The Bread of Life

"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; you shall not do any work...for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy." Exodus 20: 8-11

"If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on My holy day and call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord Honorable, and honor it, desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word, then you will take delight in the Lord and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." Isaiah 58:13-14

“The Sabbath is a day for the sake of life. Man is not a beast of burden, and the Sabbath is not for the purpose of enhancing efficiency of his work….
The Sabbath is not for the sake of the weekdays;
the weekdays are for the sake of the Sabbath.
It is not an interlude but the climax of living.” - Heschel, Sabbath



"You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord."
Deuteronomy 8:2-3

"Yeshua then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world." John 6:32-33

"Then He said to me, "Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel." So I opened my mouth, and He fed me this scroll. He said to me, "Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your body with this scroll which I am giving you." Then I ate it, and it was sweet as honey in my mouth." Ezekiel 3:1-3

Our family was convicted many years ago to the Sabbath holy. We keep Sabbath from Friday evening to Saturday evening. We look forward to this precious time all week. Every weekday my kids will ask me, "is it Shabbat yet?" We try to make it a special day, set apart from the others. First we spend the daylight hours on Friday preparing for Sabbath- cleaning the house, preparing food, etc. When the sun finally goes down we light the candles (sometimes my little guys sing "happy shabbat to you"..because the lights remind them of birthday candles:)) I light the candles and Matt says a blessing over the light. We then break the challah bread and drink grape juice (sometimes wine) and bless the bread and fruit of the vine. Then we eat the meal. I try to prepare a meal that the kids will really enjoy and we only have dessert on Shabbat, so the kids really look forward to the sweetness of the sabbath:) Then we pray over each child individually, praying certain scriptures over their lives. We also say blessings for the husband and wife. It is a beautiful end to the week and reminds us of all we have to be thankful for. We spend Saturday sleeping in, relaxing, reading scripture, playing outside, and getting together with friends for Torah study. We look forward to this day all week because we can fully enjoy, worship and praise the Father, without all the other daily chores and distractions that can often times misplace our priorities.
I have been pondering how the scriptures are the bread of life and how Messiah is the Living Bread- a living picture of the scriptures. I have been saying the Lord's prayer for years- I think I memorized it when I was in 3rd grade, but I am just now understanding what the words "give us this day our daily bread" mean. In part, I think it is the literal bread we eat and how the Father provides for our daily provisions, but it also seems to be so much more than that. It is Him. He is the bread of life. His words are the true nourishment for our souls; His body broken so we can be made full.

You can read more about eating the word here.
and a few more words about sabbath rest here.