The Bread of life

THE TEN TRIALS – Trial 3 - THE BREAD OF LIFE
Exodus Chapter 16:3 “If only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.” Then the Lord said to Moses, “Look, I’m going to rain down food (manna vs.15) from heaven for you. Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day. I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they will gather food, and when they prepare it, there will be twice as much as usual.” Vs.16 … “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake today, and lay up for yourselves all that remains, to be kept until morning

This was the next test and was also prophetic of Jesus being our ‘Bread of Life’, and our ‘Sabbath Rest’

JOHN 6:48 I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever;

God had to let them get hungry to reveal to them that their craving for food was not about hunger but about appetites (a good test). This relates to food for the soul. Appetites are essential for a normal life but can be disastrous if their intensity not managed. They are attached to an emotional loop system but hunger is attached to nourishment and wholeness. What we want and what we should have are often two different things.

John 4:34. Then Jesus said: “ My food (for strength) is to do the will of him who sent me and to make his work complete” (He didn’t say ‘My duty is to…’)
Just as the healing (not bringing forth) of the waters of Marah was for the healing of their bitter disappointment by being touched with the Tree of Life for new hope, so there is also the provision of supernatural food that nourishes our heart and soul, as we share in the supernatural work of the doing of God’s good will to others. The powerful energy of God’s love to others feeds our soul as well as theirs. (Jesus fixes our thirst before dealing with our appetite).

Matthew 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied (filled).

Doing the will of the Father is towards God before it is toward others. Toward God is something we arrange purposefully as an act of worship. But doing the good will of God for others we cannot always arrange (other than in prayer). The opportunity tends to land on your doorstep unexpected. How many interruptions last week were actually opportunities to eat the bread of life and be nourished and strengthened. But we so often don’t get it. Jesus can often seem like an interruption to our day. He comes disguised as our everyday up and down life.

The Sabbath rest means that we don’t work in our own strength but we do the good will of God on our new (everyday) Sabbath, that is, in His life giving energy as we rest in the faith of His work being done.
JUST BE READY not striving in your own strength - Sabbath IS Sabbath. OR THE MANNA GOES OFF!
Vs.20 But of course some of them wouldn't listen, and left it until morning; and when they looked, it was full of maggots and smelled terrible; and Moses was very angry with them.
It is on the Sabbath that the Manna is most enjoyable because we are not even gathering it – it has already been gathered and waiting for us to eat it and be nourished. Doing the Sabbath goodwill of God is always fresh and refreshing.
What’s waiting for you today?