Topic: Jesus, the True Bread of Life [Joseph Prince Devotional 18 March 2021]
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Jesus, the True Bread of Life
“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.”
John 6:48–50
I trust that you are excited to see Jesus in the Scriptures, so I want to unveil Jesus to you in Old Testament scriptures through the use of typology. If you are not familiar with the use of typology in interpreting the scriptures, I hope the examples you will read here will give you a good understanding of it.
The Bible says, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter” (Prov. 25:2). God has hidden the mysteries of His beloved Son and His finished work throughout the Bible, and it is our glory as kings to search out all these things concerning Himself. Are you ready to see Jesus?
Let’s first look at the account of the children of Israel as they journeyed in the wilderness. The Bible tells us that “the soul of the people became very discouraged,” and they began to murmur and complain against God and His appointed leadership, Moses, saying, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread” (Num. 21:4–5).
Can you imagine this? God had delivered them from a life of slavery in Egypt with His mighty hand, protected them from Pharaoh’s army with a pillar of fire, and parted the Red Sea for them to pass through. Instead of being grateful, they complained and even referred to the manna from heaven as “worthless bread.”
According to the psalmist, the manna was “the bread of heaven . . . angels’ food” (Ps. 78:24–25). For forty years in the wilderness, God provided them with food for champions, food that kept them free from sicknesses and diseases, food that descended daily from heaven.
All they had to do each morning was to collect enough for their consumption. Yet, they despised the manna.
Jesus said in today’s scripture that the manna God gave them was a picture or type of Himself. The church today needs to be careful not to make the same mistake that the children of Israel made when they called the manna from God “worthless bread.”
In many places, there is an underemphasis on Jesus Christ and an overemphasis on all sorts of doctrines and principles that can be extracted from the Word. Churches must be careful not to consider Jesus as “worthless bread” by relegating Him to the periphery of their teachings.
Anybody who doesn’t focus on Jesus Christ and His finished work has neither the power nor the wisdom of God, because the Bible says that Christ crucified is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:23–24). He is the true bread from heaven and only He satisfies!
The devil is afraid of any church that preaches Jesus Christ on the cross because he knows that when people know how God sent His only begotten Son to die on the cross for them, they will see that they have a merciful God who loves them unconditionally. They will know the truth, and the truth will set them free (John 8:32)!
Let me add one more thing. Do you know that every morning, the children of Israel had to go out to collect fresh manna?
The manna could not be stored overnight for consumption the next day as it would turn stale and breed worms. Ever wondered why God didn’t just give them a week’s supply of manna?
Well, it is because God wants His people to open the Scriptures every day to collect fresh manna of Jesus and be satisfied with His grace. He doesn’t want us to live on past revelations of Jesus, for His mercies are new every morning. He delights to fill your heart with His grace, peace, wisdom, and joy every day. Hallelujah!