Today Daily Devotional

“To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna.” — Revelation 2:17 Whenever we read from the book of Revelation, it’s important to keep in mind that it is full of symbolism. It isn’t meant to be read literally, and if we try to read it that way, we will run into many difficulties. In this passage, the apostle John is writing down a message from Jesus to a church that needs to hear encouragement as well as a warning. The bottom line is this: Stay true to God’s Word. Don’t...

He broke [the bread] and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” — 1 Corinthians 11:24 In the Lord’s Supper (communion) bread symbolizes nourish­ment and sustenance in faith, but it also symbolizes the death of Jesus that saves us from destruction. It’s like water and wine. These symbols are like a double-edged sword: water can sustain life, but it can also create deadly floods. Wine can gladden the heart, but it can also destroy people’s lives. Some stories...

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts. . . . — Acts 2:46 For a time, our church received donations of day-old bread from a bakery nearby. An elderly man from a neighboring church would pick up the bread and bring it to us on Sunday mornings. Some of it, however, was too tough for his church members to eat, he said, because many of them couldn’t afford dental care and were missing teeth....

Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread. — Luke 24:35 There’s a story about a woman who happened to wander into a church on a Sunday morning. She was an atheist, so she wasn’t quite sure why she decided to sit there in a pew, and then when she was offered communion, for some reason she didn’t turn it down. As she heard the words “Take this bread” and ate the piece of bread, it was as if she received a revelation. From that...

“Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself.” — Ezekiel 4:9 In some grocery stores you can find “Ezekiel 4:9 Bread,” which contains the same ingredients God told Ezekiel to use here to make bread. But the recipe God gave Ezekiel wasn’t intended to be an expensive specialty food. Although the combination of grains forms a complete protein and would have given Ezekiel a lot of important nutrients as he ate the...

“Ship your grain across the sea; after many days you may receive a return.” — Ecclesiastes 11:1 The meaning of this passage in Ecclesiastes has often puzzled people. Translated more literally, it says, “Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again.” Some think this refers to being generous toward ­others or to teaching people various skills that may take a while to learn. Others suggest that it has to do with trade and economic markets, which may bring a great...

To show partiality is not good, yet a person will do wrong for a piece of bread. — Proverbs 28:21 It has been said that the Psalms were given to us so that we could know how to speak to God, and that the Proverbs were given so that we’d know how to speak to each other. Proverbs 28, as well as the chapters around it, reveal how delicate and complex human relationships are. It’s often a challenge to know what to say to each other, and sometimes we get it really wrong: saying wrong things for...

He makes [plants] grow . . . bringing forth food from the earth: . . . bread that sustains [people’s] hearts. — Psalm 104:15 Near the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the teachers at my school made a loaf of bread and brought it to our home on a Friday evening. Because of the lockdown, we hadn’t seen many familiar people face-to-face, and her gesture remains one of the most memorable moments of that uncertain time. The loaf of bread was delicious, but it was the act of friendship...

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. — Psalm 23:5 Have you ever arrived at a ban­quet or a special event and been surprised at the beauty of the table that has been set up for the occasion? Sometimes a decorative “centerpiece” draws attention to the beauty of the table, but often the table itself is the centerpiece of an event! There are many reasons why Psalm 23 has sustained people through difficult times, and one of the most hopeful images is that God will prepare...

“Arrange them in two stacks, six in each stack, on the table of pure gold before the Lord.” — Leviticus 24:6 When someone wears a wedding ring, it shows that they have a distinctive relationship with another person. The ring is a constant reminder of a promise made, and it affects the behavior and identity of both persons in the present and in the future. In some ways, the visible symbol of bread at the center of the tabernacle was like that: it was a symbol of the people’s life committed to...

“I had a dream. . . . A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed.” — Judges 7:13 Have you ever had a significant dream that you couldn’t understand? At different times throughout the history recorded in the Bible, God spoke to people through dreams, and it often took another person to interpret the meaning of a dream. Sometimes still today people find that God speaks through dreams, and sharing...

When Naomi heard . . . that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home. — Ruth 1:6 Ruth and Naomi’s story begins with sadness and hunger, and it ends with fulfillment and joy. After Naomi’s husband and her sons died, she heard that God was again providing food (literally lehem, which means bread) in Bethlehem, which means “house of bread” (see Ruth 1). When Ruth and Naomi returned to Bethlehem, God provided for...

“The jar of flour will not be used up . . . until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.” — 1 Kings 17:14 During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a sudden demand for flour and yeast. Many, many people wanted to make bread at home! This surge caused a shortage of supplies, leaving shelves bare at the grocery store and causing some people to go without the basics they needed. Today’s story in 1 Kings highlights significant shortages: the stream runs dry, and the flour and oil are about to...

“You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.” — 1 Kings 17:4 In the Bible there are many stories about God’s people disobeying God’s instructions to do certain things—and all of those things were designed to help the people learn to trust in God. God loves and cares for his people, and he always wants what is best for us. But we often like to do things our own way—so instead we disobey God, and that leads to trouble and eventually to ruin,...

“The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” — Matthew 4:3 Are you ever tempted to take advantage of a situation for your own benefit? While Jesus was being tempted, he quoted from the Scriptures to show that we do not “live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (see Deuteronomy 8:3). No matter which way people fell short in their lives, Jesus showed the perfect way. For example, even after the Israelites...

“Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God. . . .” — Deuteronomy 8:11 Moses was instructing the peo­ple on how to live. He mentioned bread, eating, being satisfied, and being fed. Clearly the theme of bread and eating was important for understanding God’s saving work in the people’s lives. We need tangible experiences of grace, and God often reveals his goodness and abundant love through visible signs of flourishing: a land where his people would eat bread without scarcity...

“He humbled you . . . to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” — Deuteronomy 8:3 During pregnancy, I often experienced quick shifts from feeling indifferent about food to feeling ravenously hungry. The child growing inside me and all of the changes taking place caused me to hunger. In our Bible reading for today, though, it was God who caused the people to hunger. He brought them into a situation where they didn’t have...

“The Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you.” — Exodus 16:4 Our boys sometimes sing a funny song called “It’s raining tacos.” It suggests that you should just open your mouth, close your eyes—no need to ask why—and enjoy “all you can eat” tacos from out of the sky. It makes us laugh to think about such an impossible situation, and yet God said something similar to Moses—that he would “rain down bread from heaven” for his people. Imagine the confusion, joy, and relief...

“Quick,” he said, “get three seahs of the finest flour and knead it and bake some bread.” — Genesis 18:6 Part of me has to laugh when I read Abraham’s urgent instructions: “Quick . . . bake some bread.” Baking bread from scratch is not something you can do quickly! It requires careful work and time. But hospitality required that Abraham and Sarah’s visitors should have bread and choice meat and curds and milk prepared. So, whatever time it took to prepare all that, it was worth the work and...

“By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground. . . .” — Genesis 3:19 In the very beginning, God gave to Adam and Eve all the seed-bearing plants for food (Genesis 1:29). But after the fall into sin, God tells them that one of the consequences of their sin is that they will have to work hard for their food. The word translated here as “food” is the Hebrew word lehem, which means “bread.” This means bread is so vital that it basically refers to everything...