The bread of sorrow

Psalm 127:2 names a bread most of us are eating and have never identified.

"It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows."

Bread of sorrows. Not bread that causes sorrow. Bread made of it. Bread whose ingredient is anxiety, whose oven is the arm of flesh, whose baker is the man who believes that if he does not provide for himself, nobody will.

𝗜𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗴𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗯𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗺 𝗼𝗳 𝗳𝗹𝗲𝘀𝗵.

"Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm… he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh." Jeremiah 17:5-6. That is the diet of the self-made. He gets the bread. He never gets the satisfaction. He is eating in a desert and cannot see good even when it arrives.

Because here is the law of that bread: 𝗶𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗳𝗶𝗲𝘀. "Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not?" Isaiah 55:2. You can earn it, hoard it, multiply it, and the hunger comes back by morning. Nothing in this world was built to fill a man. It was built to point him somewhere.

𝗘𝘀𝗮𝘂 𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗶𝘁.

He came in from the field exhausted and said, "feed me… for I am faint." Genesis 25:30. One bowl of lentils for a birthright. He got the bread. Scripture's verdict: "he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright." He was full for an hour and robbed for eternity. And later, "he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears." Hebrews 12:17. Bread of sorrow. Eaten quickly. Wept over for life.

𝗚𝗲𝗵𝗮𝘇𝗶 𝗿𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝘁.

Naaman, healed of leprosy, offered Elisha silver and garments. Elisha refused. The prophet would not let a Syrian general think the grace of God had a price. But his servant Gehazi watched the gift walk away and could not bear it. He ran after the chariot, lied, and collected two talents of silver and two changes of raiment. 2 Kings 5:20-27

He got the bread. He also got the leprosy. "The leprosy of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever." The thing the master refused became the servant's inheritance, with the disease attached. That is what the arm of flesh always delivers: the gift, and the curse under it.

𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱.

"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Deuteronomy 8:3. Jesus quoted it to the devil while starving. Not "bread is bad." Bread alone. A man who depends totally on bread will die a man of sorrow, because bread was never designed to carry the weight of a soul.

Then He said the thing that ended the argument forever. "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever." John 6:51

Living bread. The bread of sorrow is dead the moment it is baked; it decays, it is spent, it is gone by tomorrow. His body is living. It feeds and keeps feeding. Israel ate manna in the wilderness and died. "This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die." John 6:50

𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝗚𝗼𝗱 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗰𝗵.

Israel Houghton sang it in "Your Presence Is Heaven": the whole song is one confession, that His presence is the thing, that nothing else on earth was ever going to be enough. That is not a lyric. It is Psalm 16:11 in a melody. "In thy presence is fulness of joy." Fulness. The one word the bread of sorrow can never deliver.

So the audit is short.

What bread are you rising early to bake?
 Is the thing you're exhausted for something He already promised to give His beloved in their sleep?
 Have you, like Esau, traded something eternal for something warm?
 Are you, like Gehazi, running after a gift your Master already refused?

"He giveth his beloved sleep." Psalm 127:2. The beloved do not bake at midnight. They are fed.

Put down the bread of sorrow.

Come and eat.

#Faith #BreadOfLife #Presence #Rest