I was singing the song “Breathe” this morning.  The lyrics refer to “my daily bread” as “your very Word spoken to me”.  How true! What would we do without God’s Word that gives us hope and comfort, inspired by His Holy Spirit!

A little booklet is published called “Our Daily Bread”. It’s been circulated since 1956 in over 55 languages and it is about the Word of God.  This ministry’s goal is “to make the life-changing wisdom of the Bible understandable and accessible to all.”  This is another modern day example of “bread” being the Word of God.

In the Lord’s Prayer, we repeat what our LORD told us to pray, “give us this day, our daily bread”.  It is important to note that this does not only include physical food, but the spiritual nourishment we receive when the Word of God is shared.

FROM THE PROPHETS

The Old Testament used food or nourishment as metaphors:

Moreover He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” (Ezekiel 3:1) 

Did Ezekiel really eat the scroll or was this figurative?

“How sweet are Your words to my taste, Sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119:103) 

It was meant symbolically.

“Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart;” (Jeremiah 15:16) 

Did he literally eat the words? Did he have a parchment and swallow it? Or did he “ingest” them with his heart and take them into his spiritual being?

“Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!” (Psalm 34:8) 

The natural food is a metaphor for spiritual truth.  It carried over into the New Testament.  Yeshua the Messiah proclaimed in John Chapter 6 that He is the “true bread from heaven” (v32), “the living bread” (v51) and that His “flesh is food indeed” and His “blood is drink indeed.” (v55).

Christ spoke symbolically for at the end of that chapter, He says:

63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. …68 But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

BREAKING BREAD

So the term “breaking bread” used in the Book of Acts is a Messianic way to equate with sharing the gospel, the Word of God, and sharing Christ!

ACTS 2:42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the [spiritually] breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43 Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.

Does this not make more sense?  That they would be sharing the gospel and in prayer and many wonders were seen?

Yet “breaking bread” becomes “sharing in meals” or “eating meals together” in some loose versions of the Bible.  This is not consistent with the original Messianic idea of sharing the Word of God, sharing Christ.  

For more on this topic, see this scholarly article by T. Alex Tennent “The Jewish Idiom of Breaking Bread Among the Early Believers”

Interesting note:   In Judaism, on the Sabbath it was held that you couldn’t use knives.  Therefore they broke the bread.   

BREAD OF LIFE

Yeshua proclaimed,

“… I AM the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst.” John 6:35

Yeshua is spiritually the Bread of Life!  If we receive Him, we will never spiritually thirst or be spiritually hungry again because He is the Bread of Life!! HalleluYAH!

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Also see “Thy Kingdom Come” regarding the LORD’s Prayer.