“For I received from the L-rd what I also delivered to you, that the L-rd Jesus on the night He was betrayed took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is my body which is for (some text say “broken for”) you. Do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same way also the cup, after supper saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the L-rd’s death until he comes.” 1Cor.11.23-26
All Christian faiths celebrate the Eucharist in some form or another, but there is a great contention as to its true meaning. The area of contention is in the doctrine of the transubstantiation, that is the doctrine that states the elements of the Eucharist are actually converted into the Body and Blood of our L-rd, Yeshua HaMoshiach- and not merely a symbolic representation of the L-rd’s Supper.
The journey to understanding this puzzle begins, not in the Passion, but in chapter six of John’s Gospel. This chapter is broken into two sections: the multiplication of the loaves and the Bread of Life Discourse. The former is found in all four of the Gospels while the latter is found in only John. Therefore we will start with the-
Multiplication of Loaves:
The Evangelists tell us that these events occurred just after the death of John the Baptist (see Matt.14.12 and Mk.6.1-29). Herod believed that Yeshua was John, raised from the dead. When the disciples heard of John’s death, they took the body and buried it, then went on to tell Yeshua what happened. All this followed after the disciples first solo mission (Lk.1-10). It was in this backdrop that Yeshua and the disciples withdrew from public life to a region of Gaulanitis near Bethsaida (out of Herod's district).
But the public, who had seen His miracles, would not allow them to rest. They followed Yeshua and His disciples into the wilderness. They were “like sheep without a shepherd”, thus He had compassion on them, and healed their sick. All this occurred in the backdrop of the evening of Pesach, where many gathered into Jerusalem to prepare, including the priest in the Temple for the great number of sacrifices that would soon be made. Also in this setting were the returning disciples who were tired and anxious over the news of John’s death and Herod’s concerns. And finally, the great the masses of people who have gathered (and hungry) for what even they themselves did not understand, one of HaMoshiach’s greatest miracles.
We are told that as the day moved on toward evening and the next day, one of the twelve spoke up to say that Yeshua should send the crowd away so they could get something to eat. Yet Yeshua had other plans. He said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” He said this to test them. A discussion ensued, one stating “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough . . .” while some others found a lad with five barley loaves and two fish, “But what are they among so many” (there were five thousand), Andrew retorted. Yeshua told them to have the people sit down. Nothing happens under heaven and upon the earth without the Divine knowledge of our L-rd, therefore this was in Yeshua’s understanding and within His plan.
Yeshua took the basket with the loaves and fish said the Baruch HaMotzi and started to distribute the bread and fish. Imagine the wonder of those looking on as the loaves began to multiply before them. They would fill twelve baskets of fragments from the five first loaves after the people had eaten. It was this reason the crowd could see clearly He was at least a prophet of HaShem.
Now Yeshua withdrew from them to a mountainside to talk to only His disciples. Then as darkness fell, He had the disciples board a boat in view of some of the crowd, yet He remained on that mountain in prayer. The disciples took all night to complete their journey because “the sea was against them”. Near dawn however they saw what they thought was a ghost walking across the water and cried out in fear. “It is I; do not be afraid,” came a voice from the apparition. It was the Master.
“Now Peter, full of excitement cried, “L-rd, if it is You, bid me come to You on the water.” Yeshua assented and Peter stepped out. O’ how strong was his faith when He carefully stepped out upon the water, and how quickly the wind and the waves assailed it and brought it down. “L-rd, save me.” Peter cried as he sank beneath the waves. Yeshua gently reached out His hand and drew Peter to safety. “O man of little faith,” Yeshua chided him, “why did you doubt?” What could Peter say? As they got into the boat the wind and waves abated as if to say, “we were here for you, on the Master’s command”. “Truly You are the Son of G-d,” they all cried.In the morning they stepped out at Gennes’aret and moved on towards Caper’na-um for the Sabbath service (it was now Pesach). The crowd from the night before who were stranded on the other side (for the disciples had gotten into the last boat the night before) had returned by boats that had landed near them during the next morning. When they reached the other side, they met Yeshua. . .
And so ends the first discourse and begins the second . . .
The Bread of Life Discourse:
So Yeshua met the crowd on the way to Caper’na-um, and here they asked Him “Rabbi, when did you come here?” because they knew there was but one boat that the disciples used and He was not in it and He did not enter any boat in the morning along with them. This is why they asked Him:
“Rabbi, when did You come here?”Jesus answered them:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”
What does Yeshua mean they sought Him because they “ate their fill of the loaves”? Clearly their question was about how He managed to get across the Sea of Galilee without them noticing Him. The answer is that their focus was on the miracles they had seen and on the one presently before them now, yet they had no other depth. As a result Yeshua was to take them in deeper than many would want to go:
“Do not labor for the food which parishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give you; for on Him has G-d the Father set His seal.”In other words, it is by-faith; Faith in the Messiah that HaShem had promised them and Faith in the Father that sent Him:
“Then they said to Him, ‘What must we do, to be doing the works of G-d?’ Jesus answered them, “This is the work of G-d, that you believe in him Whom He has sent.”Faith isn’t works, Yeshua chided them, and faith means to have faith in Him:
“For G-d sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the Name of the only Son of G-d.” Jn.3.17-18This is greater than they even suspected. All other signs pale against this claim: that He is the Son of the G-d most high. This is why they say:
“Then what sign do You do, that we may see, and believe You? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”It is written:
“Therefore, when the L-rd heard, He was full of wrath . . . because they had no faith in G-d and did not trust His saving power . . . Yet He commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven; and He rained down upon them to eat, and gave them the grain of heaven. Man ate of the bread of angels; He sent them food in abundance.” Ps.78.21, 24-25Clearly this shows that HaShem gave them this bread, so why did Yeshua say:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven; My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.”This was because Moshe brought the Law and Yeshua is stating that He (Yeshua) is greater than the Law. Also notice that the Psalmist clearly states that manna came from heaven, as does Yeshua. We state this only to establish that heavenly bread can only come forth from the hand of G-d. The entire quote:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven; My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of G-d is that which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world.”
“He who believes in the Son has eternal life; He who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of G-d rests upon him.” Jn.3.36.
Therefore this bread is Yeshua Himself, but do they understand this?
“They said to him, ‘L-rd give us this bread always.”Obviously they see literal bread and no symbolism or metaphor, therefore Yeshua makes Himself clearer:
“Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall not thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me; and him who comes to Me I will not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him Who sent Me; and this is the will of Him Who sent Me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given Me, but raise it up at the last day. For this is the will of My Father that every one who sees the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”“He who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall not thirst.”
These words are common words that Yeshua uses to define Himself as HaMoshiach. He spoke them to the woman at the well (Jn.4.13); on the last day of Succos ( Jn.7.37-39); and of course, in the Beatitudes ( Matt.5.6 and Lk.6.21); which they’re in reference to righteousness. Why does He say “But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe”? Because He knew the words that would follow these would breed doubt in those that followed Him up until now. It is He that is the Bread of Life, He that comes down from above. He that existed before He was born, for as John also states:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with G-d, and the Word was G-d . . . and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. . .” Jn.1.1, 14What is puzzling to us however are the words that follow: “. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him Who sent Me; and this is the will of Him Who sent Me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given Me, but raise it up at the last day.” If Yeshua was not to lose “nothing of all He has given Me” then why did He talk of drinking blood and not correcting their understanding, especially when His words turned people away? (see Jn.6.66). The people are incredulous at His words:
“The Jews murmured at Him because He said, ‘I am the Bread which came down from heaven.’ They said, ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, “I have come down from heaven”?’How quickly they return to their human understanding. If this is Yosif’s son, how can He be G-d’s? He was born of flesh, how could He have come forth from heaven?
“Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by G-d.’ Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.”Where does it say: “and they shall be taught by G-d”? It’s a Messianic passage found in Is.54.13: “All your Sons shall be taught by the L-rd”. Just before this passage is a prophecy of the New Jerusalem. Is this why Yeshua speaks this prophecy just after “I will raise him up on the last day”? We will be resurrected at His second coming, therefore He is saying that not only is He Moshiach Ben Yosif (Suffering Messiah) but also Moshiach Ben Dovid (the conquering Messiah). He also states that faith goes both ways. If you believe in Him He will lead you to the Father and if you have “heard and learned from the Father” then you shall go to the Son.
“I am the Bread of Life. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the Bread of Life, which comes down from heaven that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the Living Bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this Bread, he will live forever; and the Bread which I shall give for the life of the world is My Flesh.”Clearly He is tying this Bread, this heavenly Bread, to the cross; for Yeshua gave His very flesh upon Mount Calvary. Therefore, this bread is not only HaMoshiach but also His flesh that He gave to us for our sins. The people, who knew nothing of the cross, took His words literally and immediately were offended by them:
“The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give His Flesh to eat?’”Obviously, these folks misunderstood him, so now Yeshua really has a chance to clarify Himself and so He says:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of man and drink His Blood, you have no life in you; he who eats My Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My Flesh is food indeed. And My Blood is drink indeed. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me and I in Him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me will live because of Me. This is the Bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever.”Yeshua spoke these words on Pesach, the eve of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Chag HaMotzi), in the synagogue.
This is a bread that if we eat of it, in faith, we shall not die, but shall live forever. This is no common Bread, it is a necessary bread, as is all Mitzvoth this helps us abide It is a Bread that will bring forth eternal life. What else could this bread be, other than Yeshua Himself (see the previous section) and yet He states, “My Flesh is food indeed. And My Blood is drink indeed. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so He who eats Me will live because of Me.” Again, why would He say that this is food, without a doubt, if He was just talking about His physical being? How can He call Himself “food”? Is there another example that uses such similar language? We searched the Gospels for wording such as this and this is what we found:
Nowhere else in the Gospels could we find an example of Yeshua alluding to Himself as His Flesh, although He does elude to “flesh and blood” for a human being (see Matt.16.17). Since we could not find an example for flesh, we looked instead for such examples of the word “bread”. There are many times Yeshua talks of bread. For example, we are to ask HaShem for our daily bread (the “Our Father”- Matt.6.11 and Lk.11.3) and beware of the leavening of the scribes and Pharisees (Matt.16.5-12, Mk.8.14-21, & Lk.12.1). But the only place we could find Him alluding to Himself as the bread is at the Last Supper where Yeshua “took bread, and blessed, and broke it and gave it to the disciples and said. ‘Take, eat; this is My Body.” Matt.26.26, Mk.14.22, Lk.22.15. This is the closest match because Yeshua likens the bread to His “body”, which in other places has corresponded to the “flesh”.
And so we find Him stating again that we are to “drink His blood”( Mk.14.24, Lk.22.20) in almost the exact same language as found in John 6. Coincidence? Before we can be sure we need to check the word “blood” for similar contexts as we did with the word “bread”. Yeshua talks of blood literally as in the shedding of “innocent blood” (Matt.23.30, 35, Lk.50-51) and John uses it to denote the birthing process (Jn.1.13). But nowhere else does Yeshua, or even one of His disciples use these words in the same manner as John 6, except at the Last Supper. Clearly then, this is no coincidence.
So The Flesh and Blood correspond directly to the bread and wine at Yeshua’s Last Supper, which we are to do in remembrance of Him. This is a literal bread and literal wine, which He said, is His body and blood. True, they do represent the sacrifice of the cross, but why did He (in John 6) tell us that it was “food indeed” and later give a literal food- indeed!
But in case you still have doubts you can always check our study of the Manna , which yields a greater understanding to what Yeshua was saying during this dialog (it puts manna into context). You can also find this discussion after this chapter in John if you want to read on for now and as always you can post your comments and questions on Yeshua's Light Forum. However, because the crowd was focused on this issue and could not easily reconcile we will go on with them and return to the context of these two terms at the end of this chapter.
Sadly, most of those listening misunderstood Him as many do in our present day and Yeshua was forced to try to explain this again for the third time. First they said:
“This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, knowing in Himself that His disciples murmured at it, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of man ascending where He was before? It is the Spirit that gives life, the Flesh is of no avail; the words that I spoke to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you that do not believe.”
This is a fascinating passage. Yeshua spoke it because He knew those present did not understand Him at all. First, He points to His coming resurrection into Glory, “Then what if you were to see the Son of man ascending where He was before”; then He compares faith through the Ruach HaKadosh to the “flesh”, not His. Therefore we must be born of Spirit as Yeshua spoke to Nicode’mus:
“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.” Jn.3.6So first comes the resurrection, then rebirth through the Ruach HaKadosh. Yet His words that He spoke before are also Spirit, not a metaphor as He clearly states:
“ . . . the words that I spoke to you are Spirit and life.”In other words, the reason so may find this hard to believe because the Eucharist, like rebirth, is a spiritual concept and just as Yeshua told Nicode’mus”
“Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen; but you do not receive Our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?”Spiritual things are just as “real” as those things we see and hear in our everyday life, but because they spring from the spiritual realm (which few can perceive), they are very hard to reason out through our limited senses. This is why Avi sent His only Son, because He (Ein), is incomprehensible, therefore He sent His Son, who possesses His perfect image (like Adam did before Eve), so that we could “see” the invisible Father through the visible Son (in His earthly form). The “wafer” therefore is like Yeshua’s body (in more ways than one), but it possesses the spiritual “Body” within it just as Yeshua above promised it would. We ourselves cannot find another way to interpret these words. We welcome anyone’s interpretation, providing it’s consistent with all the Scriptural texts.
Then John adds:
“For Jesus knew from the first who were that did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. And He said, ‘This is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless it is granted him by the Father.’ ”It was here that “the unrighteous hatred over a righteous man” (Talmud) first began to fester. This is also why the argument that Yeshua meant to say this Bread was symbolic is so unreasonable. Why would He not have made this perfectly clear when He saw that they were misunderstanding His words (not to do so would be to lose something that Avinu gave Him which is impossible, see Jn.6.39)? The fact is He did make Himself perfectly clear, or at least as clear as one can be with things within the realm of human understanding. Yet, despite this attempt to bring the disciples into a greater understanding, they just couldn’t see. In fact, this caused the single greatest lost of followers than any other discourse according to John own words.
“After this many of His disciples drew back and no longer went about with Him. Jesus said to the twelve. ‘Do you also wish to go away?’ Simon Peter answered Him, ‘L-rd, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of G-d.’ ”.So we know from above that the crowd didn’t understand Him. Did the twelve truly understand? Probably not, but Peter said what Yeshua affirmed was all that is truly necessary- to abide in Him, and this is faith. The Eucharist is not equal to faith, but an outgrowth of faith. This doesn’t mean the Eucharist is unimportant, but only that faith, as in all things, must come first. This is why Yeshua dealt with faith first before going on to the Eucharist and why He worked so hard to grow the disciples’ faith (their recent successful witnessing and the many miracles that proceeded this tough Gospel.) so that when He taught them about spiritual things (which to understand the Eucharist you must understand the spiritual aspects of it), they had earthly things to fall back on to strengthen their willingness to trust Him even if they could not fully understand what He said. We pray this helps clarify the Eucharist, but if not, then please read the next study on Manna for a different perspective that yields the same end. There are also Aaron’s Affliction which gives a further explanation of the implications of Jn.6.53 (“unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of man and drink His Blood, you have no life in you") and Yeshua's Light Forum for your comments.
We all know the “shadow” of the Exodus (where the angel of death passed over the blood of the lamb foreshowed the cross; and the passing over of our sins by HaShem because of the Blood of the Lamb) and some are also aware that Yahoshua’s (Joshua’s) crossing into the Promise Land represents Yeshua taking us into the Promise Land on His return. Well, if the Exodus represents the beginning of the faith and then the going into the Promise Land is the end of this age, then shouldn’t the material in between have a meaning as well? We believe they do and Saint Paul seems to confirm this:
“I want you to know, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same supernatural food and all drank the same supernatural drink. For they drank from the supernatural Rock which followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless with most of them G-d was not pleased; for they were overthrown in the wilderness.” 1Cor.10.1-5Why did Paul bring up this Exodus and manna? Because the disciples he led were defiling the Eucharist by committing idolatrous acts! Therefore, even Paul saw shadows in this past. The question is how many are there, just the ones Yeshua and Paul spoke about or are there more? So without further ado, here is what we found when we dug beneath the Sod of the Bread of Life Discourse by traveling into the wilderness of our past:
The first mention of manna is in Exodus chapter 16. After we were freed from slavery, after Moshe had lifted His rod and HaShem had parted the sea, and after Moshe and the people of Israel had finished their song, they all traveled on into the wilderness of Sin. Not soon after the people started to murmur against Moshe and Aaron, much in the same way the crowd murmured against Yeshua ( Jn.6.41) that they wanted the bread: “Would that we had died by the hand of the L-rd in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate bread to the full . . .” (Ex.16.3). According to Yeshua, it was bread that the crowd hungered for as well, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” ( Jn.6.26). In the case of the crowd before Yeshua it was because they were stuck on the tangible and this is why their faith lacked depth. In the same way, so were these Israelites. HaShem had freed them from oppressive slavery, gave them all the wealth of Egypt from those same slave masters, and even destroyed a greatest army in the ancient world right before their eyes and they cried about bread? Couldn’t the One who sent the plagues, changed hearts, and parted the sea have provided them with bread for the asking (Yeshua did and they didn’t even ask)? But instead of asking they whimpered and whined. Talk about “shallow in faith”. This is why HaShem told them:
“Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in My Law or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.” (Ex.16.4-5)The people were to gather a portion every day, except on preparation day and the Sabbath. On preparation day they were to gather twice as much as they did daily, so they would not need to gather any on Sabbath and could rest that day. The manna only lasted one day, except on preparation day, for this lasted two days. We’ll leave this “hidden meaning” for the Church to figure out.
Also HaShem says that this manna would “prove them, whether they will walk in My Law or not”. What law was HaShem proving them in (Sinai hadn’t happened yet)? Moshe told them of the Pesach, Chag HaMotzi, and that they remember all that He had done for them and teach their children as well. Also that they must redeem there first born . See Ex.12-13.1-10 for all the other Mitzvoth, and for Shabbos, Hashem Himself gave this when He gave them the manna. As for us, we are called to keep the L-rd’s supper to remember that He Pass(ed)over our sins, removed the Hamatz (leavening) of our human spirit to make room for His Ruach HaKadosh, and that Avinu redeemed the first born of all creation- Yeshua HaMoshiach, so that we might be saved. The Church also commands us to “keep the Sabbath”, but there is some disagreement on which day is the Church’s Sabbath from what we have read.
Later the people rejected the manna and hungered again for the food of Egypt. We are not sure of this meaning, but interesting enough, Aaron and Miriam challenged Moshe’s sole authority in the very next chapter, Num.12 and the Korite rebellion was not far after this, Num.16-17 (our fathers rejected the Promise Land is sandwiched between these two events). Could this have any bearing on our history?
On another note the food that our ancestors hungered for here is different from the bread at the beginning (when they entered into the wilderness) because it was a mixed group of foods, and if the bread showed shallowness of faith, might the other foods represent sin from before grace entered into our lives? If so, then in correlation to our Church history, there is sin that moved into the Church after the turn of the last century, and although She reformed from this sin, it was too late to keep the body from dividing (Yeshua said we should be one, Jn.17.23). Just like the manna long ago we, the children of the faith, hungered for sin and these abuses were tolerated in the Church for a time. But our Church was too slow to reform and thus lost some of her following. More analogies and lessons can be drawn, as well as solutions, to our troubles among our brethren- but this will have to wait until later. Ultimately, whenever our eyes stray away from the Eucharist and the mass to “other things” we are at risk of losing our way. Just like the children of our ancestors in the wilderness who survived and returned (after the their parents’ foolishness), the children of Catholic Church should also return completely to Her roots during the End Times (something we are now seeing under Pope John Paul II.)
The next place HaShem mentions the manna is in Deut.8.3: “And He humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but that man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the L-rd.”We do not live by bread alone, not even the Holiest Bread- the Eucharist. It is the Word of G-d both written and embodied in true faith in the Son that brings forth eternal life. Again this is not to devalue the Eucharist, but only places it into the same perspective HaShem did here (on this topic Protestant have a hand up on many Catholics who never see the insides of their Bibles or even their local churches after confirmation). This passage doesn’t imply that the Bread is unimportant (it says “by bread alone”), only that it is not sufficient unto itself. This is why the consecration follows the reading of the Word and the sermon (teaching).
Next place is in Josh.5.12:
“And the manna ceased on the morrow, when they ate of the produce of the land; and the people of Israel had manna no more, but ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.”
Might the Eucharistic celebration stop when Yeshua returns in glory just as the manna stopped when Yahoshua led our fathers into the Promise Land? This is our suspicion based on this portion of the text.
The last reference is found in Nehemiah 9.20-21:
“Thou gavest thy Spirit to instruct them, and didst not withhold thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst. Forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing; their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.”Note that HaShem gave them the Ruach HaKadosh to instruct them. Yeshua did this too for those living in the Messianic age:
“When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come.”- Jn.16.13.HaShem then gave them the heavenly bread and water for their thirst. Yeshua gave us the Eucharist and the Living water, Himself in the Blessed Blood. This passage also connects to the Brith HaDoshah, (New Covenant) .
So to sum up:
Manna is a heavenly food as is the Eucharist. Manna was to be eaten daily, this the Church also affirms. Manna was to prove their faith and to remember the great things He had done for them, and so the Eucharist is to remind us what He did for us; and from reading John 6, we also know that if we don’t partake in the Eucharist we can not have eternal life (for we are saved by faith, and this is an act of our faith however those who are “babies” in the faith are not under this ruling as explain elsewhere). When the heavenly bread was no longer enough for the people, they hungered for things of their slavery (sinful past), this brought judgment and death and led to greater rebellion against the true authority and the rejection of the Promise Land by many of those that rebelled (not all like today).
Our people are divided, could this be part of the cause? And could the total rejection of our Jewish roots also have been flagged by are desire to supplement the Eucharist with the ways of our former unrighteousness, therefore lead us, as a people, into greater sin and spiritual death (again see Aaron’s Affliction for the source of our suspicion into this)? If so, then a return to the true meaning of the mass and greater devotion to both the Word (we live not only by the manna but also by also by every Word from HaShem) and the Eucharist should bring us back together and remove all false worship from our midst. And lastly, might the Eucharist only exist until HaMoshiach’s return? Then when He is with us on earth in His resurrected form (this we feel is the interpretation to Yuhoshua circumcising the flock after they entered), we will no longer need to go to Him in the Eucharist.
If you find any scriptural evidence that will enhance or refute our words, we welcome your impute at Yeshua's Light Forum. Thank you.
