Skip to main content

Give Us Our Daily Bread


This is the fourth blog in the series on The Lord’s Prayer. The previous blog are Rediscovering the Power of The Lord’s Prayer, Our Father in Heaven, May Your Name Be Sanctified and May your Kingdom come Your Will Be Done. Now we will continue to the fourth line of the prayer:

Give us our daily bread.

Comments and Cultural Insights

1. In ancient Hebrew, the word for “bread” (lechem) actually signified one’s “basic food substance.”

2. To farmers lechem meant the grain that was made into bread, to shepherds it was “meat,” and to fishermen it meant “fish.”

3. People of that time period understood in a very real and tangible way that their survival depended on God sending the rains and providing good weather for the crops to grow and be harvested.

4. They understood their roles in the process – from preparing the land to getting food to the poorest members of society.

5. There little doubt that Jews around the world prayed words very similar to this every day – and still do in their prayers.8

Making the words of The Lord’s Prayer a Reality in Our Lives

1. In the gospels it says that Jesus “took the bread and blessed.” Some translations incorrectly add the word “it,” to sound as if Jesus “blessed the bread.” In the Jewish culture, people bless God for providing the food, while Christians usually “bless the food.” “Blessing God” means “thanking God” for providing the food. Saying a blessing before eating a meal has been a ritual in Judaism from before the time us Jesus until now.

2. This blessing is one of the most common Jewish blessing said before eating a meal today:

Barukh ata Adoinai Eloheinu melekh ha’olam
Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the universe,

hamotzi lehem min ha’aretz.
who brings forth bread from the earth.

3. For most of human history, eating together with family members and others was the norm. Today it is completely unknown in many homes. Simply introducing the simple ritual of family members gathering together around a table to share a meal provides families with many benefits, such as these:

A. Building Closer Relationships: Mealtimes can be the most common time children communicate with parents. Turning off the TV allows the family to connect and make memories together by asking children about their day, school, friends, goals and more. 

B. More Nutritious: Meals eaten at home tend to be healthier than meals eaten out. 

C. Develop Social Skills: By eating together as a family, children are given an opportunity to develop and improve their social and conversation skills, as well as their table manners. Talking about planning an activity like a family vacation, can allow children to become more social and improve linguistic development.

D. Develop Listening Skills: Many parents today are good at “bossing” their children, but very weak in “hearing” what their children are trying to say to them. The more confident your child becomes in sharing thoughts with you, the stronger your relationships become.

E. Stability: Eating with your children can give them a stronger sense of stability and security.1

If you found this blog informative, useful and valuable, let us know and help us share it with others.
______________________________________________

Raise Awareness

Make others aware of this information by
“Liking the Real Yeshua Facebook Page”
& getting together with a friend or two and discussing this lesson. 
______________________________________________

Donate it forward!

If you have never donated,
our “Helping Friends” made this blog available for you!
Become a “Helping Friend” by donating now -- Click Here for options.
By “donating it forward” information will be available to future vistors!
______________________________________________

Let Your Amazon Purchases Help Fund this work too!
Click on the link below when you login to Amazon --
http://smile.amazon.com/ch/75-2842635
Amazon will donate a percentage of what you pay to BHC.
______________________________________________

1 http://www.canr.msu.edu/news/the_importance_of_mealtime

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It’s a Yod -- NOT a Jot and Tittle!

Not only did Yeshua read and speak Hebrew, so did his followers and disciples! Two very well known, but not accurately understood words in the Gospel of Matthew prove it – jot and tittle . For some reason jot and tittle stick in the minds of Christian Bible readers. But when you ask them what jot or tittle mean, you get a lot of conflicting and some really weird answers. Today, you are going to get the facts about what Yeshua originally said and how they ended up in English translations of the Bible as jot and tittle . Let’s begin by reading Matthew 5:18 from the King James translation: For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. If you have not read the article “ From Yeshua to Jesus ” in Yeshua’s Kingdom Handbook please take a moment to read it online by clicking here before you continue. In it you will see how we began with the name “ Jesus ” and traced it through Lati
Post a Comment
Read more

Do Not Say RAQA! - Yeshua on Anger (Part 2)

In the last blog, we covered the first part of Yeshua’s lesson on Anger -- An Angry Person Should be Tried in Court like a Murderer – keep in mind that “anger” is the focus of Yeshua’s lesson. “Whoever says to a brother, ‘ RAKA ,’ shall be answerable to the Sanhedrin.” [i] Yeshua reveals that the seriousness of the offense has become greater by elevating the crime to the next highest court – the Sanhedrin . It is the highest court in the nation and would be the equivalent of our Supreme Court. What makes this offense more serious than murder, to keep things in the context established by Yeshua? It is because of what the angry person said out of anger – “ RAKA !” RAKA is the English transliteration of the Greek word found in the ancient manuscripts of Matthew. Interestingly, the Greek word is also a transliteration of a Hebrew word into Greek. Keep in mind that when a translator working on a translation of a Greek manuscript transliterates a Greek word, he only finds the
Post a Comment
Read more

The Prayer Yeshua Prayed Twice Every Day

One of Jesus’s earliest memories was no doubt watching and listening to his family when they gathered to pray the Shema at sunrise before the day’s work began and after the working work day was over at sunset . He also heard and participated in praying the Shema at their synagogue. He was surrounded by neighbors who also prayed the same prayer in their homes every day. The Hebrew word for prayer is tefilah . It is derived from the root Pe-Lamed-Lamed and the word l'hitpalel, meaning “ to judge oneself .” This surprising word origin provides insight into the purpose of Jewish prayer. The most important part of any Jewish prayer, whether it be a prayer of petition, of thanksgiving, of praise of God, or of confession, is the introspection it provides, the moment that we spend looking inside ourselves, seeing our role in the universe and our relationship to God. [1] Most of Jewish prayers are expressed in the first person plural, "us" instead of "me," an
Post a Comment
Read more