Jesus, the Bread of Life

It has been said that the Old Testament is Christ concealed and the New Testament is Christ revealed.  An example of this occurs in Exodus 25:30 where Yahweh commands that “you shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before me regularly.”  Yahweh didn’t command this because He was hungry!  No, He required that this bread be set in the Holy Place before the veil so as to be an object lesson, an object lesson consisting of twelve loaves of bread—one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. There is a plethora of symbolism here. For example, just as bread is a tangible thing, so Jesus would take on flesh.  In fact, the twelve loaves symbolize that Jesus would be born into the tribes of Israel. Also, as bread nourishes the body, so Jesus, the bread of life, nourishes the soul, and finally, while the bread of the Presence is only to be eaten by the priests, the bread representing the body of Christ in Holy Communion is only to be eaten by baptized believers–a priestly caste.  Food for thought…just sayin’