The Bread of Life. 2 Kings 4:42-44

The famine in the northern kingdom is used to depict the spiritual famine that is existing in the land because of the people’s rejection of God because of their negative volition. So there is the episode where the sons of the prophets are making a stew, and one of them had gathered some gourds to put in the stew and they poisoned the stew. There was death in the pot and they called upon Elijah to do something. He sprinkled flour into the pot and that then resulted in the death in the pot being exchanged to life. The flour comes from grain and this is used as a picture in the Scriptures as the life which God produces and there is a connection there through the symbolism of the event.

Now we have another miracle that takes place reinforcing the same theme, and that is that man’s religions and man’s philosophies can only produce death. No matter how much stimulation there may be, no matter how good one might feel from various religious activities or mystical exercises that reinforce our own subjective emotions, no matter what immediate effects there might be, there is no good long-term effect. They all end in death, as Solomon said: “There is a way that seems tight to man but the end thereof is death.” The only solution is God’s solution and that begins with grace. That is the theme that we see throughout this entire section of Elisha’s ministry—the grace of God and that God has given us everything that we need for life and godliness. In this next episode we see the emphasis again on grain and on food. The focus is that God is the only one who can provide the right spiritual food for man.

2 Kings 4:42-44  ^NASB “Now a man came from Baal-shalishah, and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And he said, ‘Give {them} to the people that they may eat.’ His attendant said, ‘What, will I set this before a hundred men?’ But he said, ‘Give {them} to the people that they may eat, for thus says the LORD, ‘They shall eat and have {some} left over.’ So he set {it} before them, and they ate and had {some} left over, according to the word of the LORD.” This is a time of famine, many people are on the verge of starvation, and now they have twenty loaves of barley bread, which isn’t a tremendous amount of bread. It’s better than nothing but is not enough when you are dealing with large numbers of people who don’t have food. Elisha’s servant—who suffers from foot and mouth disease constantly as we go through these episodes—says this is hardly going to provide anything. Elisha’s response is a picture of the sufficiency of God’s grace, that we can never ever exploit the grace of God too much. We are never going to outdo it; there is always an abundance because God is the one who provides the resources.

The teaching element in these three verses focuses back on the grace of God; God provides the spiritual nourishment for His people. But they have rejected Him and again and again God is setting forth His grace, His offer of provision to Israel during this time, and there seems to be ongoing rejection of that. There is some response, as we will see in the next few chapters. This also foreshadows what Jesus is going to do. He is going to teach in much the same way, in much the same context of spiritual rejection, in John chapter six, the bread of life discourse. This will conclude in John 6:47, 48 ^NASB “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.” In three or four different ways Jesus reinforces this statement in this chapter. He is the bread of life; He is the one who gives life; only by believing in Him can wee have life. He alone is the one who can provide the nourishment for spiritual life and for spiritual growth and there is no source of spiritual nourishment in anyone else.

The context goes back to chapter five, and in John 5:24 ^NASB “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” Notice that in this verse Jesus gives only one condition for salvation and that is believing in Him. That believing in Him is a response to the hearing of His Word, the hearing of the gospel message. What gave rise to this statement in verse 24? In this chapter Jesus is in Jerusalem; in chapter six He is in the north, in Galilee. In Jerusalem He is rejected by the Pharisees; in chapter six He is rejected by the people in Galilee. In both chapters the message in the same, the offer is the same—eternal life. The situation that occurs in chapter five is that Jesus heals the lame man who has been lame for 38 years and he is then at the pool of Bethesda where was the legend that an angel moves the water and the first one who can make it to the water and get in will be healed. The implication is that this man hasn’t really been trying hard but he has been there waiting and hoping that something will happen. Jesus heals him; there is no faith on the part of the lame man. The point is that Jesus is demonstrating who He is, it is not something about the faith of the person being healed. Jesus is demonstrating that He is the source of life and the one who can provide nourishment to those who are in need of nourishment and healing for those who are in need of healing. This is done, though, on the Sabbath and it becomes a point of contention with the Pharisees, and that sets up the conflict. Jesus just exacerbated it. Jesus did not try to negotiate with the Pharisees; He was not afraid of offending the Pharisees.

There are three kinds of believers in Scripture: those who are squared away and going forward; the weak believer who is confused, easily distracted—and we are to be very careful in the way we deal with things around the weaker, younger believers; and the third is the Pharisee. The Pharisee has made up his mind that legalism is right and grace is wrong, and Jesus is always in their face, always confronting them and throwing their legalism up in their face, and He never tries to soften the situation. Not only does He heal on the Sabbath but he then begins to talk about who He is as being identical to the Father. This really irritates them and they begin to conspire even more to kill Him.

He makes the statement in verse 24 and then in verse 39 He goes on to develop this. ^NASB “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me.” There are two elements that are being emphasized here. The first has to do with the Word, the message from God. The second has to do with believing in Him as the one who can give them eternal life. So the focus is on the Word, the message, and the response to the Word. In verse 40 ^NASB “and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.” He is saying that the reason they are hostile to Him as that they have made a choice. He says they are the ones who have made this decision, they are not willing to come to Him that they might have life. Then in vv. 45-47, “Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” He is talking to the Pharisees! The Pharisees have memorized the Law of Moses and were detail minded in trying to apply the Law. Jesus says to them, You don’t believe in Moses! The key issue in these verses as a set up to where we are going in chapter six is that there is the Word of God which contains the message, that it is the Word of God that is revealed by God the Father through God the Holy Spirit, through the instrumentality of human writers, so that what is recorded is without error and is the mind or thinking of Christ.

This is what Jesus was teaching in Jerusalem, and after that He moved north. John 6:1 ^NASB “After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias). [2] A large crowd followed Him, because they saw the signs which He was performing on those who were sick.” Why are they following Him? Not because they see Him as the Messiah, not because they see Him as a teacher of doctrine, but because He is going to heal their diseases and feed their bellies. That often is true for many people whose initial motivati9on to come to Christ is not spiritual because they don’t have any spiritual understanding. So they are just following after Him. They also have a political agenda that we know comes out in this passage because they think that if He is the Messiah He is going to be the one who will free them from the tyranny of Rome. So their focus is completely off base. What Jesus is going to teach them in the context of John 6 is the truth about freedom and that real freedom has its essence in spirituality, and that of you are not free from the sin nature you are never free. As Paul states in Galatians 6:1 it is the freedom in Christ to set us free. Until we are free from the tyranny of the sin nature we are not free, and political freedom is impossible without spiritual freedom from the sin nature.

So the masses are following Him. John 6:4 ^NASB “Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near.” John doesn’t just throw that in there because it is a nice little chronological note; he wants us to be thinking about what goes on at Passover. Passover is actually the first day of a seven-day feast, the feast of unleavened bread. So bread is a central issue at the feast of Passover. The bread really comes out of the Old Testament and there bread focused on two aspects of doctrine. The unleavened bread focuses on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ as being without sin. Leaven frequently depicts sin in the Scripture because it permeates everything; sin affects and permeates everything. The second thing that comes out of bread in relationship to the exodus event was that as the Jews were moving from Egypt to Mount Sinai without food God provided food through the miracle of manna. It was God teaching them that He provided everything they needed for nourishment day by day, He only gave enough for the day and it they took too much it would rot, and He would give a fresh supply the next day. So these are the two connected ideas in bread. One is the person of Christ and the other is that it is Christ who provides the nourishment for us as we feed in Him. Jesus pulls these things together in the bread of life discourse.

It was in this context that we have the statement in Deuteronomy chapter eight. As Moses summarized some of this he said: “Deuteronomy 8:1 ^NASB “All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD swore {to give} to your forefathers. [2] You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. [3] He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.” Jesus picks up the last part of that quotation and restates it in a similar context in Matthew 4:4, dealing with the importance of the Word of God as our source (and only source) for spiritual nourishment. The written Word of God is directly related to Jesus as the living Word of God. The written Word of God is the propositional inscription that summarizes the thinking of Jesus Christ. It is only as we feed on His Word that we are feeding on Jesus Christ.

Jesus is going to give a practical lesson in John chapter six as the people are gathered around Him. John 6:5 ^NASB “Therefore Jesus, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to Him, said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?’” The real issue is: Philip, have you learned the lesson that we go to the Lord to solve our problems and don’t try to do it out of our own efforts? [6] “This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do. [7] Philip answered Him, ‘Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.’” In other words, this is a huge crowd and we can’t afford to feed them all. He has some idea that Jesus can do something but is not sure what. Then Jesus gave instructions and had the disciples pass out the loaves and the fish. There were 5000 men there, so when the women and children were added there would have been ten or twelve thousand people there. John 6:12 ^NASB “When they were filled, He said to His disciples, ‘Gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost.’ [13] So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.” So again, just as with the episode with Elisha the bread is multiplied to supply for everyone and there is food left over. There is more than enough food for us from the Lord. We are never going to exhaust His ability to provide for us.

As the chapter goes on we see another couple of lessons that take place. There is one where Jesus is walking on the water where He is going to teach them about faith, but then as they go to the next day (v. 22) the people have discovered where He is and come over to His location. There He is going to give another lesson. Here He points out that the only reason they are there is because of the miracles and because He is going to feed them.

John 6:27 ^NASB “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.” This is the doctrinal heart of the whole episode. This is a priority issue: what are you putting your effort into? [28] “Therefore they said to Him, ‘What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?’” Notice how the word “works” is showing up. [29] “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.’” Believing isn’t a work in the sense that Paul uses that phrase in Ephesians 2:8, 9 – that we are not saved by works, i.e. by trying to impress God with our goodness or good deeds. Work here is used in a more generic sense of just something that one does, whether it is meritorious or non-meritorious. Believing in non-meritorious. That is, there is no merit in us because we believer’ the merit is all in Jesus Christ on the cross.

John 6:30 ^NASB “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? [31] Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘HE GAVE THEM BREAD OUT OF HEAVEN TO EAT.’” There is the connection to Moses. Jesus is going to show what that really indicated. [32] “Jesus then 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. [33] For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.’” Bread = life. Real spiritual bread, Jesus says, is Himself.

John 6:35 ^NASB “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.’” So coming to Jesus and believing in Him are parallel concepts here. [36] “But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe.” The issue in all of this is “believe.” All we have to do is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then He goes on to talk about the Father, vv. 37, 38” “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” The focus is on the middle two terms there, coming to Him—which is an expression of volition. [39] “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. [40] For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” The focus is on those who believe in Jesus; they are the ones who have eternal life.

The focus here is not on God pre-selecting who He is going to call—the Calvinist doctrine of efficacious grace. That comes into play here in verse 44 ^NASB “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.” Most people stop reading the verse there, and they think that what this means is that no one can believe unless first the Father draws them in some sort of mystical internal calling of the Holy Spirit and if you don’t have that then you really can’t come to Jesus. So, according to that, it is not an issue of your volition, it is an issue of God’s selection. However, that ignores the next verse which is a quote from Isaiah 45:13: ^NASB “It is written in the prophets, ‘AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me.” The emphasis in Isaiah 45 is God’s message to the people is rejected. How does God draw people? His Word! It is the proclamation of His Word. It is through the teaching of God’s Word that people are called and people hear the gospel and are drawn to Jesus. It is not some invisible spiritual hook where God reaches down inside of people that says, I am drawing this person; I’m not drawing that person. The drawing comes from the information of the gospel so that all who will may come. That is why Jesus said in v. 40 that everyone who believes will have eternal life.

John 6:47 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. [48] I am the bread of life. [49] Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. [50] This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. [51] I am the living bread that came down out of heaven….” Jesus is making the point that He is the spiritual nourishment for us, and it is not done in some mystical way, some sort of “encounter” with Jesus; it is done through the study of His Word. We feed on the thinking of Christ in His Word and that is used by God to nourish us and to produce spiritual growth. Matthew 4:4 ^NASB “…It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’”

This is the theme that Jesus states again and again through John chapter six and the upper room discourse in order to emphasize the fact that He is the only one who provides life, the only one who provides the nourishment for spiritual life. That is the same thing that Elisha is trying to show to the apostate generation of his day.