Stones and Bread

The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:3-4 

“… tell these stones to become …“   

The Greek word translated “become” is gínomai and means “to emerge, become, transitioning from one point (realm, condition) to another … Fundamentally it “means become (becoming, became) so it is not an exact equivalent to the ordinary equative verb ‘to be’ (is, was, will be).”¹ Marvin R. Vincent adds that the word “is used for God’s actions as emerging from eternity and becoming (showing themselves) in time (physical space).”²  

Make bread emerge from eternity, transition from one realm to another. Who can do that but God? It sounds to me like Satan knew who Jesus was and Jesus’ power. Jesus is the unchanging “to be” verb, the I AM. He has the power to make us – me and you – the becoming verb, emerging, transitioning. The power to manifest God’s actions emerging from eternity and showing themselves in time and space.   

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ … Ephesians 1:4-5 

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10 

Back to the desert and the temptation to make bread from stones. Jesus refused Satan’s temptation, but I think he did it with an inward smile. Because, you know what the cool thing is? I think Jesus did make stones become bread. But first he made the stones – living stones. The Father’s plan all along. 

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:4-5   

Bread is a consumable. (Jesus said to “eat this bread”). Bread is consumed and becomes nourishment, strength. I might be stepping out on some thin air here, but if Jesus is the living Stone and the living Bread come from heaven, and the church is the body of Christ, built from living stones, could we also be stones becoming bread? It makes sense to me that we become bread. Not hard, dead stones to beat people over the head with, but living stones to build a refuge for the oppressed, a sanctuary for the harassed and helpless, living stones becoming bread to feed the hungry. 

You feed them. Luke 9:13 (NLT) 

Jesus is Bread and we are to be like him. Bread to be consumed. Living sacrifices. 

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Romans 12:1-2 

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. Romans 8:29 

Conformed to – sýmmorphos – “properly, conformed, by sharing the same inner essence–identity (form); showing similar behavior from having the same essential nature.”¹  

Having “the same essential nature.” Bread. Life giving bread. 

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. John 6:51   

Jesus spoke another time about bread. 

He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.” Matthew 13:33 

I always have wondered about this verse. Yeast is almost always a symbol of sin in the Bible. But here Jesus is saying the Kingdom is like yeast mixed into flour to make bread – a good, life-giving thing. The word translated “mixed” means to conceal in, incorporate with, bury or hide within. This may be another highwire act, but look at this: 

For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:3 

What if our sinful nature – our yeast – crucified with Christ, transformed and conformed and hidden in him can become bread with him. Maybe only when this happens, when we have died to self and are hidden in Him can we be conformed to him – “showing similar behavior from having the same essential nature.”  

Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” Matthew 14:16 

I think giving them something to eat is done both literally, by caring for the physical needs of our brothers, and by sharing the Bread of the Word with those who hunger for what they don’t even know they hunger for.  

Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you tells him, “Go in peace; stay warm and well fed,” but does not provide for his physical needs, what good is that? James 2:15-16 

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat … Matthew 25:35 

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. Romans 10:17 

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. John 5:6 

But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience … 1 Peter 3:15-16 

The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. John 6:63 

Feed my sheep. John 21:17 

For more on this topic see: If You Are and Living Stones

¹ HELPS Word Studies, Bible Hub 

²Word Studies in the New Testament by Marvin R. Vincent 

Image, by Mira66 https://www.flickr.com/photos/21804434@N02/4739074036/

Shaken Off

For I am poor (depressed, in mind or circumstances, wretched, afflicted, 
humble, lowly, needy, poor)

and needy (in want, a beggar, needy, poor),

and my heart (inner man, mind, will, heart, understanding, seat of courage)

is wounded (profaned, defiled, polluted, desecrated, violated, wounded, pierced)

within me (my inward part, seat of thought and emotion, my center).

I fade away like an evening shadow; I am shaken off like a locust. Psalm 109:22-23 

I can identify with all of this Psalm – the depression, the woundedness, the feeling like I am in darkness. But I can especially relate to that last line: “I fade away like an evening shadow; I am shaken off like a locust.”  

I can understand shaking off a locust or grasshopper in creepy disgust. The feel of their sticky little feet and they are ugly and they spit that brown goo. They are associated with curse and plague, eating everything in their path, destroying the green life. To me, this is like rejection, being viewed as creepy, disgusting, gross, and being shaken off. I feel like the real me was shaken off in my childhood, and I have been shaking myself off in self-hatred ever since. So, this is something that God is showing me that I have to work on for sure.  

On the other hand, locusts were considered a clean animal that you could eat, that could bring nourishment. According to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, peoples in the Middle East were “accustomed to feed upon locusts, either raw or roasted and seasoned with salt (or prepared in other ways), and the Israelites also (according to Leviticus 11:22) were permitted to eat them.” John the Baptist ate them in the wilderness. 

John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. Matthew 3:4 

John’s food was locusts AND honey. And in that verse is an amazing hidden treasure. There was another time that God fed his people in the desert with honey – honey from the rock. Moses identified the Rock as the Lord God. 

He [the Lord] is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just … He nourished him [Israel] with honey from the rock … Deuteronomy 32:4, 13 

… with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.” Psalm 81:16 

John was fed in the desert place with these creepy, disgusting insects AND the honey from the Rock. Isn’t that what God does? He makes us, creepy as we are, nourishment, food for a hungry world with Christ, as we abide in Christ? 

I have felt shaken off in disgust. Yet, as I looked at the meaning of the word translated “shaken” in Psalm 109, I found treasure there too. Cool thing about this word is that it is “a primitive root, probably identical with 05286 (means growl), through the idea of the rustling of mane, which usually accompanies the lion’s roar.”¹ The Lion of Judah roars and I am shaken like a locust. 

But I don’t think He is roaring in disgust or rejection. He is roaring in anger at my sin and what the sins of others have done to me. He is roaring with the pain and groaning of a broken world. And like a lion shaking its mane, he will shake these things off and set me free. He will bring new life, resurrection. He will transform me by the renewing of my mind (Romans 12:2). 

Because, though I fade away like an evening shadow, or I am “like a late afternoon shadow made by the descending sun that will soon be swallowed up by complete darkness,”² the Lord will bring me light.  

The word translated “shaken” in the Psalm, is the same word as used in Job 38:13 “Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place, that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it?” 

I love that verse, and I have blogged about it before, but now I see something else. Do you see it? The dawn arrives, the Light of the world comes and dispels the deepening darkness, and the earth is shaken, I am shaken. 

The Lion shakes his mane and roars. I am shaken off like a locust into a new day. Yet, not in disgust and rejection, but rather to “shake me forward and shake me free” as in the Rich Mullins song, Calling Out Your Name. 

From the place where morning gathers  
You can look sometimes forever ’til you see  
What time may never know  
What time may never know  
How the Lord takes by its corners this old world  
And shakes us forward and shakes us free  
To run wild with the hope  
To run wild with the hope   

Lion of Judah roar! I am depressed and wretched in my mind; my heart is wounded, pierced and violated. I have been shaken off and rejected as disappointing and disgusting. I am about to be swallowed up in the darkness. Bring your Light as the dawn and shake off my sticky little feet from clinging to this world, from wrong thinking and lies, from idolatries, from fear and doubt and despair. Sweep me up to run wild with you, wild with hope. 

He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. Isaiah 40:22 

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe … Hebrews 12:28 

¹Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance 

²NET Bible notes. 

Image by Michael https://flic.kr/p/8cP1vw  

Hugging the Rock*

Sometimes I feel like I am hugging a rock pounded by the waves and wind 

watching my loved one’s battered little boat being flung around

slowly sinking 

I have tried being out there in the boat with them 

but every time washed overboard  

slapped brutally back against the rock 

Now, Lord, I cry out to You 

There is no one like you, my Lord, to help the powerless against these mighty waves 

Help Lord, help this frail little vessel for we rely on you

only you 

There is nothing I can do except call out my cry for help 

a drowning cry lost in the destroyer’s roar

yet you hear 

In your name I cling here on the Rock hanging on against this vast army-storm 

You are our God, you are God of the waves, God of angel armies 

Do not let it sink 

only You can  

only You will 

bring this little boat  

to the safe haven 

*Inspired by 2 Chronicles 14:12 

Thank you to Beholding Ministries https://beholdinghimministries.org/2022/10/06/help-us-for-we-rely-on-you/  

Image from Wikimedia Commons, Seascape by Lars Wahlberg, 1945 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Skepp_i_storm.jpg  

My Spirit Grows Faint

I am overwhelmed 

When I remember God, then I am disturbed (moan, murmur, growl, cry aloud); When I sigh (complain), then my spirit grows faint (feeble, weak, overwhelmed). Psalm 77:3 (NASB) 

My heart desolate   

… my spirit grows faint (feeble, weak, overwhelmed) within me; my heart within me is dismayed (desolate, appalled, stunned, devastated). Psalm 143:4 

Yet! 

When my spirit grows faint (feeble, weak, overwhelmed) within me, it is you who know (make known, declare, cause me to know, reveal to me) my way. Psalm 142:3a 

You show me the Way 

From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint (feeble, weak, overwhelmed); lead me (guide me, bring me) to the rock that is (raised up, lifted up, exalted) higher than I. Psalm 61:2 

You lead me to the Rock that is higher 

You guide me to the Rock that is lifted up 

You bring me to the Rock who is exalted 

And when I am lifted up on the cross, I will draw everyone to myself. John 12:32 

And being found in appearance as a man, 
    he humbled himself 
    by becoming obedient to death— 
        even death on a cross! 

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place 
    and gave him the name that is above every name … Philippians 2:8-9 

I was overwhelmed and you answered me 

Jesus answered, “I am the way …” John 14:6 

“Follow me.” 

Image, original oil painting by Jack Bair. All rights reserved.