There is nothing better than the aroma of homemade bread
baking in the oven. It fills the house
such a welcoming scent and reminiscent of days gone by with a much slower pace.
As a stay-at-home mom I would make all our bread. When our children started school and I went
to work my wonderful husband missed his much loved bread so he bought me a
bread machine and the marriage of work and homemade bread was born!
I was thinking of the casting of bread in the faceoff between
Satan and Jesus on this earth.
The first enticement Satan threw to Jesus in the
wilderness was bread when he heckled Jesus to prove he was the Son of God by
turning stones into bread.
If you are the Son
of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread. But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by
bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”[i]
Jesus didn’t fall prey to Satan’s conspiracy…he didn’t
have to prove what Satan already knew, he WAS the Son of God.
The second bread conspiracy was at the Passover
Celebration the night of Jesus betrayal.
“For Jesus knew who
would betray him. “It is the one to whom
I give the bread I dip in the bowl.” And
when he had dipped it, he gave it to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot. When Judas had eaten the bread, Satan entered
into him. Then Jesus told him, “Hurry and
do what you’re going to do.”[ii]
As in any conspiracy there is the means by which it is
achieved. Judas was the means by which
the religious elite could finally get rid of Jesus. Being prompted by Satan prior to the supper
he would now take complete control over
Judas to ensure the conspiracy was fulfilled. The bread was the means by which Satan would enter
Judas and finally get rid of Jesus…or so he thought.
Is it possible Jesus was not only speaking to Judas that
night but also to Satan when he said, “Hurry
and do what you’re going to do.”? Perhaps
he was saying, “Go ahead give it one last shot, do what you are going to
do. But my answer remains the same. I will do what I was sent to accomplish. I will do what the Father has willed from the
moment you turned on him and started your war us. And I will do it one-on-one with you just as you deceived
one-on-one with the first Adam.
Once again Jesus was declaring “I am the bread from heaven. The
true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the
world.”[iii] Your
bread, Satan, is counterfeit…stale…store bought.
The outcome of this final bread temptation was not what
Satan anticipated. The true Bread of
Life cancelled the record of charges against us by nailing them on the
cross. In this way, he disarmed the
spiritual rulers and authorities (aka, Satan) and he shamed them publicly by
his victory over them on the cross.[iv]
Once again Satan’s conspiracy was foiled by the Victor
and lover of our souls.
For there is only one God and one Mediator
who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Jesus Christ. He gave his life to purchase freedom for
everyone.[v]
When Satan tries to offer you and me counterfeit bread,
it will always be stale, don’t eat it!
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