After worship this morning we will be having potluck. This month's
theme is "Soul Food." When I heard that announcement last week, it put
me in mind of my family's experience with "scripture bread." I don't
remember the name of this bread exactly, but I do see it from time to
time on the grocer's shelves. Whenever I see it, I always chuckle.
Anyhow, here's the story.
One day Sandra came home and told me that a friend of hers had mentioned
this scripture bread. It was supposed to be a recipe that God had given
in the book of Ezekiel. It was supposed to be more healthy than other
bread. That seemed to make sense. After all, it was God's recipe. I
said that if she saw the bread in the store, to go ahead and get a loaf
and we'd try it out. So a few days later she came home with the bread.
Now I've said before that I don't think that it is appropriate for a
preacher to make product recommendations, but this might have been the
worst tasting bread I've ever eaten. You could take a loaf of day old
bread, unwrap it, and leave it exposed to air for a couple of days, and
it would still be more moist than this stuff. It was awful. I couldn't
believe that this could be God's recipe, so I looked it up. The
following is the scripture (in context).
Ezekiel 4
9 Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans,
and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and
make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou
shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat
thereof.
10 And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight,
twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it.
11 Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part
of an hin: from time to time shalt thou drink.
12 And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt
bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight.
13 And the LORD said, Even thus shall the children of
Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive
them.
"Defiled bread." Now it all made sense. After tasting the stuff, I
wondered if they had only used the recipe, or had actually followed the
cooking instructions.
As I think about it, this is a wonderful illustration of what can happen
when we lift a scripture out of context. Sometimes it is more important
to know what God is telling us than it is to know what a particular
verse says.
All scripture is given by inspiration
of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness.
But unless scripture is rightly handled,
it can leave you with a bad taste in your mouth. And that can last
forever.
