This week is a wide open picture. We begin focusing on Elijah, he is on the run. He left in fear and ran out of energy. What do we need for energy? Food. The last couple of weeks we have been studying about Jesus and the feeding of the five thousand. Yes, we did cover it for a couple of weeks. Someone asked me about it, what were the differences from the book of Mark to the book of John? The bread of life, Jesus, the one who satisfies us for the coming life with Him. So back to Elijah, he was fed, fed the same bread that the Israelites ate that came from Heaven(Jesus is the bread from Heaven for us). Let’s dig in and see what is revealed to us this week.
1 Kings 19:4-8 4)But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough; now, O LORD, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers.” 5)He lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and behold, there was an angel touching him, and he said to him, “Arise, eat.” 6)Then he looked and behold, there was at his head a bread cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again. 7)The angel of the LORD came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you.” 8)So he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights, to Horeb, the mountain of God. So many things to say about this passage, do you see the comparison with other passages that we know? God knew how absolutely tired Elijah was, He provided the rest that Elijah needed and the food to sustain him on his journey. God knew that Elijah felt that he may have disappointed God, but God had other things for him to do. Sometimes we are ready to checkout, when things are so overwhelming and difficult. God knows us and our abilities, He is the one to urge us on. Praise God.
Psalms 34:1-8 1)I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. 2)My soul will make its boast in the LORD: the humble will hear it and rejoice. 3)O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together. 4)I sought the LORD, and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. 5)They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces will never be ashamed. 6)This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. 7)The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, and rescues them. 8)O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! Oh so many times I have wondered how I made it out of a situation, not like Elijah, but you know. Here the Psalmist tells us, when we praise God and give to Him the glory, He protects us, even in those times that it feels so completely hopeless.
Ephesians 4:25-5:1 25)Therefore, laying aside falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE of you WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another. 26)BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27)and do not give the devil an opportunity. 28)He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need. 29)Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. 30)Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31)Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32)Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. 5:1)Therefore be imitators of God. as beloved children; 2)and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. I know that you’ve heard about the “don’t go to bed angry”, but have you given any thought as to why other than it is a good practice? The longer we let the problem linger, the more of a problem it becomes. The honest truth spoken with gentleness and kindness, not brusque or mean, will help build our oneness not drive us apart. Many times in the bible it talks of an unbridled tongue. Be thoughtful and forgiving as it has been given to us.
John 6:35, 41-51 35)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. 41)Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, “I am the bread that came down out of heaven.” 42)They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?” 43)Jesus answered and said to them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44)”No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. 45)”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. 46)”Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. 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 heave, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51)”I am the living brad that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh. Wide open, we see that this “bread”, Jesus is the life giving need fulfilling to us. Not just food, but what we need to go on. What we need to survive this life and what is to come. It is not the bread on the sandwich you ate, but something directly from God from heaven above. So when the complaining and confusion arose, which it did at every turn, Jesus explained to the people, remember your history! He was asking them to make the connection, do you think that it frightened them? You bet it did. What had been foretold to them, the history they carried around for generations was actually happening. Losing control was freaking them out. So back to us, this bread is the body of Christ, this blood is the blood of Christ. Praise God.
Through Christ, Seek God,
D.J. Schoneweis