Hebrews – Food
Many people have food allergies, but the Bible has food…analogies. Yes, this little article might be hard to swallow, but chew on its truths for a little while and you will be able to stomach the puns.
We are all familiar with the more common food analogies:
- Water of life
- Bread of life
- Meat of the word
- Milk of the word
- Seed of the Gospel
Everybody loves food from the infant crying for milk to the grown man staring longingly at the steak grilling on the grill – make my medium please, and no steak sauce!
Everybody needs food – life would be impossible without it. And so it is true of spiritual food. That is God’s point.
Don’t know who wrote the following, but let’s have a little fun and pun our way to a growing, and hopefully no one misstalks my intention.
Gardening God’s Way!
Plant three rows of peas:
- Peace of mind
- Peace of heart
- Peace of soul
Plant four rows of squash:
- Squash gossip
- Squash indifference
- Squash grumbling
- Squash selfishness
Plant four rows of lettuce:
- Lettuce be faithful
- Lettuce be kind
- Lettuce be obedient
- Lettuce really love one another
No garden should be without turnips:
- Turnip for meetings
- Turnip for service
- Turnip to help one another
Water freely with patience and cultivate with love.
There is much fruit in your garden because you reap what you sow.
To conclude our garden we must have thyme:
- Thyme for God
- Thyme for study
- Thyme for prayer
The above little garden mentioned lettuce. Let us or should I say, “Lettuce” dig a little deeper into the garden of God’s word. The book of Hebrews is far more than a theological wonder. It is, in the author’s own words, a “word of exhortation. (Hebrews 13:22). In noticing the exhortation, take account of both the positive and negative approaches.
- Heb 4:1 NASB Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.
- Heb 4:11 NASB Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.
- Heb 4:14 NASB Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
- Heb 4:16 NASB Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
- Heb 6:1 NASB Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,
- Heb 10:22 NASB let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
- Heb 10:23 NASB Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;
- Heb 10:24 NASB and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,
- Heb 12:1 NASB Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
- Heb 12:28 NASB Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe;
- Heb 13:13 NASB So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach.
- Heb 13:15 NASB Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.
All this lettuce will surely give us the moral…fiber needed to grow. And may we have the attitude of Job towards both physical food and spiritual food: Job 23:12 NASB “I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.
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