SIVAN 7
Bread
“Give us today our
daily bread.” (Mat 6:11)
Food is one of the basic requirements for
survival; I have heard it said that man can only live for three days without
water, but can exist for up to three weeks without any type of food. It is not unreasonable to ask our Elohim for
His assistance in meeting this need, especially since our Creator is the One
who instilled the need for sustenance within us. However, there is an enormous gap between
what is a need, and what is a want.
I believe most of us can agree that some of the food that we eat is not necessarily
good for us; a diet of soda pop and Twinkies can eventually kill us, just from
the poisons we are consuming.
What is “our daily bread”? First, let us understand that we are
requesting bread (food) for this day
only, not enough to last us until the next pay day. “Sufficient
for each day …” (Mat 6:34) should always be our focus. Second, I truthfully believe that “our daily
bread” is meant to be food that is not only sustaining,
but nourishing as well. I might prefer to have rib-eye steak as opposed to
black beans and rice, but the beans and rice are filled with as many – if not
more – nutrients as the steak. Being
thankful and grateful for what Abba does provide
for us is always the key.
“Daily bread” does not just pertain to physical food; for
millennia, bread has also been descriptive of spiritual food, that which we
find within the pages of the Torah.
Yeshua told us, quite firmly, that He
is “the bread of life” (John 6:35), and it is not hard to
follow the loop that goes back to Torah.
Messiah Yeshua is the Word (John 1:1-4), He is the truth (John 14:6),
the Torah is truth (Ps 119:142), Yeshua is light (John 8:12), and the Torah is
light (Pro 6:23). Therefore, feasting
upon the precepts of Torah, as well as studying the example of our Messiah,
should provide for us a feast that will be satisfying.
The Amidah also speaks of
provision. We must remember context and
culture as we study the Amidah, and
recognize that the Hebrew nation has always been an agriculturally based
people. All their sustenance came from
what they could grow, and what livestock they could raise. For these reasons, it is easy for us to
understand the petition for the earth to be blessed, in order that they would
not be in want.
“Bless this year for us, O Lord our God, together with all the varieties of its produce, for our welfare. Bestow a blessing upon the face of the earth. O satisfy us with your goodness, and bless our year like the best of years.”[1]
“יהוה is my shepherd; I do not
lack.” (Ps 23:1)
©2021
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