707. It is clearly established from the Lord's words that bread has much the same meaning as flesh:
Jesus taking bread broke it and gave it, saying, This is my body. Matt. chapter 26; Mark chapter 14; Luke chapter 22.
Also:
The bread which I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world, John 6:51.
He also says that He is the bread of life, and that he who eats of this bread will live for ever (John 6:48, 51, 58). This too is the bread meant by sacrifices, which are called bread in the following passages:
The priest is to burn it upon the altar, the bread of the fire-offering to Jehovah, Leviticus 3:11, 16.
The sons of Aaron are to be holy to their God, and they are not to profane the name of their God, because they present the fire-offerings to Jehovah, the bread of their God. You are to sanctify him, because it is he who presents the bread of your God. A man of the seed of Aaron in whom there is a blemish is not to approach to present the bread of his God, Leviticus 21:6, 8, 17, 21.
Command the Children of Israel and say to them, My gift, my bread for the fire-offerings for an odour of rest, you are to take care to present to me in due season, Numbers 28:2.
He who has touched an unclean thing is not to eat any of the sanctified things, but is to wash his flesh in water, and afterwards he may eat of the sanctified things, because that is his bread, Leviticus 22:6-7.
Eating of the sanctified things meant the flesh from the sacrifices, and this is here also called bread; see also Malachi 1:7.
[2] The minhah in sacrifices, which were offerings of bread made from fine wheat-flour, had the same meaning (Leviticus 2:1-11; 6:14-21; 7:9-13 and elsewhere). The same is true of the loaves placed on the table in the Tabernacle, which were called the bread of faces 1
or shewbread (on which see Exodus 25:30; 40:23; Leviticus 24:5-9). It is not natural bread which is meant by bread, but heavenly bread, as is plain from these quotations:
It is not by bread alone that a person lives, but it is by everything that comes out of Jehovah's mouth that a person lives, Deuteronomy 8:3.
I shall send hunger upon the land, not hunger for bread, nor thirst for waters, but for hearing the words of Jehovah, Amos 8:11.
Moreover, bread means every kind of food (Leviticus 24:5-9; Exodus 25:30; 40:23; Numbers 4:7; 1 Kings 7:48). It also means spiritual food, as is clear from these words of the Lord:
Work for food, not that which perishes, but that which lasts to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, John 6:27.
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