Our Real Need is to Eat Christ as the Bread of Life – He is our Daily Food Supply

After being delivered by God with a strong arm from the usurpation of Pharaoh in Egypt, the people of Israel began their journey through the wilderness toward the good land, the land flowing with milk and honey.

One of the most crucial things to realize in the book of Exodus is the change of diet: the people of Israel were constituted with the Egyptian food, but during their journey in the wilderness God changed their diet to the heavenly manna and the living water. As God’s people today we need to have a change of diet from anything else to the heavenly Christ as our unique food.

God tested and humbled the people of Israel in the wilderness, letting them go hungry, and then feeding them with manna which neither they nor their parents have ever seen, so that they may realize that man will not live by bread alone but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of Jehovah (see Deut. 8:2-3). After the Lord Jesus fasted for forty days in the wilderness, Satan tempted Him to change the stones into bread for Him to eat, and there and then the Lord quoted this verse from Deuteronomy.

Hallelujah, we as God’s people do not live on bread (or any physical food) alone, but on every word that is living and spoken to us by God in our particular situation! We need to see our real need to have a change of diet from anything worldly to Christ as the bread of life, the living bread, the bread coming out of heaven, and the true bread.

We need to have a change of diet to the heavenly Christ as the unique food for God’s people so that we may be reconstituted with Christ to become God’s building. As we eat Christ as our spiritual food, we are being reconstituted with Him, and this reconstituting is His building work; God builds Himself into us as we enjoy Him as our spiritual food, and this is for the building up of His habitation, His dwelling place.

Hallelujah for Christ as our real spiritual food and drink for us to eat and be constituted by to become God’s building!

The Heavenly Christ is the Reality of the Heavenly Manna to be our Daily Food Supply

Throughout the Bible we see that God presents Himself as food to man: from the beginning of Genesis where we see man being placed in front of the tree of life (a type of God as life to come into man as food) to the end of Revelation where we see the tree of life in the New Jerusalem, God wants to be man’s life-supply in the form of food!

In Exodus the children of Israel were journeying through the wilderness, and God provided their daily food: He cause “food to rain from heaven” for them to eat, enjoy, and be satisfied. God rained down manna on His people to eat (Psa. 78:24); He gave them bread out of heaven. The reality of this heavenly manna which supplied the people of Israel for 40 years in the wilderness is the heavenly Christ.

In the Gospel of John the Lord Jesus told the Jews that Moses didn’t give them the real bread coming out of heaven, but He – Christ Himself – is the bread of life, the living bread, the bread coming out of heaven, and the true bread.

The reality of the manna is the Lord Himself who is the living bread which comes down out of heaven. He “rains down out of heaven” as our life supply for us to feed on, be supplied and reconstituted with, so that we might become God’s building in the universe for God’s corporate expression!

The Lord Jesus clearly said, “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35, 48) – He is the reality of the tree of life in Genesis and the reality of the heavenly manna in Exodus.

As the bread of life, Christ is the bread that came down out of heaven (John 6:41, 50, 51, 58) – He is the heavenly bread. Christ is the bread of God (John 6:33) – He is of God, He was sent by God, and He comes from God and with God to us to supply us with life.

Christ is the living bread (John 6:51) – the nature of this bread is living, and as we eat Him we are also living. Christ is the true bread (John 6:32) – all other “breads” are shadows of Christ as the real bread, the true bread, the bread of truth and reality.

As the bread of life, Christ is the heavenly bread, the bread of God, the living bread, and the true bread. He is our real food, and all other kinds of food are types and shadows of Christ as the real food. We need to enjoy Christ and take Him in as our real life supply day by day so that we may live because of Him.

If we come to Him and believe into Him, we shall never thirst, and if we eat Him, we shall never hunger. We need to come to the Lord as the heavenly bread, the bread of God, and the bread of life, so that we may be filled with life and grow in life for the fulfillment of God’s purpose.

Lord Jesus, thank You for coming to us as the bread of life, the reality of the heavenly manna caused by God to rain on His people in the wilderness. Lord, You are our life supply. Change our diet from eating anything else to eating You as the living bread, the bread of life, the heavenly bread, and the true bread. Lord Jesus, we want to eat You, be constituted with You, live because of You, and build up the church as the Body of Christ, Your dwelling place on earth today!

Our Real Need is to Eat Christ as the Bread of Life, our Real Food

The Bible is a book of life; God presents Himself to us as life – the tree of life, the heavenly manna – and Christ Himself came to be the bread of life. We may understand that the people of Israel ate the heavenly manna and we may be amazed at such a miracle, but what about us: do we realize that our real need today is to eat Christ as the bread of life?

We are blind in regards to our real need; we think we need more peace, more joy, more healing, more this or that, but our real need is to eat Christ as the bread of life. Because so many believers don’t know what their real spiritual need is, they turn to religion and teachings; religion has some rituals and regulations with ordinances, but it cannot feed man or save him.

We may not be spiritually sick, lame, blind, or withered (as the sick people were in the Gospel of John), but we are all hungry. The reason we are all hungry is because we need Christ as our food; the reason we are hungry is because we are short of Christ.

We think we’re hungry for entertainment or love but we’re actually hungry for Christ. Christ is the true bread – He is our true food, and all other foods are merely shadows of Him as the real food, and the reality of the food we eat daily is Jesus Christ. We do not need a religion or some rituals; we need a living Person, the Lord Jesus Christ as the bread of life, to be our spiritual food.

When we eat Christ as the bread of life, we are satisfied. When we eat other things, we remain empty and dissatisfied. Nothing and no one can satisfy our deepest hunger but Christ Himself as the bread of life. When we eat Christ as the bread of life, we are filled with life; He as the living bread makes us living, and as the true bread He makes us genuine, true, and full of reality.

We need to masticate the Lord by taking in His word in a prayerful way and muse on it, pray over it, and let it dwell in us in a rich way. When we eat physical food we need to realize that the reality of our physical food is Christ. As we eat physical food we should be open inwardly to the Lord to take Him in as the bread of life nourishing our spirit and imparting life to all our being.

Oh, may we see that our real need is to eat Christ as the bread of life! May we give up any religion or religious practice, regulation, or concept, and turn to Christ, take Him in as the bread of life, and be filled with Him as life!

Lord Jesus, show us our real need for You as the bread of life. Save us from any religious concept or regulation; Lord, we need not a religion but a living Person who is the bread of life for our life supply! Oh Lord, we are hungry: we hunger for You! We admit that we are so short of Christ, so be the bread of life to us for our daily life supply! Lord, all other foods are merely shadows of You as the real food: You are the reality of the food that we eat daily! Hallelujah, Christ is our food!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ed Marks’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John, ch. 18, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (1),  week 9 / msg 9, The Change of Diet to the Heavenly Christ as the Unique Food for God’s People.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Christ is our manna true, / Our bread of life indeed; / He’s our supply of nourishment, / As on Him now we feed. (Hymns #1147)
  # Break Thou the Bread of Life, / Dear Lord, to me, / As Thou didst break the loaves / Beside the sea; / Beyond the sacred page / I seek Thee, Lord; / My spirit pants for Thee, / O Living Word. (Hymns #806)
  # ”Man shall not live by bread alone, / But by each word which doth proceed / From God’s own mouth”; these we must eat / And let them be our life indeed. (Hymns #814)