"Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. " (John 6:53-55)Throughout the Old Testament of the Bible, bread and wine signify sustenance and communion with the Lord. Melchizedek, the high priest of Salem, brought bread and wine to Abraham when he blessed him (Genesis 14:18), and Isaac, when blessing his son Jacob said: "May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine" (Genesis 27:28). After the Ark of the Covenant was brought into Jerusalem, King David sent the people of Israel home with portions of bread and wine as part of the celebration (2 Samuel 6:19). The presence of God was felt, and the people were happy. Moreover, this was yet another instance where the Lord foreshadowed the communion with Christ through the Lord's Supper, during which Christians drink wine and eat bread to remember the Crucifixion of their Savior, to remember that He gave his flesh and blood as a sacrifice so that we might have eternal life.
Nevertheless, the world offers false bread and false wine. In Proverbs, it says that the wicked "eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence" (Proverbs 4:17). When the Rabshakeh attempted to talk the citizens of Judah into surrendering to the Assyrian army and allowing themselves to be taken into captivity, he used the very same imagery in a subtle way: "Make your peace with me and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards" (Isaiah 36:16-17). The Rabshakeh is the voice of the world, giving false utopian hopes, seducing us with bread that is not bread and wine that is not wine, trying to take us into spiritual captivity away from the promises and blessings of the one true God. The world offers many things, but none of those things can sustain life or give enlightenment.
In Proverbs, it is written that Wisdom has built her house upon seven pillars, and that she invites us into a banquet: "Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight" (Proverbs 9:5). Whenever humans turn to the bread and wine given by God, they find light and joy, strength for their limbs and fullness in their heart. They feel that God is close by, because they have received of His goodness. As Jesus said, "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser...As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit" (John 15:1-5); "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever." (John 6:51).
