Peteitorial
The Bread Man
I consider myself a bread man. Your great-grandpa was a bread man. He delivered bread for over thirty years and I helped. There is great honor in being a bread man.
Ever since I was a little boy, whenever some one bigger than me wanted to make a point about how their special project was, "a herald from God", they would say "man does not live by bread alone". I always thought, "yeah, but they still need bread." The real quote is Matthew 4: 4 Jesus answered, "It is written: `Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God'."
I think this is when I began to discover that I could not suffer fools well.
I once tried to feed people on words that came from the mouth of God but they still remained hungry - so I leave that to someone else.
Abraham, in the Old Testament, was a bread man. Look at Genesis 18.
5"Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way--now that you have come to your servant."
"Very well," they answered, "do as you say."
6So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. "Quick," he said, "get three seahs of fine flour and knead it and bake some bread."
The bible is a great source of wisdom and quotes concerning the value of the bread man. In a world that is black and white, with no grays, then you are either a bread man or a preacher man. You either bring sustenance in life - something they can sink their teeth into - or sustenance of the spirit - something they can feel.
In a world of grays, the bread man brings the love of god, one loaf at a time. The preacher man brings loaves to the masses, many at a time. There is a story in the bible of when Jesus fed 5,000 people with only a couple loaves of bread and a couple of fish. This was a preacher man thing. (John 6).
But It also shows Jesus meeting the most basic human need, using barley loaves, the least expensive kind of bread. Many Jews believed that the Messiah would renew the miraculous manna that their ancestors had eaten under Moses. Jesus pointed to a better, life-changing meal--himself. As the bread of life (verse 35), he would nourish his people far better than any miraculous meal. He is called the "better bread".
MANNA (Heb. man, Gr. manna). A special food provided for the Hebrews during the exodus from Egypt. The Hebrew man is a question and prefixed to hu would be "What is it?" On the other hand, it may be an adaptation of the Egyptian mennu, food. Josephus and other ancient writers attribute the name to the question "Is it food?" which is in keeping with the wilderness setting. It came at night (Numbers 11:9). It was white, of delicious flavor, and resembled seed of the coriander, a plant of the eastern Mediterranean area that was both tasty and nourishing (Exod 16:31). That it came by miraculous means is shown by its nature, its time of coming, and its preservation over the Sabbath (Exod 16:20-26; Deuteronomy 8:3). As soon as other food was available, the manna ceased (Josh 5:12). It was called "corn from heaven" (Ps 78:24), bread from heaven (105:40), and "angels' bread". Jesus, referring to himself, used it as a metaphor (John 6:31-58).
Be assured that I am not the baker of the bread; only the deliverer of the bread. A power greater than me has made the bread.
BREAD is the "staff of life," generally baked from dough made of wheat flour that has been leavened and made into loaves of various shapes and sizes. At the time of the Passover (Exodus 12) the Israelites ate unleavened bread because of their haste and remembered this in their annual feast of unleavened bread (12:15-20). In times of distress and of famine most of the people used barley.
A Staff is the long pole with the hook on top that you see pictures of shepherds walking with. It was used as a weapon, a walking stick, to pull stock from danger, to reach high fruit in trees, all kinds of stuff. It was "the" essential tool in those days. Without one, you and your flock would die.
Barley was the main staple bread plant of the Hebrews (Deuteronomy 8:8), the main food of the poor (Ruth 1:22; 2 Kings 4:42; John 6:9, 13), and bedding and feed for livestock.
Making Bread. . .
In the old days it was quite a chore. In those days it took years, really.
First, you had to plant the barley seed (taking for granted you already have land, water, the seeds, an ox to plow the ground, the plow, a scarecrow, and a decent growing season without a lot of locusts or birds to eat the crop).
Second, you have to water it, weed the ground, and nurture it for eight months.
Third, you have to harvest it. To do this you have to cut it; stack it; dry it; shake every stalk to get the seeds off; pick up all of the seeds (all about the size of a BB) off of the ground; keep them dry; bag them in animal skins; carry them to a cool dry place. Did you notice you had to have animal skins? Well, that means you had to raise the animals, butcher them, tan the skins, yadda-yadda-yadda. It is a lot of work.
Fourth, you take a skin full of seeds and grind them into flour. To get 1 cup of flour you have to grind up about a garbage can size bag of seeds. You take a carved out stone, pour in seeds, take a big stick, and smash the heck out of the seeds until they become a powder. Then you have to take all the big chunks out of the powder and pour it into clay pots. That then is the flour. It takes 2 to 3 cups of flour for each loaf of bread. A family of three ate three loafs a day - one with each meal. That makes 24 loafs a week (they didn't make bread on Saturday because that is the sabbath). The three loafs you make today are for eaten tomorrow. That way, when Friday came, Friday mornings bread was for Saturday, and Saturday night you could make some for Sunday - or - most likely you cooked up some unleavened bread on the fire in the fire for breakfast - and made loafs later in the day. It was against the law to work from Friday sunset until Saturday sunset in those days.
Fifth, you gathered all of the ingredients that you needed and made the bread. Oh, yeah, did I mention that you had to have an oven? If you were at a relatively permanent place, you would make an oven out of layers of stone. If you were traveling, you would make the bread by cooking it on a flat stone in the middle of a hot fire. You gather wood or dung for the fire. You start the fire. You get a bucket of water, the flour, salt, yeast (or no yeast depending on the type of fire), and mix them to the recipe. Then, depending on whether you are making leavened or unleavened bread, you cook the loafs.
UNLEAVENED (Heb. matstsah, sweet, Gr. azymos). A word often found in both Testaments, usually in a literal sense. When used literally, it refers to bread made without any fermented dough (yeast, leaven) or to the Passover Feast, when only unleavened bread could be used. When used figuratively, it means "unmixed" (1 Corinthians 5:7-8 KJV; NIV "without yeast").
Sixth, you let the loafs cool.
Seventh, you eat them the next day.
The Perils of the Preacher Man. . .
Too Hard to Swallow - John 6:60
Chapter 6 shows the full cycle of people's response to the Preacher Man.
At first, excited by his miracle of feeding the 5,000, folk tried to make Jesus king. But he escaped.
The next day he rebuked them for having an interest only in physical concerns, not in spiritual truth (verse 26). He used the miracle of the feeding to give an important lesson on the bread of life, using words that were later applied to the Lord's Supper, or the Eucharist.
These words, however, so disappointed the sensation-seeking crowd that many turned away from him.
Matthew 26: 26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my body."
27Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. 28This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom."
Then There is the Bread Man. . .
The Bread Man delivers the bread.
Someone else gathers the ingredients and someone else bakes it. Those who bake it relish the creation of the bread but have no desire to leave the kitchen to deliver it. Those who deliver it love to come into the kitchen and smell the fresh bread, but their joy is the taking of the loafs and delivering them to hungry folks. Both the baker and the bread man are integral in the feeding of hungry people, but the Bread Man gets to hand the bread to the hungry person. The Bread man gets to see the light in their eyes when they see the end of their hunger coming. The Bread Man gets to hear the thanks of the people. The Bread Man gets to be with the folks themselves.
A Bread Man does not take credit for the bread or it's sustenance. The Bread Man is only the delivery man. Sure, no one can eat without the Bread Man, but anyone can be a Bread Man. Without the baker there would be no bread. With out the farmer there would be no grain. You get the idea. We are all interrelated. I chose to be the Bread Man.
The Bread Man gets to see a revival in the lives of folks that don't even know they are in a struggle. The Bread Man knows what people need but does not tell them. He shows them by his being the Bread Man.
Look, if I know that your life is being directed by a fear and I tell you to "stop being afraid all of the time", you will think I am a Rat Bastard. But, if I know you are fearful and I show you how to overcome that fear by my example - without ever verbalizing what I am doing - all of a sudden one day, you discover you are not afraid anymore. The Bread Man brought you a loaf of bread.
That is what happened to the Israelites when they took off out of captivity in Egypt.
Deuteronomy 81Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess
