by God with the symbolism and metaphors of bread, a basic traveler necessity.
Speaker 1:
In Genesis 3, it's first referenced just after the fall, where God says to them Now, by the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it. You were taken for. You were dust and dust you shall return. In other words, you're going to be working for it now, right? You're going to have to make that bread, you're going to have to eat it and work it until the ground to create it.
Speaker 1:
The first kind of instance of bread that we see, as I'm saying in Genesis, it's actually lehem. It's a Hebrew word for bread. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that perfectly, but lehem, and that is from Genesis 3. Then again in Genesis, we see Abraham asking Sarah Quickly make bread. We're expecting company Make some bread.
Speaker 1:
So we see that this is a basic necessity that we had to kind of work to create out of the elements, and it is a temporary source of life. Listen to me Bread is a temporary source of life or nourishment, and it has been from the very beginning. Then we see a shifting. We see God start to speak to his people, to speak to us, because his word is still active and alive for us today, guys, in Deuteronomy, as again referenced in Matthew 4. And it says man shall not live on bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. So once again saying that we will need bread to live, but that's not all we need. We need a different kind of nourishment. We need the bread of the Word of God, the eternal, the everlasting, the eternal and forever source of life and nourishment comes from the Word of God. So he's using bread as a reference for the Word of God. The truth come in Word form out of the Lord's mouth. So not only do we need this source of life from actual nourishment which God is good to give us, we need the Word of God, which is again referenced as bread. We need it to survive. We saw this in Scripture you literally need bread to survive. In Exodus, we see the people traveling towards the Promised Land and God once again graciously provides them manna. That unleavened bread, exodus 1234,. So the people picked up their bread dough before it had risen and they carried it on their shoulders in bowls, wrapped up in their cloths. We know that manna literally fell through from the sky, so much so God provided bread until they entered the Promised Land and were able to harvest their own Bread. Bread, bread from Genesis to Revelation. Nourishment, survival. Consider physical nourishment and survival and then think about it spiritually, the Word of God being the bread we need to be nourished in our spirit and to survive this life in our spirit, in the spiritual realm, we need the Word of God.
Speaker 1:
The Jewish people we know use it as celebration, this unleavened bread. We also have bread in Christian ceremonies and celebrations. We think of the Holy Communion. We use the bread as a symbol of Jesus. He did this too, at the Last Supper. He showed us how to do this, how to celebrate using bread, how to commune together in union, to be reminded. Why do we do this? Why do we take bread and use it as celebrations? Well, the Jewish people used it for Passover to be reminded of how God saved them and he rescued them from the Pharaoh. That's how they use unleavened bread. We use it in a similar fashion to remember how we are rescued, but we were rescued in a different way.
Speaker 1:
John 6, someone came to rescue us. John came to give us salvation and life eternal. Who was that someone and how did he reference himself? Jesus. He says I am the bread of life. It's Jesus. He's the bread of life. The Word of God is the bread of life. Jesus in the flesh came to give us life eternal. He says in John 6, I am the bread of life. I am the living bread that came down from heaven, much like that manna. Right, came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, though, he will live forever. Right, he's comparing it to the manna that won't last you forever, that won't give you eternal life. Yes, it's nourishment, but this bread me, jesus. I came to give you life eternal and forever. And this bread will give you life eternal. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. He's literally telling us he's going to give us his flesh in order to give us life, and he's comparing it to bread. Again, nourishment, survival, salvation, bread.
Speaker 1:
It's amazing when you look into this Hebrew original root word, lehem, think about Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. The word Bethlehem literally means get ready for it. The house of bread. Come on, this is too good, guys, this is too much. Then Jesus goes on in his ministry to explain to us how we should pray. Don't you know what he says? The first line of his prayer the our Father, give us this day our daily. Come on bread, daily provision. God provides our daily provision. Jesus came as the bread of life, and the word of God is the nourishment we need in our spirits that we get to have. We get to have this access to this every single day. Jesus reminds us again in John 6. I can guarantee this truth Moses didn't give you bread from heaven. My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. He's like hello, it's me. It's incredible, guys, when you look at this and you really get into scripture and read about this.
Speaker 1:
Now, one thing that I love when I was reading and thinking about this is bread could just sit there and not be eaten. Right, a piece of bread on your plate, unless it's literally ingested, would not be nourishing to you, much like the word of God. If your Bible just sits there, cold and dusty, guess what You're not taking in that word of God. You're not eating the word of God and ingesting it into your spirit. God says he places the word of God in our hearts when we read it Internal. It's again that life source, that forever life source. The bread on our plate will nourish us, for sure. It will help us survive this world Absolutely. Will it last forever? Nope. Will it help us with our stronghold? Nope. Will it help us comfort us in our grief? Nope. True, temporary source of nourishment. We need that word of God. We need to open up that Bible. We need to read the word of God daily, that daily bread, that daily word of God to nourish us and strengthen us and get us through. It provides nourishment, survival and salvation. The most incredible thing is it changes us. It changes us, it transforms us over time to be more like Christ Incredible.
Speaker 1:
Another element I was thinking about with bread is how unifying it is. Bread brings us together. I love how we see in Acts I have this on my wall in my kitchen. I love it so much, acts 2.46,. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts. If we were to replace that word with the word bread here, with the word of God, which is not necessarily what is intended here in Acts, but if we think about that for a second, he said that the word of God was the nourishment, the true source of life, that Jesus came and literally broke to save us. If we read it this way and day by day, attending the temple together and reading the word of God in their homes, they received nourishment and glad and generous hearts. Think about that Reading the word of God together. How unifying that is in the Spirit. Literally sitting across the table, eating together. That's what Jesus did. That's what he did with people. He sat with people, he shared wisdom from his father and he ate bread. It's incredible, unifying togetherness, unity in the spirit.
Speaker 1:
Then we again, we celebrate communion by breaking the bread. Why did we do that? Who broke Jesus? We know this now. He says he is the bread of life, who came from the Father in heaven to give us life eternal. Anyone who eats from it receives life forever. So when we get together for communion our church does it, you know, every six weeks or so. Some denominations do it weekly. We drink of the wine to remember his blood shed for us. We eat of the bread to remember the breaking of his body for us, to give us that salvation.
Speaker 1:
1 Corinthians, 10, 16 through 17, says the cup of blessing that will bless is not a participation in the blood of Christ. The bread that we break is not a participation in the body of Christ, because there is one bread. We are many, our one body, for we all partake of the one bread. The one bread, jesus. That's what unifies us. He is the one who you came to unify us. We are one big body of Christ together, unified in the spirit, communing together and remembering together. The word of God placed in our hearts helps us remember, helps us survive right, nourishes us, changes us and grows us together forever, until we see his face.
Speaker 1:
Ladies, remember the bread today. Nourish your bodies with the word of God. Remember that it is your true source of nourishment and life and although life isn't promised to be easy, it will help you survive, it will teach you, it will provide comfort and wisdom until we see his face. Bread of life is what the weary traveler needs. Thank you for joining me this Monday. Share this podcast if you feel that, and I hope that you turn around and get into the word of God and then get into the world and encourage someone else. Choose to be a woman who encourages her. Happy Monday, love to you all.
