Living Bread. . .

When I bake I pray.  I give continual thanks to God,  for making me in His image and allowing me to also be a creator. . .

Genesis 2:6-7

But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.  (7)  And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Where was the Lord's kitchen?  What specific spot did he choose for the creation of man?  What thoughts went through our Lord's mind as He made his preparations?  The word translated as 'dust' might equally be read as clay or mud.  We are told of the mist watering the whole face of the ground.  This was not dry dust.  This was no arid and sterile powder in danger of being blown away by the wind, but this was moist and malleable clay in the hands of a master.

I gather my ingredients, liquids first and then the dry, adding the flour bit by bit until the texture is perfect.  Experience tells when to stop adding flour and to turn it into the bowl.  It must be just right to form into loaves.  Either too dry or too wet and the bread will be spoiled, but the dough must also live.  Flour, sugar, water and oil alone will be flat and heavy.  Without the yeast in my bread, without the breath of God into man, the inert ingredients will not transform into their intended form.

But then why the seeming heavenly fascination with unleavened bread?  Is there something wrong with bread containing yeast?  Is there some reason to hesitate to enjoy and indulge yourself the pleasure of freshly baked heavenly leavened bread?

Only a few verses later is the first Biblical mention of bread:

Genesis 3:19  In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

We are not told that this bread is leavened or unleavened, but the derivation of this Hebrew word is of struggle, wrestling, a battle for your sustenance.  Unleavened bread was surely known before raised bread as illustrated in another early mention of bread in the Bible:

Genesis 18:5-6

And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said.  (6)  And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth.

Abraham gives us the recipe for this unleavened bread.  No time was spent waiting for the yeast to grow and the bread to rise.  The meal was mixed with water, worked by kneading, the pulling and pushing of it together for a time to allow the gluten of the flour to form the long protein strands which give bread its texture.  Interestingly the Scripture records Abraham bringing his heavenly guests the butter, the milk, and the calf that he prepared for them, but the bread is never again spoken of.  This passage is where Abraham and Sarah are told that they will have a son in their old age.  Jewish tradition holds that at those words from the angel of the Lord, Sarah began menstruating and therefore was prohibited from preparing food and the bread was never delivered to the guests.

Unleavened bread is ancient.  Undoubtedly an older food than yeast bread.  It is quick and crude which explains the instructions for the passover meal:

Exodus 12:8-15

And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.  (9)  Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof.  (10)  And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire.  (11)  And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD's passover.  (12)  For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.  (13)  And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.  (14)  And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.  (15)  Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.

This is the first passover.  The scripture calls the first mention of this, as a feast to the Lord, but this is not spoken of as a light party.  The word for feast here is a solemn occasion of sacrifice.  This feast of unleavened bread is a memorial, a monument, a tribute to be remembered throughout the generations of Hebrew lineage.  What is it that must be remembered?  Surely the deliverance from Egypt was to be thought of, but equally important was the place given for the remembrance of the blood of the lamb that saved them.  The instruction to keep this day as a feast is then immediately repeated only the word translated into English as 'feast' is changed.  Now rather than it being a word meaning solemn feast, the word used has an association of giddiness, a festival, exuberant celebration, 'to celebrate, to dance, to reel to and fro' and this time the mention is not throughout the Hebrew generations, but to be kept by law forever. . .

We can infer many things into the eating of unleavened bread.  The first was a practical matter.  The Hebrews were instructed to be ready to leave the land of Egypt at a moments notice.  They were to eat the passover meal dressed and standing ready to go.  The rising of bread takes time.  Today with our concentrated dry yeasts it takes a minimum of a couple of hours for bread dough to be properly leavened, but for example when making sour dough bread, using your own wild yeast culture similar to what the Hebrews would have had, the time required for the bread to rise can easily be 6-12 hours depending on the temperature in which the dough is rising.  They could not be ready to leave if they were waiting for their bread dough to rise.  

But the Bible also give us another symbolism or metaphor that the unleavened bread represents:

Deuteronomy 16:3

Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life.

The Hebrew word translated as affliction, can also be read as 'depression'.  The unleavened bread is a bread of depression.  It is not bread fluffed up and airy, but compacted, low. . .depressed bread.  The Hebrews years in Egypt are referred to as a time of affliction. . . a time of depression and misery:

Exodus 4:31

And the people believed: and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped.

The Lord saw their low condition, their depression, their depressed state and remembered them. . . and delivered them.  The unleavened bread is a memorial to their deliverance from their years of depression and misery. . .There is no joy represented in this bread.  It is low, lifeless. . . not bubbling or lifted up. . .

Now we look at bread in the New Testament, going from the Hebrew to the Greek.  There are two Greed words translated as bread in the New Testament.  The first, azymos, appears 9 times and is always translated as 'unleavened bread'.  That is its definition: unfermented, free from leaven or yeast.  The second word, artos, appears 91 times and is used for everyday bread, the bread Satan tempted Jesus with, the bread mentioned in the Lord's prayer, the bread used to feed the 5000 and the 4000 were all this word 'artos'.

The 6th chapter of John might be thought of as the bread chapter of the Bible.  Virtually from beginning to end, this chapter talks about bread.  It begins with Jesus feeding the 5000 and continues on with Jesus explaining the symbolism of the bread:

John 6:30-35

They said therefore unto him, What sign showest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work?  (31)  Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.  (32)  Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.  (33)  For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.  (34)  Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.  (35)  And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

John 6:47-58

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.  (48)  I am that bread of life.  (49)  Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.  (50)  This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.  (51)  I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.  (52)  The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?  (53)  Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.  (54)  Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.  (55)  For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.  (56)  He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.  (57)  As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.  (58)  This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live forever.

All these references to bread are 'artos', the everyday bread. . .This is no Old Testament bread of affliction.  This is no bread of depression.  That is the bread of the old sacrifice.  The sacrifice without life. . . This is the bread with life. . .the bread of life, the bread with yeast, the risen bread,. . . the symbol of our Lord is no sterile depressed bread, but bread filled with air, with joy, with the Spirit of life. . .

Thank you my God for this Living, Loving Bread

Let us nourish ourselves on this Bread of Life. . .

I love you my God. . .

Dave

The bread is a symbol and I surely am not condemning the use of unleavened bread in communion.  It is the symbol that is the important thing, and I think to get all caught up in the specifics of the ritual misses the point of the symbolism, but during my research for this article, I found that the The Eastern Orthodox (The Greek) Church has always used leavened bread in their communion, for pretty much the same reasons that I have outlined above.