Agege Bread of Life

Agege Bread of Life

If the Holy Land had been situated in Lagos, Nigeria then the first four Books of the New Testament collectively called the Gospels would have been named differently. The Books of Mudiaga, Maduka, Lamido and Jesutosin would have reflected the local population and the scripture Jesutosin Chapter 6 Verse 35 would read; I am the Agege Bread of Life.

There are so many references to food and drink in the Bible and bread features heavily.  This is proof that there can be no spirituality without food. Even the multiple mentions of fasting clearly tell us that the temporary abstinence from food is not a hunger strike. There is always an end to a fast. The state where human beings live on calorie deficient or poor diets goes against the Christian faith.

Ending World hunger is a goal. It is a shame but many hungry people still find it necessary to ask that legitimate question, ‘who prayer epp?’

¹⁵ Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶ If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 

The starving man has been in prayer for days hoping to encounter a plate of nice edible food and it can be such a disappointment for the hungry to stumble across someone who thinks they know how to pray away hunger pangs they have not felt. The cure for hunger is food and hunger is one of the certainties of life.

Food is a spiritual substance that has great powers of healing for the soul and the body. A full stomach frees the body from the constraints that hunger and scarcity puts on the brain. All great nations have majority of their population eating food on a regular basis. This needs planning and God knows this. A lot of the Bible talks about seed time and harvest time. In the absence of a famine there should be food for all for it is common knowledge that you plant seeds in the planting season in hope of a subsequent harvest. This is how the planet has been from its inception so it is no surprise that people are hungry and need food.

 Likewise it is simple to deduce that you plant enough food for the population you have. The need to resort to food importation is unpardonable.

Through the ages planting seasons and harvests seasons have been celebrated with rites and feasts. Seeds must be sown for it is suicidal not to. Those who do not sow will starve in harvest time.

Jesus is the bread of life. Bread is king. Milk must be queen. Why was that bread metaphor used? The truth is that food is life. Most of what we do as human beings only occur after eating well.

Someone once told me I took food too seriously and this was somehow wrong. Well, he had a full fridge to start with so how would he know the importance of food when he has never seen a kwashiorkor patient before. I was shaken to my foundations when I saw a kwashiorkor patient as a medical student in Nigeria. I found it hard to believe there were malnourished children in Benin City at the time because all the people I knew were eating regularly.

The well fed should have some alimentary compassion for their brothers.

The Bible has Adam and Eve eating what they were not supposed to and being evicted from the Garden of Eden. One of their children killed his brother after harvest time because he was jealous of God’s acceptance of his brother’s sacrifice. Further along Esau sold his birth right to his brother Jacob for a pot of food. The greatest turn around in fortunes came by way of Joseph who went from the prison to the Palace because he knew the blueprint for effective food management in Egypt for the next fourteen years. This was food management at a national scale; storing grain without the benefits of electricity throughout the first seven years of a bumper harvest and the later seven years of famine.

It is strange that in today’s world with cold storage and computerisation, nations cannot produce enough beans to feed the people. The prophet Elisha asked for a pot of stew to be cooked but a ‘learner’ picked the wrong herbs and it became ‘death in a pot’. Elisha sprinkled in flour and the pot was miraculously healed. God’s Plan is that his people must eat.

Soon after someone brought a twenty loaves of bread which he shared among 100 men and had left overs due to a miraculous bread multiplication.

Miraculous food must have tasted divine.

Jesus showed he cared about the state of people’s stomach by miraculously feeding five thousand hungry people and saving the all night prayers for Himself. Satan tempted Him with a stone to bread conversion temptation but He saw through it. The fast was due to end.

His first miracle, a Water- to -wine conversion thrilled wedding guests and he blessed Peter with some much fish his net almost broke.

The Old Testament had the Passover, a hastily eaten meal on the last night in Egypt and the New Testament has a mirror image type of Passover meal popularly called the Last Supper. The bread and wine eaten represented Jesus body and blood respectively.

The longest feeding plan was however the feeding of over one million Jews in the desert for forty years with manna from heaven. Out of the slavery of Egypt, through the wilderness into the promised -land flowing with milk and honey; that was God’s Plan.

Beyond eating food is the enjoyment of the eating process. The gratitude one gets for having a slice of bread is spiritual. The joy that comes from swallowing chewed food is not experienced by all. It is a gift from God. Man has no other duty than to eat his food with relish and gratitude and praise God for the privilege.

²⁴ A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God,²⁵ for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? ²⁶ To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Some might not believe we are here to eat and be merry. They think like poets all day long and soon get depressed.

The aim of all living has to be the service to our fellow men, feeding them with love and support and expressing thanks and praise to our creator.

What you may ask about those who do not believe in God? Well no one is exempt. Everybody must be the Agege bread of life to their neighbour

References

1. NIV Bi
2. ble James 2:15-16
3. NIV  Bible Ecclesiastes :24-26

Babawilly

Dr Wilson Orhiunu

05/09/2018