Our Daily Bread

Old Testament

Psalm 145:15, 16, 18 

The eyes of all look expectantly to You,
And you give them their food in due season....
You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,
To all who call upon Him in truth....

Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good,
And let your soul delight itself in abundance.
Incline your ear, and come to Me.
Hear, and your soul shall live.

And in the morning the dew lay all around the camp. And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground. So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, "This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. This is the thing which the Lord has commanded: 'Let every man gather it according to each one's need....'"

And the house of Israel called its name Manna. And it was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.

Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its color like the color of bdellium. The people went about and gathered it, and ground it on millstones or beat it in the mortar, cooked it in pans, and made cakes of it; and its taste was like the taste of pastry prepared with oil. And when the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna fell on it.

[Elijah said to the widow] "Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand." So she said, "As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die." And Elijah said to her, "Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord God of Israel: 'The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth.'" So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many days...

He had commanded the clouds above,
And opened the doors of heaven,
Had rained down manna on them to eat,
And given them of the bread of heaven.
Men ate angels' food;
He sent them food to the full.

He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.

He will feed His flock like a shepherd.

The New Testament

"'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'" 

"Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread."

"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ...Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' ...For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." 

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, "Take, eat; this is My body."

And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things. When the day was now far spent, His disciples came to Him and said, "This is a deserted place, and already the hour is late. Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread; for they have nothing to eat." But He answered and said to them, "You give them something to eat." And they said to Him, "Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat?" But He said to them, "How many loaves do you have? Go and see." And when they found out they said, "Five, and two fish." Then He commanded them to make them all sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in ranks, in hundreds and in fifties. And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and the two fish He divided among them all. So they all ate and were filled. And they took up twelve baskets full of fragments and of the fish. Now those who had eaten the loaves were about five thousand men.

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"

"Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life...." Therefore they said to Him... "Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." Then they said to Him, "Lord, give us this bread always." And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.... Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world."

The Heavenly Doctrines

 Worship and Instruction

When the Lord came into the world, the Sabbath became a day of instruction in Divine things and for meditation things relating to salvation and eternal life.

Everyone receives enlightenment and instruction from the Word according to his affection for truth and degree of desire for it, and according to his ability to receive it.... Those are enlightened who are governed by heavenly loves; for heavenly loves receive and like sponges soak up heaven's truths.

Priests are to teach truths, and by these lead to good, and thus to the Lord.

It is the duty of priests to teach people the way to heaven and also to guide them. They must instruct them in the teachings of their Church and guide them to lead lives in keeping with those teachings. Priests who teach truths and guide people by means of them to goodness of life and so to the Lord are good shepherds.

Spiritual Food

Eating and drinking, in the Word mean to eat and drink spiritually, which is to be instructed...

Unless a person enjoys spiritual nourishment together with the nourishment of the body, he is not human, but a beast.

Heavenly bread is the good of love and faith which comes from the Lord.

[S]piritual food consists in every good of faith that is a source of wisdom, while spiritual drink consists in every truth of faith that is a source of intelligence.

Manna

"Manna" symbolized spiritual food, which is knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom.

It is called the "bread of the heavens," because it rained down from heaven with the dew, but in the spiritual sense it is called the "bread of the heavens" because it flows down from the Lord through the angelic heaven.