The Miracle Food: John 6:26-35
“this do in remembrance of Me.”
You are warmly welcome!
We need food to live. Let us journey through the miracles of food experienced by Israel, the chosen people of God, across a lengthy timeline. In Canaan: When Jacob was renamed Israel after the overnight wrestling with God at Penuel (Gen 32:28-30), he was on his way from Laban’s land of Haran to the land of Canaan; food was fairly plenty there until, after some decades, a famine struck the entire Middle East. Only one nation had food reserves courtesy of the wise foresight and ministerial operations of a victimized and forgotten son of Israel…
In Egypt there was food, and here the Israel family came to escape the dreadful famine. A few generations later, their sojourn turned bitter: although African food was good and in plenty, the Egyptians resolved their insecurity by enslaving and treating harshly this chosen race! Suffering caused them to cry so loud that the Lord sent deliverance by the hand of Moses who would lead them through tough excursions… In the Wilderness, out of Egypt was not completely out of trouble; there was some freedom; there were no slave drivers to inflict suffering; but there was no food, and the water was bitter! They complained bitterly to their deliverer Moses, remembering the plenty they had in Egypt despite the suffering. After due prayer, manna – bread from heaven – was their miracle food for almost forty years, until they entered the Promised Land, and manna ceased (Josh 5:12). In Canaan Again, the formerly nomadic people were encouraged to take over the land by cultivating and growing food in this Fertile Crescent portion. Whatever their expectations of milk and honey, their agriculture did not disappoint, as evidenced at harvest feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles (Ingathering). The only usher for crop-devouring locusts was disobeying God.
In all the above episodes of provisions, however, one thing is common about the food they ate: it provided limited life – they ate and they died. Then arrived a proclamation… Jesus Christ said: “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes on Me shall never thirst” and “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life” (John 6:35, 54). Jesus is the true Miracle Food, the true Promised Land, the true Quencher of hunger and thirst, the true Life Giver. Amen.
God bless you all.