Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.” John 6:47-51.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
The revelation of who Jesus is to you begins with the Name I gave Him before His birth, which you translate as “Jesus,” but His Name in Hebrew, and He was born according to the flesh a Hebrew of the line of David, of the tribe of Judah, and a descendant of Abraham, is “Yeshuah,” which means “Salvation.” I show you My Salvation in Him. And there is no other name given among men by which you MUST be saved. Acts 4:12.
But Jesus made seven definitive revelations of who He is to you, each prefaced with the words “I AM,” going back to My revelation of My Name to Moses out of the burning bush on Mt. Horeb, that is, Mt. Sinai. For I have given Him My Name, John 17:11-12, and now His body, the whole family of believers on earth and in Heaven, derives its name from My Name as well. Ephesians 3:14.
And each of these seven revelations contains a promise with it. And each one of these seven revelations is foreshadowed in the plan of the tabernacle of Moses. And each of these revelations takes you deeper into the unfathomable riches of Christ.
In this lesson, we shall continue to delve into he unfathomable riches of Christ. Ephesians 3:8. I call them unfathomable because they are as high as the heavens are above the earth, Psalm 103:11; Psalm 36:5, and deeper and vaster than the sea. Through all eternity My Word will keep unfolding into greater and greater depths of revelation. I have magnified My Word according to all My Name. Psalm 138:2. So today we will begin with the first “I AM” revelation of Jesus as Life Lesson No. 3: “I am the Bread of Life.” John 6:35.
I am very consistent in My development of themes and prophecy, from the bread and wine brought to Abraham by the priest Melchizedek, Genesis 14:18-19, to the unleavened bread of Passover and the appointed time thereof, to the Manna (bread from Heaven) coming on the dewfall every morning to sustain the Israelites in the desert for forty years without fail, to the grain offering of the offerings of the Old Covenant, and the loaves of the bread of the presence (Showbread) (“Bread of the Face”) perpetually on the golden trays across from the golden lampstand (menorah) in the Tabernacle of Moses and later in the Temple in Jerusalem, to the birth of My Son at the time of the dewfall in a town called Bethlehem, which in Hebrew means “House of Bread,” to My Son feeding over 5,000 people beginning with only five loaves of bread and two fish, to the revealing of Himself as the Bread of Life addressing the crowds after this miracle of the loaves, to His breaking bread at the Passover meal with His disciples and sealing the New Covenant with His Body and Blood in the transformed Bread and Wine. This unfolding cycle of the bread of life, the bread of the covenant, started with the priest Melchizedek (King of Righteousness) bringing bread and wine to bless Abraham, to your great High Priest Jesus, a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek, giving you the Bread and Wine of His Body and Blood for the life of the world and telling you to do this in remembrance of Him.
When I introduced My people to the bread that fell from Heaven on the dewfall, I first showed them My glory shimmering in the cloud in the distance to herald its arrival. And the night My Son was born in Bethlehem I did the same, My glory opened Heaven to the astonished shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem as the angel heralded the arrival of My Word in the flesh.
Manna was a heavenly substance unknown to man. Manna was the primary and only food of My people in the desert journeying to the land I had promised them for the next forty years and there was no one sick or feeble among them. Their feet did not even swell in all the walking they did. Deuteronomy 8:4. And I attributed this to the Manna. Deuteronomy 8:3. The bread from Heaven sustained them in perfect health, BUT as soon as they craved other food, such as when they begged for meat and I brought them quail whereby many became sick and died from gorging on it, and later when they grumbled about the Manna and wanted other food, snakes came in and bit them, filling them with the poison of death. That is why I told Joshua to meditate on My Words day and night and to never let them depart from his mouth. I told him to not to turn to the right or to the left but just keep on My Words. Joshua 1:7-9. And Solomon in his proverbs would counsel the same, Proverbs 4:20-27. And the Israelites who wanted other food than the Manna were only saved of the toxin of the serpent by gazing on the depiction (type and shadow) of My Son becoming sin for you and dying on the cross—the antidote of the bronze (the metal of judgment) serpent (the picture of sin) on the standard (cross). For just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so was My Son lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him has eternal life. John 3:14-15. And this is My will, that everyone who beholds My Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and He Himself will raise him up on the last day. John 6:40. And My Son said this in the context of introducing Himself as the Bread of Life, as the true Manna that came down from Heaven for a man to eat and never die the death.
I gave them Manna to eat, which neither they nor their fathers had known, so that would understand that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from My mouth, that is, the mouth of the LORD. Deuteronomy 8:3. So it was in the context of the Manna that I revealed to My people that they were not just to live for perishable food, but for the food that would last to life eternal. And that is exactly what My Son told the crowd seeking Him after He had multiplied the loaves, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.” John 6:26-27.
It all matches up perfectly if you care to look for the treasure in My Word.
When Jesus gave this revelation of Himself as the Bread of Life, it was in response to the questioning of the crowd who had the day before seen and partaken in the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fish. They wanted to see more of the same and this is when Jesus told them they should not be working for food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which He would give them as the One on whom I had set My seal. So they asked Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” John 6:28-29.
This is very good news to you. The primary thing I ask of you under the New Covenant is to believe in My Son. And He is My Word made flesh, so faith in My Word is what opens to you all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Faith in Jesus is how you are saved, forgiven, redeemed, and become righteous with My own righteousness.
But the crowd wanted more to put faith in Him, although they had heard Him preach and had seen an amazing sign the day before. So they said to Him, “What then do You do for a sign, so that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.’” John 6:29-31. They brought up the manna, for the miraculous multiplication they had witnessed made them hopeful they would have this miracle every morning, like the manna. But Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” John 6:32-35. And here is the first promise that goes with this revelation.
He is the bread of life that will fully satisfy your innermost being. There is much here to ponder. The Law was given to Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. My Word is truth and Jesus is My Word come down from Heaven. I had revealed to My prophet Isaiah, who saw the glory of Jesus, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My Word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me void without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:10-11. You see here that the seed and bread that come to you in the Spirit are My Words formed from My thoughts which are higher than yours but which I share with you as seed to sow into your life and the lives of others and bread for you to eat and also to feed others. And this alludes to Proverbs also, where Solomon by the inspiration of My Spirit of wisdom wrote that My Words are life to those who find them and health to all their flesh. Proverbs 4:22. My Word in Jesus became tangible, but even before My prophet Jeremiah said that when My Words were found he devoured them and they became the joy and delight of his heart. And Job stated that the ear tastes words as the palate tastes food.
It is My Word that gave life and gives life. The life is in My Word as the life is in the seed to produce the plant. The Word I send out does not return void if it is planted and grown, it will produce exactly that for which I sent it. Without My Word your spirit and soul will starve and the amazing fact is that your flesh is effected as well. My Word gives life and health to your mortal body as well. That is why you cannot live on physical bread alone but must be nourished by every Word that comes from My mouth to make you complete.
I look for faith and so does My Son, in fact He asked if He would find any faith on the earth when He returns. The crowd of whom we have been speaking, though they had seen the miracle of the loaves and fishes, still did not believe in Him but were asking for another sign. No amount of signs will be enough to convince people whose hearts are hard. Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, “I am the bread that came down out of heaven.” They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.” John 6:47-51. And here is another great promise that goes with this first of the “I AM” revelations of Jesus: “if anyone eats this bread, he will live forever.” Adam ate and he died the death. Jesus reverses this. In the bread of His body is eternal life. Eternal life is in My Son and you who have the Son have eternal life. 1 John 5:11-12. When you eat the bread of His body you life forever.
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, I did: sending My own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, I condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in you, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:1-4.
Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.” John 6:58.
When you eat of Jesus the Bread of Life you are eating from the tree of life and reversing the curse in your life. Adam and Eve chose to eat from the one tree I told them would bring them death, but they did not seek to eat from the tree of life that was in the middle of the Garden. I then barred them from eating from it lest they live forever in their fallen state. Adam and Eve lost all by eating, you should not be surprised that you gain all by eating as well. And the tree of the cross whereupon hung My Son.
And not too long after revealing Himself as the Bread of Life, My Son would be celebrating the Passover supper with His disciples and He would lift up the unleavened bread and break it according to the prescriptions of the meal and would speak, the words of consecration, “Take, eat; this is My body.” And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.” Matthew 26:26-28. And these words of consecration are still echoing throughout the world as people partake of the holy communion and eat of the tree of life every day in every place.
And this was so important to Me and so necessary for you that even though My apostle Paul was not at that Passover meal with Jesus, I revealed to him the bread of life. And he shared it everywhere. He wrote to the church at Corinth, “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” 1 Corinthians 11:23-25. And Paul took it to heart and offered it to the believers wherever he preached and not just once during the delivery of the message.
And the first believers took this to heart and were constantly going from home to home breaking bread together to receive the Body and Blood of My Son with grateful hearts remembering the sufferings and death of My Son which gave them life eternal. For where two or three gather together in My Son’s Name, there He is in the midst of you and when you break the bread together He shows up and the bread changes to the heavenly substance of My Son, the Word made flesh. For like the Manna of old was not a substance of earth that can ever be found again, but a heavenly substance of perfection, so is that of the transformed bread and wine. It becomes My Son and as you partake of it, you too became a partaker of the divinity through His glorified humanity, as the Word takes flesh in you, giving life and health to our mortal bodies by the resurrection power contained therein. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
My Word is precious to you, it is Spirit and life, it contains eternal life. It is living and active and it will go to work in you. And My Word is real and tangible, I speak of washing you in the water of the Word, of regenerating you and giving you new birth by My Word, of eating My Word, and of sowing My Word and harvesting My Word. My Word generates and produces after its own kind, and it is life. If you eat My Words by hearing, speaking and writing them, and receiving the bread of life in the communion meal, you will grow thereby as My Word becomes flesh in you.
And as I said, each of the “I AM” revelations of Jesus is foreshadowed in the Tabernacle of Moses. And this first one, the bread that came down from Heaven, is foreshadowed in what seemed to Moses an unusual requirement, but in the plan of the inner court, the room before the Holy of Holies, there was placed on the north side of this first inner room a table of acacia wood, overlaid with pure gold with a gold border around it. It had a rim of a handbreadth around it with a gold border for the rim around it. With it I gave instructions for the making of dishes, pans, jars and bowls of pure gold with which to pour drink offerings of wine. And Moses was to have the bread of the Presence on the table set before Me at all times. In Hebrew, what you see translated as the bread of the Presence or showbread, is לחם פנים (lechem panim) “Bread of the Face,” My glory shines on you in the Face of Christ, the true bread come down from Heaven for a man to eat and never die.
And the golden table of the bread of the presence was on the north side of the inner court across from the golden lampstand, both being before the veil that went into the Holy of Holies. North is the direction of Heaven, so the table and bread were placed there foreshadowing the bread come down from Heaven born in the town of Bethlehem, “House of Bread.” And there were always to be twelve loaves, signifying the twelve tribes of Israel and later Jesus would have twelve disciples, before Me placed there on Shabbat and replaced the next Shabbat. And the loaves removed were just as fresh as those that replaced it, though they had been there a week, and then they were given to the priests to eat, who were to eat it in a holy place, because it was a most holy part of their regular share of the offerings made to Me by fire. Leviticus 24:5-9.
My Son has released you from your sins by His blood and made you a kingdom of priests unto Me. The bread of the Presence has become your food to eat in a holy place because it is the most holy part of your share of the offerings made to Me.
I love you. There is so much more to know about Jesus as the Bread of Life, but for now we will stop here. My Spirit will tell you more as you enlarge your heart.
For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Hebrews 4:12.