Feed me oil 5 123/15/2023 ![]() ![]() Lest we over-spiritualize Jesus’ words, we are called to come to God seeking our daily provision: “feed me with the food that is needful for me” (Proverbs 30:8). Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.” Likewise, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray for daily bread (Matthew 6:11). In Psalm 81:10 Yahweh defines himself as the God of redemption who feeds his people: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Literally, God is the one who provides food for his people and all creation (see Psalm 104). And part of that baby talk is an invitation to come and eat. Like a mother speaks to her nursing child, God speaks “baby talk” to us. A Living BreadĪt the risk of sounding crass, it is important to see how much the Bible speaks of food when it comes to seeking God. Truly, this is what John Calvin called God’s “accommodation.” God speaks to us in a way that we-creatures who depend on food-can understand. In order to understand what it means to feed on the Lord, there are three things to know and one thing do. But how? I can imagine someone saying, “That’s sounds great, but what does that mean?” So here is my answer to that question: What does it mean to feed on the God who is invisible? Three Things to Know: God is a Living Bread, Faith is a Kind of Feeding, and Scripture is a Nourishing Word ![]() My repeated command: Feed on the goodness and grace of God. Just this last week, I preached a message on feeding on the Lord. If God is Spirit (John 4:24), then how do we feed on him? And if he is invisible, where do we go to find fullness in him? Still, I suspect that for all we know about food, we may struggle to understand what it means to feed on the Lord. Psalm 34:8 reads, “Taste and see that the Lord is God.” And Psalm 36:8 says that the children of man “feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.” Apparently, our experience with food-physical bread, meat, and drink-is meant by God to teach us what it means to feed on the Lord and drink from his streams of life. At the same time, Scripture often speaks of eating metaphorically. So clearly, food plays a key role in our physical and spiritual pursuit of God. At the same time, food has been a source of destruction-sin entered the world through eating the forbidden fruit Esau lost his inheritance when he chose stew over his birthright, and Paul says that men ate and drank destruction on themselves when they wrongly ate the Lord’s Supper. From the plethora of fruit trees given to Adam and Eve in the Garden, to the Manna in the wilderness, to the loaves and fishes that Jesus provided for his followers, God has provided physical sustenance. ![]() Spiritually, the language of food, famine, eating, nourishment, and emptiness fills the Bible. We cannot go without food, and thus we search for something to fill us up and give us life. While experienced differently in famine-afflicted Africa or affluency-afflicted America, an “empty stomach” is something that speaks to everyone. Physically, hunger and our attempts to fill our stomaches are experiences that unite all mankind. And in the Bible it is one of the most important concepts related to salvation, faith, and one’s experience with God. It’s one of the most basic of human desires. ![]()
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