One Recipe

“Also take for yourself wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them into one vessel, and make bread of them for yourself. During the number of days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days, you shall eat it. Ezekiel 4:9

Good Friday morning! As October begins to wind down toward Halloween, I searched the Bible for coffee and pizza and did not find any. Sadness fell down over me like a drape cast loose by a breeze through the window. Should not the Bible come with just one recipe for great pizza?

Of course God had more important things in mind than baking when He inspired the Bible writers, or did He? I began to wonder if there was a recipe for anything in the Bible, and there is! Ezekiel bread. Ezekiel received a recipe for a 6-grain bread, something folks pay extra for in the grocery store these days. There is also a formula or recipe for a special incense to be used only in the Temple worship. When it comes to recipes in the Bible, I suppose it is what the Lord wants that matters most.

Searching the Bible for a great pizza recipe is looking for what I want. The Bible instead presents to me what God wants, and this includes what my Lord wants for me. Some of the things which we consider of surpassing importance down here, like a great pizza, might not be so important after we sleep for a bit. At the resurrection, we may not be so concerned with many of those earthly things we find so diverting here and now. I am looking forward to it, for many of the things that catch my attention so easily now are those things of the flesh that hold back my spiritual growth in Christ.

However, we should not give up our dreams of heaven either. For God as the greatest servant, who went so far as to die on the cross to save us, will not forget how much we enjoy good food. I recall a promise of some excellent fruit in the days to come.

Grace to you on this Friday!
Bucky