The Virtue of Bacon, Part 2

Ho, all who are thirsty,
Come for water,
Even if you have no money;
Come, buy food and eat:
Buy food without money,
Wine and milk without cost.

Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
Your earnings for what does not satisfy?
Give heed to Me,
And you shall eat choice food
And enjoy the richest viands.

Incline your ear and come to Me;
Hearken, and you shall be revived.
And I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
The enduring loyalty promised to David (Isaiah 55:1-3, JPS).

The Word as referring to Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Word made flesh. If the Bible tells us everything God wanted us to know about Him in writing, Jesus is the Word of God in relation to us. He is a person. He is a living breathing human being who is fully God. God was not content to merely tell us about Himself, He revealed Himself to us as a Person we can know and relate to intimately.

Jesus, like the Bible, is referred to as food and drink. Look at these verses that describe Jesus as food:

John 6:35, Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”
Matthew 26:26-28, While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”
Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

When Jesus says you have to eat Him and drink Him he is not saying you need to cannibalize Him. He did not mean that! He was saying that you need to make Him a part of you. You are what you eat. If you are wondering how to be more like Jesus, all you need to do is eat more of Him!

Every time we eat we are being presented with a spiritual object lesson. Every time we get hungry we are in the midst of a profound spiritual image. Do we hunger after God the way we hunger for food or drink? Jesus isn’t someone you need to know causally. The Bible is not something you should be reading like the old magazines in your doctor’s office. Jesus is someone you need to take as seriously as the food you eat. You need to make Him a part of you.

The way you eat and feast on the Word of God is through listening. Three times God calls us to listen to Him in Isaiah 55:1-3.

What God wants you to hear is that He wants your spirit to thrive, not just live—but thrive! He wants you to hear that He has set before you the choicest of blessings, the best of the best of what God has to offer—a covenant between you and Him, the same eternal covenant the Lord made with King David of old:

to promise to you His faithful love
His enduring loyalty.
Forgiveness without limits.
Love without bounds.
Goodness with unlimited reserves.
Unfaltering loyalty.
Life without end.

It does not matter who you are, where you came from, or what your past is. It only matters that you are willing to listen! And you can’t listen when you never open your Bible. You can’t hear when you don’t make time to pray. You are plugging up your ears if you are not worshiping regularly. Listen.

Now, listening implies something else. It implies doing. If you don’t obey, you didn’t really listen did you? Jesus’ disciples once urged Jesus to eat. But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”

What is the will of the Father?

Micah 6:8, To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Matthew 22:37-40, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.
Matthew 28:19-20, Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

Tomorrow I will post the conclusion to this Virtue of Bacon series….stay tuned, and stay hungry!