One of the many purposes of the church is to help feed spiritually hungry and thirsty people with the presence of God Himself. Luke 22:19 says: And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, ‘This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.’ This is expounded upon in 1st Corinthians 11:24 which states: And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. This passage takes on a whole new meaning when we understand how bread was made at the time of Jesus Christ. This bread made by the Jewish people for the Passover celebration, was made without using yeast as instructed in the Law of Moses. As the Bible states in Exodus 12:15: for seven days the Jewish followers of God were to remove all the leaven (yeast) from their homes. The Bible in many ways symbolizes leaven with sin. The Bible is full of symbols which help us to understand the purpose and ways of God.
The Passover celebration began with the Feast of Unleavened Bread which commemorated the day that the Lord delivered His people out of slavery. The people had to cleanse themselves by voluntarily removing the leaven from their homes. They were also commanded to sacrifice a lamb without blemish and use its blood to apply to the two sides and top post of their door so that the death angel, which was bringing judgment to Egypt, would pass over them. (Exodus 12:07) Please note that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ happened on a Passover because He was the fulfillment of the Passover Lamb given to deliver His people from the bondage of sin and its following judgment to come. Note that the Bible teaches in 2nd Peter 2:19 that whoever gives themselves to sin, is in bondage to sin. It is easy to see the symbolism between the blood of the Passover lamb and the blood of Jesus Christ, but what about the unleavened bread being His body. Examining how this bread was made gives us insight to the symbols used.
The first ingredient for this unleavened bread is wheat. The wheat had to be first harvested as do the souls of mankind. The salvation of the soul has to begin with the choice of the person in repentance. Out of the wheat stalk, only about 20% of it was actually wheat. The remaining 80% is stalk and chaff which will be either thrown away or used for something else but not eaten.
After the harvesting, the wheat went to the threshing or sifting floor where it was continued to be cleansed of impurities. The wheat was heavier than the chaff so the wheat would fall immediately to the floor while the lighter chaff would blow away in the wind. This sifting would continue over and over until it became as clean as it possibly could with this type of cleansing. In like manner, we believers have to be sure not to let misunderstandings or offenses blow us out of the body of the church.
In the next step, the wheat was crushed into a body of flour. After this crushing, there were no more individual kernels of wheat. The more crushed this body of flour, the better the bread ultimately was.
I find it fascinating that one of the fruit of the Spirit is meekness which literally means selflessness.
After this process the flour was mixed with oil to become dough. In this process the oil and flour became an inseparable compound. Oil in the Scriptures many times represents the Spirit of God as in the many references to anointing oil. In one instance oil was used to represent joy as mentioned in Isaiah 61:03.
Next the dough was placed into an oven over fire to bake into bread. Finally the bread was broken to feed the hungry. Hot bread that is right out of the oven has always been the best in my humble opinion.
We must remember that the Scriptures many times uses the physical realm that we can understand, to explain Spiritual things that are hard for us to understand. The symbolism in this broken bread symbol is quite amazing in that the Bible tells us that the church is the body of Christ. Jesus also called the Passover bread His body. As part of Christ’s body that is in process, we should not be surprised at the fiery trials that we find ourselves in, but should count it all joy as the Scriptures tell us in 1st Peter 4:12. The Lord Jesus said to Peter that satan wanted to sift him as wheat in Luke 22:31. All of us that have committed ourselves to the Lord and the work will be sifted as wheat at times. We will then be crushed by circumstances of life. Life itself will bring many of the fiery trials that bake the bread. Just as we think that the difficulties will stop, we are broken for someone else to benefit. Our testimonies of what Jesus does for us gives hope and builds faith for those we tell our experiences to. As the selfishness in us decreases, the Lord will increase in us which benefits everyone around us. As we build God a highway in our lives for Him to work in and through us, God’s very presence will bless us more than we can imagine. The spill off from our blessings and joy will bless others around us.
The Lord by His Word said that He will not give us more pressure and trials than we can handle, but we humans truly need the purification that only comes through adversity and sifting. The good news is that one of these days the trump of God will sound! The dead in Christ will rise first then those of us that are alive and remain will be caught up together with the Lord in the air! At that point the sifting, crushing, baking and tearing will have paid off.
With the constant news of earthquakes happening with more frequency than ever as prophesied in the Bible, we know that the earth itself is groaning and travailing until the called out ones are caught away one of these days to forever be with the Lord. (Romans 8:22) Look up church because your redemption draws near! (Luke 21:28) Just make sure that your sins have been forgiven in Baptism in Jesus name and that you have been filled with the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ! (Acts 2:28-39) Make sure that you are a part of the church that Jesus Christ started by being a doer of His Word. Jesus Christ is truly the only ticket out of this world! (Revelation 2:17) With all of the wonderful things that Jesus Christ has done, is doing and will do, He also makes terrific bread!