From the most famous prayer in Christianity, right?....The Lord's Prayer...."give us this day our daily bread"...we learn it as kids....we think of it only in Gentile terms, absent the Old Testament from whence it came....we think of it as God providing our food for us or perhaps our livelihood everyday....which is not necessarily wrong....but it is SO much deeper than that when connected with the Old Testament....as everything else is in the New Testament if you at least attempt to connect it back....
(Agricola, please chime in here, I'm going to talk about the OT now)....So, in the book of Exodus we have Moses leading a bunch of grumbling Israelites into the wilderness in the Sinai (no different from us....we all grumble before God, that's the point)....but gee, I think it was only 3 days before the grumbling started...no water, etc....with Moses having to hear a bunch of brats who were even beginning to accuse God of attempting to murder them....enter the grace of God: they are given water and manna...the bread of life....every day.....and there is a reference to Moses getting angry when some held extra manna over for the next day....reinforcing of course, that fact that God is our DAILY portion and will provide for us on a daily basis....everything we will need.....and if I recall correctly, the manna came every morning for 365 days a year for 40 years....it is two things here (1) the faithfulness of God and (2) the call to trust in His provision: neither of these do I remember being taught in the CofC
So now, Christ says "give us our daily bread" reinforcing the notion that God is our daily portion and provider....Christ even alluded to such in other places in the gospel, that is living only for today, not worrying about tomorrow....TRUSTING in Him....so where is that trust in the CofC...from what I remember, it is trust in your ability to read and understand the NT....not!
So, please tell me that this sheds a beautiful light on just one portion of the Lord's prayer?? Everything else in the OT, esp the Psalms...informs the Christian life.....I'm not sure how anyone can not be incredibly moved when reading David's psalms (especially as you get older!!)....the one who followed after the heart of God and was the shadow of Christ to come....this guy might have been recognized today to have significant clinical depression....but really, just sticking it out with God...the sticktuitiveness....the depths of his spirituality and his recognition of the infinite grace of God are truly informative of our faith today (and gives depth to it) if we'll allow it....
Give Us Our Daily Bread
Re: Give Us Our Daily Bread
Yeah but you know, there was no garlic! no leeks!
for fun -
manna = in Hebrew, that means (or can mean) 'mah na': WHAT IS IT??
for fun -
manna = in Hebrew, that means (or can mean) 'mah na': WHAT IS IT??
History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices.