Food for the soul

As I read John 6:1 - 21 today — the story of the boy whose lunch of five loaves and two fish in Jesus’ hands fed 5,000 people — I began to think about our sustenance.
What did you have for breakfast today?  Cereal?  Eggs and bacon?  A cup of coffee?
What did you feed your spiritual body?  Some have devotions.  Some say morning prayers.  Others might just recall a verse they have learned and meditate on it.  Whatever your choice, everyone needs food to supply nourishment for their spiritual bodies.
The Israelites after being delivered from Egypt and while wandering in the wilderness ate (angel’s food) manna  (Exodus 1615 – 33 and Psalm 78:25).   They gathered some, others a lot, but if they tried to save it for the next day, it turned to worms and had to be thrown out.  Except on Fridays, the Sabbath, for they received a double portion so they would not have to collect manna on the Sabbath day.  Manna was a type of bread and Jesus refers to himself as being not only the bread of life as evidenced in Communion or the Lord’s Supper but he speaks of himself being the manna that came down from heaven (John 6:31 - 59).
Newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, but at some point, they have to go beyond milk as they grow up (1 Peter 2:2).  I have read that babies who drink milk only for too long have trouble with bone development including their teeth which would be of important use in eating meat.
After Jesus fasted in the wilderness 40 days, hunger came and the devil tempted Jesus with using his special abilities to turn stones into bread to eat to sate his hunger.  Jesus replied from the Old Testament scripture:  Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Deuteronomy 8:3, Matthew 4:4, Luke 4:4).
Still, as we mature as believers, we must eat meat.  Jesus told his disciples when they returned to the well in Samaria, while the woman of Samaria was out sharing the good news to her friends and family and neighbors, that he had “meat to eat” they didn’t know anything about because his meat was to do the will of his father (John 4:32-34).  When the Hebrews in the wilderness whined they were tired of manna and wanted meat, God gave them quail and they ate it until they threw up (Exodus 16:13, Numbers 11:31 -  32, Psalm 105:40).
Hebrews opens our eyes to strong meat which belongs to those mature believers, of full age who have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil (Hebrews 5:14).  Some of those incarcerated in the Big Horn County jail have said to me they felt God had brought them to jail to keep them from doing something worse or even from dying.  Their senses had been exercised to discern good and evil.  Joseph’s spiritual maturity was shown in his response to his brothers, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.” (Genesis 50:20)
Well, I hope you had a good breakfast and a good spiritual breakfast, enough to tide you over until your next meal.  God’s richest blessings on your day.
(Cathy Bayert is pastor of Greybull First Baptist Church.)