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Bread of Life

BREAD FOR THE HEAD

In the Old Testament they were the Children, the clay, the sheep, etc.... In the New Testament we're the branches, the temples, the vessels, the salt, the sons, the saints, the trees, the BREAD, etc...

The word 'corn' doesn't appear in many versions of the Bible and even in the KJV the Hebrew word 'bar' is translated as wheat or grain more often than corn. Even so my boyhood memories include detasseling corn in Illinois where one type of sweetcorn normally has six ears on each stalk.

It's no problem for me to visualize the accounts of Ruth gleaning in the fields of Boaz, the disciples of Jesus eating in the corn fields, Mk2:23,or the second dream of the Pharaoh concerning the ears of corn.
Maybe corn-on-the-cob wasn't the same in ancient Egypt as it is in the USA today, but that's the way I think of it, i.e. my perspective on the matter.

What kind of bread are you?

"We are one bread", 1Cor10:17 Can people really be "bread"?? Only if they observe comunion?

See how scripture makes the contrast between the bakery bread which nourishes and strengthens our body, and the spiritual or poetic bread which builds true spirituality. Not only does this study help us to understand how we are a 3-in-1 creation of Spirit, Soul, and Body (1Thes5:23), but we'll see more clearly the three chronological periods of Genesis, the Old Covenant, and the New Covenant..

 
See how mine eyes are enlightened? First let us consider a few pertinent "bread" verses:

Numb14:9"..neither fear ye the people of the land;
for they are BREAD for us.."

Ps81:16"He should have fed them with the finest of the wheat.."

To Peter in Luke22:31 - "Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat"

 




PRECIOUS BREAD!   The closing chapters of the Book of Genesis reveals how desperate the people were for bread, once the famine began. "And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread; and Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph; what he saith to you, do." Gen41:55. Genesis 47:13 reads "There was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore.." Joseph had interpreted the dreams of the Pharaoh and told him about the seven years of good harvest to be followed by seven years of famine, and so Joseph had been raised up out of the prison and put in charge of the bread/corn storehouse. More than that, he was made second only to the Pharaoh in authority.
Not just Chief Storekeeper, but Vice-President over all the land!

THE PRECIOUS CORNBREAD. Please note carefully that the scripture never says cornbread explicitly, but it does say "Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering; for it was without number." Gen41:49. We may gather from this that Joseph changed the corn into bread about 2,000 years before Jesus came along to change the water to wine! (That's when his mother said to the servants "Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it." Jn2:5. The correlation between John 2:5 and Gen41:55 is very remarkable, to say the least.) Compare the two in your own Bible!

The KJV scripture says "corn", so I say "corn", despite the historical claim that it actually was maize or some other kind of grain, and that it wasn't the same as our present day "corn on the cob". It's fascinating to me how the Pharaoh dreamed about the ears of corn eating the ears of corn, and my mind is protesting that corn doesn't have a mouth to eat with -- corn only has ears! Psalm 78:24 says how God had "rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven".   And don't forget the account of how Jacob's sons took their CORN MONEY with them. Gen44:2 KJV.

"The foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men". 1Cor1:25.


One of the more preposterous passages of scripture is found in Judges 12:6 -- because they couldn't prounounce shibboleth correctly (it means ears of corn), forty-two thousand men died! Their speech betrayed their true allegiance and caused their death. Now Proverbs 18:21 says "Death and Life are in the power of the tongue"! Take a moment to think about it...





Jesus said: "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone; but if it die, it brings forth much fruit." Jn12:24 KJV

It's pretty clear that He was that kernel who was "planted" (in the womb and in the tomb) so that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness could know there is a God in heaven, and that this life is a small test for the eternity to come.

After the Children of Israel had spent four hundred years in Egypt, Moses came along to lead them out into the wilderness where they ate Manna, and began the annual celebration of eating unleavened bread for a week. I call it the Wonder Bread Period because "manna" in Hebrew asks the question "What is it?" It certainly wasn't the cornbread they'd been used to, and some didn't like it, saying "Our soul loathes this light bread". Numb21:5. Many must have wondered, just as they wonder today, two thousand years later, about the truth of Jesus, the Living Bread, as well as the Light of the world.

The manna would come down like dew every night, and the people would gather their day's ration every morning. Any time they tried to save up or hoard extra manna, it would go to stinking and growing worms. It was "daily bread", except for the LORD's Day when none fell. So on the sixth day they could gather a double portion, and it didn't turn wormy.

This was interesting stuff, and God could, so God did, for our learning. Rom15:4. They could bake or boil the manna, and it was said to taste like wafers made with honey, but whatever was left on the ground after they had gathered their daily ration, just melted away like ice-cubes! So the Children ate manna for forty years in the wilderness, but it ceased once they crossed over Jordan into the Promised Land of milk & honey, under the leadership of Joshua. Nobody told them that the manna was a pre-figure of Jesus, the true-bread to come, because the name of Jesus was a secret (hidden) in the Old Testament. ("Wonderful" translates as "secret" in Hebrew: Judg13:18/Isa9:6).

Remove the Yeast! Exodus 12:15 introduces this symbolic ritual of eating flat bread, or bread without leaven, for seven days immediately following Passover. Not only were they required to eat unleavened bread for seven days, they even had to remove it from their homes during that period. I'm told that many today make a game of it, hiding small amounts of leaven around the house for the kids to find and dispose of.

Once we realize that we are a kind of bread, it doesn't take much stretching of our imagination to understand that the leaven represents our attitude -- Jesus said "beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees", Mt16:6. So, in the Old Testament, leaven represents sin and hypocrisy. Paul wrote about the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, in 1Cor5:8. But now in the New Testament era, a new kind of leaven is called for. The OLD is superceded by the NEW.

THE TRUE BREAD. It wasn't revealed in any of the first three gospels (the synoptic gospels), but John chapter six gives the Bible student a completely new twist concerning the bread. Jesus himself said: "I am the bread of life". John6. What a fantastic statement!

We knew him already as the Lamb of God and the Word of God; the Prince of Peace and the Rose of Sharon. He's the Vine, the Door, the good Shepherd, the Light of the World, the Morning Star, etc. He made many "I AM" statements, as befits the true Son of I AM that I AM. Ex3:14.

P is for Poem "Corn of Heaven"

Here comes the New Covenant! I see the changeover taking place on the Cross, when Jesus cried "It is finished". The Old Covenant era was finished, and the New Covenant era began. The Cornbread period of Genesis had been succeeded by the Wonder Bread period of the Old Covenant, and now it, in turn, was past history. What kind of bread would we be in the New Covenant?

Sourdough?. . . Whole wheat? . . . Thin sliced?

Paul wrote "Behold, I show you a mystery", 1Cor15:51, and went on to say that "the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." He added to this, in 1Thes4:17, by saying "then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord."

We're going to rise and meet the Lord in the air!
We're in the RAISIN BREAD period!!

Christ in You, the New leaven!

"For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread. 1Cor10:17.

"There are differences of administrations, but the same Lord and there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all". 1Cor12:5,6

        "The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal (dough), till the whole was leavened." Mt13:33.

"Understandest what thou readest?" That's what the Apostle Phillip asked the Ethiopian eunuch. Acts8:27. In this parable of the three measures we see an example of how the Great Author has hidden the leaven in the phraseology. Make no mistake though--it's truly "hidden leaven".

The teaching about all leaven being sin or bad is being done by those who haven't seen how the new-leaven is the hidden-leaven, and that it's not just good, but it's VERY good!   You might even say it's essential for those who would be "In Christ".

Some have concluded that leaven is ALWAYS bad in the Bible, but not so -- the "new meat offering" on the Day of Pentecost, Lev23:17, was two loaves made with fine flour and made WITH LEAVEN, were the firstfruits unto the LORD. Most Bible scholars recognize how "meat" and "bread" are figures of speech put for "food".
"He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches: To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna ..." Rev2:17.

Luke's gospel, 22:31, records where Jesus told Peter that Satan desired to "sift him as wheat". Dry flour might be blown around by "every wind of doctrine", Eph4:14, but once you pour on the Holy Spirit you become a new lump. "Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump.." 1Cor5:7. In other words, get rid of the sin and hypocrisy and be baptized in the Holy Spirit, and then begin eating the true bread of life. The Bread for the Head that we eat with our ears!

............HOT ZIGGETY!


It comes down to this -- the bread won't rise unless it is leavened, with the hidden spiritual leaven: the new leaven of "Christ within us, the hope of glory", Col 1:27. If you expect to rise and meet the Lord in the air, you'd better contain this new leaven. Otherwise, forget it. A spiritual law comes into play here -- maybe you're also allowed to have Buddha or the Dali Lama within, but don't count on "rising" with that kind of leaven. Remember, "there is no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved", Acts 4:12. That's why the name of Jesus is such a wonderful name: Phil 2:9.

I haven't wanted to muddy the water with "Shewbread", the Bread of Affliction or Sorrows, or the "Continual Bread", Numb4:7, but they all play a part in understanding this topic. I don't expect it to impact the intellect of the Moslem or Mormon, but for those who call themselves Christian (including those in Northern Ireland) it should give them pause to consider and rethink their position. Are they really following Christ, the great shepherd, or is it just some noisy bellwether or denominational pied piper?

Did you say "I never heard it like this before" ??
Well then, maybe you ought to check it out in your own Bible!

A spiritual law is in effect here, and they needn't think they're fooling God by mingling with the crowd. It didn't help Adam to try and put the blame on Eve, and it won't do them any good to protest that "everyone else does it", or "Nobody told me". I'm telling you now. Only one family made it to safety on Noah's Ark, and you can bet your bottom dollar that only the Family of God will be rising to meet the Lord in the air.

A "can of worms", without a doubt -- applies to those misguided who plan to rebuild the Temple and begin the animal sacrifices again. It's an exercise in futility, for sure.   That "Old Bread" has turned mouldy, and those who cling to it are no better than the lying Gibeonites of Joshua chapter nine.   Jesus himself was the perfect sacrifice who came in the fullness of time as the precious True Bread that we eat with our ears!

Defying Gravity! In Genesis we're told that instead of rain, a mist went up from the ground and watered the garden, but we aren't told for how long that situation existed. Maybe until Noah's time, and even while he was building the Ark. "You fool", they would have jeered at him, "water is heavy -- it doesn't come from the sky". But Noah had the last laugh, if you'll excuse my crudeness.

Today, people scoff at the notion of meeting the Lord in the air. Just because it hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't, because God can, and He said He would, and now we seem to have concluded the "Sixth Day" of Biblical history. We're in the right season for sure. Amen.

The Butler and the Baker by Bob Smith of Foreman '89

The Butler and the Baker had dreams that were alike,
The Wine and Bread were what they dreamed about.
Joseph said interpretations had to come from GOD
And what he said about their dreams left no room for doubt.

The Butler's dream was short and sweet, about a certain VINE
Three branches meant three days, for sure not a very long time.
He squeezed the juice into the Pharaoh's Cup, doing it as unto the Lord
He'd learned his dream meant Life, and the 3rd day would see his reward.

The Baker's dream didn't seem so different, but the outcome was just the reverse,
3 baskets meant 3 days for him too, but on the 3rd Day he'd be needing a hearse!
The bread in the upper basket had come from his very own head,
Instead of the True-Bread of Jesus, his own opinion came first, his dream said.

The Butler's dream meant Life, but the Baker's dream meant Death,
In Adam we all die, though it was GOD who first gave him breath.
Jesus gives us eternal life.. "Receive ye the Holy Spirit", he said
And if you won't believe His Word, you'll surely rue your bed.

In Noah's 600 year, in the 2nd month, the 17th day... were the windows of heaven opened. Gen7:11

The Fool has said in his heart, "There is no God!" Ps14:1.
"Behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly" 1Sam26:21

The bigger fool, I'm thinking, is the one who says it right out loud! Otherwise intelligent or knowledgeable persons make calamitous mistakes when it comes to the subject of religion -- they seem to think that every religion is simply a matter of choice, that you can "TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT", and that any religion which proclaims itself to be the only Truth is bigoted and egotistical.

It's a dangerous attitude and worse because it leads others into the same kind of thinking without checking out the facts. What facts?

For starters, let's get some history under our belt and accept that there is no older book in the world than the book of Genesis (not Gilgamesh or Hammurabi) -- Genesis goes all the way back to "The Beginning", although He doesn't say how long ago that was; and the themes and principles of Genesis continue to be displayed in the sixty-five books which follow. Without these books, mankind would have no concept of heaven/hell, devils/angels, eternal life, final Judgment, etc. The Book of Mormon (19th century A.D.) couldn't have been brought by the Angel Moroni, nor could the Holy Book of the Moslems(5th century A.D.) been brought by the Angel Gabriel without some idea of what an angel was.. Actually, the Koran acknowledges many of the Biblical characters, from Noah and Abraham to Moses and Jesus, but the author's false rendering of the record ( about Joseph in Egypt, Solomon's wisdom, etc.) makes it clear the logic of Scripture wasn't understood in the least.

Conclusion? You have to know the original before you can detect a good counterfeit, yet it's quite common for someone to mistakenly, perhaps sincerely, alter the facts in a story they've heard only a time or two. These books copied some of the themes of Scripture, but then ignorantly changed or perverted it to suit their own pursuits, as have many cults and various denominations. Just because a person calls themself a "Christian" doesn't make it so: Jesus said "By their fruits ye shall know them", Matt7:20. He wasn't talking apples and oranges, you know -- He was speaking of the love, joy, peace, etc. of Galatians 5:22. So the cults have prospered simply by emphasizing the TLC of their own agenda, whereas those hypocrites professing to believe the Bible often display open contempt or non-love to members of opposing views. In ages past the Crusaders went to war and killed the ones who opposed them! What a monstrous corruption and contradiction of Scripture!

Great debates have erupted over whether the Bible is (or isn't) the infallible, inerrant, literal, Word of God. Much ado that misses the point, because Scripture is also the Poetic Truth, Historic Truth, Geographic Truth, Allegoric Truth, Secret (hidden like gold) Truth, and Divine (Prophetic) Truth. No other book in the world--not the Koran or Bagavad Gita or even the Talmud -- comes close to matching it for language, literature, wisdom, philosophy, etc. and ONLY the Bible records its truth using a multitude of hidden figurative allegories.

The events in Scripture really did happen: those people really lived and died (did you know we have artifacts naming Hezekiah, and that the tomb of High Priest Caiaphas has recently been located?). We're not talking solar mythology, or "Shroud of Turin" or Da Vinci Code, or the newly discovered ELS Bible Code, or the so-called Gematria where letters of the Hebrew alphabet are given assigned numerical values; but a study of these subjects may prove beneficial to the serious student of theology, if only to answer questions relevant to Christianity.

"Let us go down and confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech", says Genesis 11:7. Are you wondering who is "us"? Have you considered how it fits with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who came down on the mountain to speak to Moses, and as a babe in Bethlehem, and as a rushing wind on the Day of Pentecost. They came down in succession!

ALLEGORIC TRUTH - - The word "allegory" is used only once in Scripture, in Galatians 4:24 to say that Hagar and Sarah (and by extension Ishmael and Isaac) were an allegory of the two (2) covenants. An example of allegory comes from 2Sam12 in the Old Testament.

King David had sent for Bathsheba and had intercourse with her, when her soldier husband was off at war in the front lines. She turned up pregnant and David ordered her husband back home, presumably so that he would sleep with his wife and wouldn't know about that illicit affair. But the husband, Uriah, instead of rejoicing over his good fortune, took a martyrs stand and refused to return to his own house and sleep with his wife. So David knew his "secret" was at risk, and he ordered Uriah back to the front lines again, to be put into the thick of the battle where he would die at the hand of the enemy.

This wonderful story is told in such a way that the motives and emotions of certain characters have to be imagined. I've heard it explained that Bathsheba was a brazen hussy for exposing herself on the rooftop, but I don't buy it. When the king sent for her, she had no choice but to obey--maybe a message from her husband? And David is clearly a murderer, despite the technicality of an airtight alibi.

Enter the Man-of-God, Nathan, to tell David a story about a rich man and a poor man who had a special ewe lamb that he loved dearly. When David heard that the rich man with lots of sheep, had taken the poor man's lamb to cook and serve at his own dinner party, he pronounced an angry judgment; the rich man should die!

That's when Nathan told him: "Thou art the man!" , 2Sam12:7. Evidentally this Prophet Nathan had plenty of intestinal fortitude, and he went on to explain (my paraphrase) how the parable had its allegorical foundation in the facts concerning Uriah and Bathsheba. David recognized how the "story" (not literal) had its basis in fact. Romans 15:4 tells us "whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning" (not just to tickle our ears), and we begin to learn how the Bible is like the Instruction Manual for Life, by the Almighty Creator of Life. Then 2Tim2:15 says [if we have any desire to be like Timothy] to "Study to show yourself approved unto God...".

Wisdom is termed a "she" in Proverbs 4, and a woman is termed "land" in Jeremiah 3:1 -- see it as preliminary to our learning how Jesus is the Word and the Son and the Seed, and remembering how our language has been confused. If you thought the Bible Story was strictly for simpletons, you're due for a rude awakening. You'll have goose-bumps all over your body!

God knows the process of sowing and reaping, so he planted Jesus (that incorruptible seed, 1Pet1:23) because He wants to have a great harvest of Sons and Daughters! In fact, he planted Jesus twice, in the womb and in the tomb, because "by two it's established", Gen41:32. Just be filled with the Living Water that has been poured out upon all flesh, Joel 2:28, and Jesus will do his first miracle in your life by changing that water into new wine!





Hidden leaven for spiritual "bread"

Matthew 13:33 "The kingdom of heaven is like unto LEAVEN which a woman hid in three (3) measures of dough, til the whole was leavened".
 

Colossians 1:27 "Christ in you, the hope of glory!"
If you don't have this leaven, you won't be rising
to meet the Lord in the air!




Have you noticed the M.O. of the Author??

It never says "cornbread", but what else would you call the bread that was made from corn??

It doesn't say "new name" in Exodus 6:3, but wasn't that the case for those who hadn't previously known Him as Jehovah?

It never mentions "new leaven" or "hidden leaven" per se, but if she hid the leaven, Matt 13:33, isn't that what it becomes?

It never says Jesus was "leavened", but for sure he "rose", and isn't that what "Lightbread" is supposed to do?

Of course the name Samuel is never given as the name of the Holy Ghost, but then why do we find so many parallels in Scripture?









This is the web site of Pastor R.Lester (Bob) Smith, author of "The Spit'N Image", "Six Days for Mankind", and "Ducks In A Row" -- all self-published, and now quite rare. It's also another outreach of the Prince of Peace Church, POB 660, Foreman, Arkansas 71836. If the content here has blessed you or been helpful to you (might help someone to understand and make the decision to follow Christ), please write or email me. Might help to keep me from getting discouraged about the community engulfed in multitudes who don't know their left hand from their right; and also much cattle.

Supporting Churches. On the positive side, Bob & Maroline are thankful for the many faithful friends and supporters of this ministry, and for the opportunities to share teaching, preaching, or poetry, when they're away from Foreman.

Please, if you have comments about the text, include the chapter and verse that applies. "..not of the letter, but of the spirit; for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." 2Cor3:6 KJV

Come back when you can stay longer!

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