Bread

Gen 47:15b "Give us bread, for why should we die in your presence? For the money has failed."

Things were tough in Egypt and Canaan. The money failed. The money ran out. There was no more. So how were these people going to live? How were they going to pay for their needs? They needed bread. They needed food but they could not buy it because there was absolutely no more money to give in exchange for food. They did the only thing they could do…they sold their stuff, in this case their livestock, for food. The next year when they needed more food and their money was gone and their stuff was gone, what did they do? They sold themselves. They became Pharaoh's slaves so they could get bread and seed. (v19) Talk about desperation. But they had to live and the only thing that they had to give in exchange for life (bread) was their lives.

As I have written before, some people are making some pretty severe predictions about our economy as well. One guy said that it is going to collapse this year. I read on the internet (MSN) just the other day that others have said that it will happen in 2013. One thing is sure, something has to give. We can't keep spending our way into prosperity. It does not work that way. Deficits do not lead to surpluses. The national debt will get so huge, our printing of money will get so out of control, that the dollar will not be worth the paper that it is written on. At that time, we will say: "…the money has failed." At that time many will be trying to figure out how to get bread. Gold will not be the savior. Silver will not be the savior. The old Larry Norman lyrics will be real: "a piece of bread could buy a bag of gold." Bread will be the thing. Seeds will be the thing. I know that this sounds ominous, but unless things drastically turn around, unless our politicians stop spending our future away, we are in for some tough times.

But there is one other thing to consider as well. "Man shall not live on bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Physical hunger is horrible. Spiritual hunger is worse. With physical hunger your stomach growls, you lose weight, you can eventually physically die. But without God's word, when we don't take it in, when we don't meditate on it (ruminate: chew it, swallow it, chew it, swallow it…), when we ignore the nourishment we get from it, we will growl, we will become weak, and we will shrivel and die. Yes, we need bread, but not bread alone. We need God's word. It is our bread. It is our meat. It is our honey.

I wonder one thing: People get all crazy about the economy and the money failing, but we don't get too bent out of shape when God's word is not taken in, or shared or spread. What's with that?