Bread is an instrument of good will, love and peace. It is unfortunate that it has become and shall be so even more a tool to buy favors and subdue other human beings. Illegal ways are used to secure bread. The devil wanted Jesus to use his power to turn stones into bread. Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy 8:3, “man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Mt. 4:4). Man has used bread for different reasons.

The leaders and wise of this world keep warning us of the weapons that can destroy the world. We all fail to identify the reason for creating such weapons. It started way back when Cain did not let Abel graze his flock on his land. He could not bring himself to share his bread with his brother (Gen. 4). I was born in Poland, a land that changed hands between a several power hungry nations. Six years ago, two of our sons lost their homes to greedy money institutions that overextended their bread supply. We too ran almost out of bread when we reached beyond our bankbook. Jesus had this advice that could help us today. “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give you” (Jn. 6:27).

Twelve Jewish men went to a Samaritan village, bought food, prepared it, brought it to their teacher and said, “Master eat!” Jesus was not prepared to eat what his own disciples had prepared. Why did He refuse to eat, was there something wrong with the food? Jesus was hungry. Why did He delay eating? The simple answer was, He did not want to eat alone in front of people whose bread he needed. He expected to break bread with new friends. Among many people, there is a tradition that keeps and extra plate and seat open for an unexpected visitor, even one that is not friendly (Jn. 4:31-43).

The Biblical Creation Account tells us that God made a good world and a good man, but bread or food caused him to go bad. Eve let her taste buds cloud her thinking and believed her baker that the bread from the poisonous plant or tree would not be fatal. She ate and it made her feel so elated that Adam joined her willingly in her new experience with bread. Hence, bread gave them life, but it also brought them death (Gen. 3). Hereinafter, bread became a tool for both good and evil.

The Evangelist Luke, in connection with “Give us our daily bread,” had Jesus relate this suggestion. “Suppose, the hour is late, the door is locked and you are in bed with your children. You hear a persistent pounding at the front door. You get up and when you open the door you find your friend standing there and asking you to give him three loaves of bread to feed another friend that has come a long way and he has nothing to set before him. What will you do? The decent thing is to get up and help your friend” (Lk. 11:2-8). It is not just the Gospel; it is common sense.

The Parables were “Kingdom Messages,” but also had moral applications for our livelihood. The enemy sowed weeds among the wheat while “everyone was sleeping” (Mt. 13:25). The five foolish virgins went to sleep unprepared and missed their own wedding (Mt. 25:1-13). The disciples slept during the crucial time when their Lord was betrayed and arrested (Mt. 26:36-46). Twice the guards slept at the secret passage to Sardis when the Persians and later the Syrians surprised the Lydians (W.B. pp. 68-70). History has many Trojan Horses disturbing man’s slumbers and sleep.

Noah, we are told was a farmer or man of the soil. He was the first to give up bread making and turned to planting a vineyard and the making of wine. He, like so many that followed, allowed wine to take over his life. He got drunk and exposed himself and then blamed his grandson Canaan for his indecency. He cursed his grandson and the curse became a prophetic reality for all drunks. Drunks lose their minds and self-control and do regrettable and irresponsible things. It was because of Noah’s sin that the Canaanites, descendants of Ham, were cursed and dispossessed by their cousins, the Shemites or Semites (Gen. 9:18-29).

Man has found time for everything, except enough time for the earth to recover from being exploited and abused. The Preacher came to the following conclusion, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to cut down (harvest); a time to hurt, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;’ ‘It is God’s gift that every men should eat and drink and be pleased in what he does’”(Ecc. 3:1-3,13). In order to live, man has to spend time with the earth (Gen. 1:28-30).

The world will never satisfy the poor or end poverty. It is not because there is not enough bread, but because there are people that prefer to burden others. A vagrant came to the door of a widow begging for a meal. She offered to feed him if he would help her saw off a few pieces of wood at the woodpile. He replied, “You will see me see it, but you won’t see me saw it.” Judas the man that sold out his teacher for thirty pieces of silver to feed the poor was told, “The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. Me, however, you will not always have” (Mk. 14:7). My wife and I have gone through a time in our youth when we lived on nothing and survived while people that lost nothing and had everything and did not survive.

Politics stems from the Greek “politikos” and it means a citizen or polite and intelligent human being that acts prudently when called upon to serve in leadership. It is the root for police and politician and both people were trusted. Unfortunately desire and need control even the most prudent public servants and far too many quickly learned how to use bread as a means to an end. For instance, the powerful Roman Governor Pilate had to crucify Jesus just to keep his job and bread or even his life. He was at the mercy of the Jewish leaders; namely, if he freed Jesus, Caesar would take the Governor’s job and even his life as a traitor (Jn. 19:12-14). Look at the power politicians had during the time of Daniel when they tricked king Darius to put him in the Lion’s Den (Dan. 6). The Book of Revelation predicts that toward the end of time, politicians shall be the most powerful people in the world situated in modern Babylon (United Nations) (Rev. 17).