When I was young, I remember when our family went to the coast for the day in April, and lunch was a picnic sitting against a little wall for shelter at the top of the beach. After a while an elderly couple came along and sat down near us. I watched them as they took out a sandwich, held the bread in their hands and said a prayer of thanks. In conversation later, they said that they were Polish and had strong memories of the war when food was very scarce, and they learned to survive by finding occasional small pieces of bread. But now when food is plentiful, they still acknowledged God's daily provision for them, and gave thanks. The Greek of the New Testament record of this first request in the Lord's Prayer for ourselves is instructive, because it emphasises our dependence upon God the giver of life. Literally, it says: The bread that is our needful sustenance for each day give to us on this day (Matthew 5:11) and the bread that is needful for us give us day by day (Luke 11:2). It is asking God just for what we need for each day.
We should recognise our dependence on God's provision
God knows that we need physical food to live, and He has provided seed and soil to grow it. Thanksgiving for this provision is echoed in the Jewish Shabbat blessing for bread – Baruch ata Adonai Eloheinu, melekh ha-olam, ha-motzi lechem min ha-aretz (Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who brings forth bread from the earth) and this underlines our dependence upon His provision. Our independence from God results in reliance on our own resources which so often fail. It's when we have no resources that He can, and does, provide our daily bread, as he did for the ancient Israelites in the desert with daily bread-like manna. We recall that Jesus was born among fields of wheat in Beit-lechem (the House of bread), and He said, I am the bread of life (John 6:35). The word lechem can also mean 'food' or 'provisions' in general, so our prayer would be that God would give us everything we need to sustain us each day. In the 1984 famine in Ethiopia, the Times newspaper reported that the earth had produced in the past year 10% more food than the current world population needed. Yet today one-third of all food produced worldwide, worth $1Tn, is wasted in food production and consumption every year (in the USA)1. In a world full of hunger, that is morally outrageous, and constrains us to be more conscious of what we buy, eat, or throw away, and to acknowledge our apathy and ingratitude for God's daily provision for us. Maybe then we would be more grateful to Him, and share what we don't need with those who have little or nothing. Jesus tells us too: Let nothing be wasted (John 6:12).
Fellowship and reconciliation
Bread as part of a meal is synonymous with fellowship. In the Tabernacle, God instructed Moses to place a golden Table of Shewbread2 (lechem panim, literally the bread of the Face, or Presence) having two rows or piles of six loaves 'before the Lord continually', representing the 12 tribes of Israel. This was to present all the people before the Lord in close fellowship (face-to-face), as in a meal with God, like the elders did to celebrate their covenant together (Exod. 24:9-11) – amazing thought! God relates to His people at all levels, but especially through the breaking of bread in a fellowship meal, as with Jesus' disciples in the Jerusalem or in Emmaus after His resurrection (Luke 22:11; 24:30). He longs to do this with us today if we will but open the door to Him (Rev. 3:20). It is a tragedy that so many families today do not spend time eating together (face-to-face). In the ancient Middle East, hospitality for strangers or relatives was a welcome expressed in a fellowship meal, like Abraham or Jacob did (Gen. 18:6-8; 31:54). Today, this meal, even between Jew and Arab in tragic loss, can still be a place of peace and reconciliation (a sulha), because Jesus created in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace (Eph. 2:14-16). This table may be considered as an altar where we can lay down our sin and hostility, and this too is part of the sustaining power of our daily bread in Jesus, as we take Him into our heart, and welcome 'enemies'.
Jesus is the Living Bread from heaven
God's desire to dwell with His people brings an invitation to all who believe in Him to meet together panim-el-panim, face to face, to 'eat' this Living Bread who came down to bring us fellowship through eternal life (John 6:50-51). For Jesus is the full sustenance that we need, daily. Bread sustains those who eat it, but Jesus sustains all who take in this Bread of life, and we are complete (with everything we need) only in Him (Col. 2:10). He tells us that those who eat this Bread will live for ever (John 6:58). That is His answer to our prayer: Give us this day our daily Bread. Amen.
Author : Greg Stevenson
References
1. A report by UN Environment Programme and the World Resources Institute (WRI) on the World Food Day, October 2015
2. The word 'Shewbread' comes from the German word Schaubrot – bread required to be shown, or on display, evidence of the fellowship meal of God dwelling with His people.
