I grew up about five miles southwest of small-town America. There were a few folks there who’d had the benefit of a college education, but the vast majority of them had little education to speak of. Of those who were "educated", most only had a high school diploma or its equivalent. Now, please don’t misunderstand me, I am NOT knocking non Ivy-leaguers. That was simply the world I came from. But coming from such a background, trying to read or understand the Bible was tough. Add to that, no one spoke Elizabethan English down there and the only available English translation of the Bible being the King James Version, interpretation could be tricky.
When I read about Jesus feeding several thousand people from a small boy’s sack lunch of "loaves" and "fishes", my brain automatically conjured up visions of one-pound loaves of Ideal or Town-Talk bread and four-pound catfish. In fact, rural, Bible-belt America pretty well set the stage and colored the backdrops for all the Sunday School stories I grew up with. It was a critical day in the pool hall the day I realized Peter did not fish with a Zebco, John the Baptist may have eaten locust BEANS (not locust INSECTS!) and wild honey and – Bless the Lord, Jesus was NOT WHITE! If any educated outsider had had the audacity to suggest that Paul did NOT speak King James English, we would have been dropping like flies from massive coronaries.
With this in mind, you can only imagine the address my fertile young mind arrived at when my Sunday School teacher introduced me to Ecclesiastes 11:1: "Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again…" Cast your WHAT upon the waters? Down home, the only conceivable reason you might cast bread upon the water was if you wanted to feed the catfish or to lure the poor suckers close enough to the bank to net them.
This tidbit of wisdom from the Old Testament, which the collector was referring to in this verse goes back to an ancient practice of sowing seeds (not bread) over flooded fields along the riverbanks, such as the Jordan River. When the rains had come, the river swelled and crested its banks and the low lying fields of the Jordan River valley were well under water, the farmer would get into a boat, row out over his fields and sow his seeds upon the face of the water. To the casual observer or the traveler from distant places who witnessed the farmer casting his seed from the boat, that farmer gave every appearance that his elevator did NOT go all the way to the top! The struggles of the every day process of life had taken their toll and that farmer was now Looney-bin material.
What the Palestinian farmer knew that the concerned traveler did not, was that as the seeds sank to the bottom of the water, the current would deposit a rich silt covering over them, almost guaranteeing that farmer of an excellent harvest. Neat, huh? The next time the conversation begins to lag, you can whip this little nugget out and proceed to wow the socks off everyone. Here is the object lesson. When you chose to become a Christian, you joined the ranks of an elite, faith-walking organization. The God you now live for wants you to believe in Him. He wants you to have FAITH in Him. He expects you to stop leaning on YOUR understanding and depending upon YOUR muscles and YOUR smarts. Climb out on the limb. Step out on faith. Put your weight on His strength. Lean on His insightfulness and His wisdom and upon His knowledge. You may have been the sharpest knife in the drawer, but when you became a Christian, you invited Him to become not only your personal Savior, but the Lord of your life. Now back off and let Him be that. God has an interest in every facet of your life. He has a will and a purpose for you. Let Him make your decisions. Let Him be the one to choose your directions. Let Him establish your purpose and your priorities. Did He not conclude the thought by saying, "…for after many days you will find it again…"? You are risking nothing! Think about it.
There will always be those curious, casual and critical observers who think that you have flipped your waffles because you have chosen to yield your life to Jesus Christ. There will always be those folks who scrutinize your life with raised eyebrows because you choose to live by faith. But that’s okay. Just step on into the boat and row out over the waters. You will win some of them. Meanwhile, you have bread to cast…
CASTING YOUR BREAD UPON THE WATERS
ECCLESIASTES 11:1
I grew up about five miles southwest of small-town America. There were a few folks there who’d had the benefit of a college education, but the vast majority of them had little education to speak of. Of those who were "educated", most only had a high school diploma or its equivalent. Now, please don’t misunderstand me, I am NOT knocking non Ivy-leaguers. That was simply the world I came from. But coming from such a background, trying to read or understand the Bible was tough. Add to that, no one spoke Elizabethan English down there and the only available English translation of the Bible being the King James Version, interpretation could be tricky.
When I read about Jesus feeding several thousand people from a small boy’s sack lunch of "loaves" and "fishes", my brain automatically conjured up visions of one-pound loaves of Ideal or Town-Talk bread and four-pound catfish. In fact, rural, Bible-belt America pretty well set the stage and colored the backdrops for all the Sunday School stories I grew up with. It was a critical day in the pool hall the day I realized Peter did not fish with a Zebco, John the Baptist may have eaten locust BEANS (not locust INSECTS!) and wild honey and – Bless the Lord, Jesus was NOT WHITE! If any educated outsider had had the audacity to suggest that Paul did NOT speak King James English, we would have been dropping like flies from massive coronaries.
With this in mind, you can only imagine the address my fertile young mind arrived at when my Sunday School teacher introduced me to Ecclesiastes 11:1: "Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again…" Cast your WHAT upon the waters? Down home, the only conceivable reason you might cast bread upon the water was if you wanted to feed the catfish or to lure the poor suckers close enough to the bank to net them.
This tidbit of wisdom from the Old Testament, which the collector was referring to in this verse goes back to an ancient practice of sowing seeds (not bread) over flooded fields along the riverbanks, such as the Jordan River. When the rains had come, the river swelled and crested its banks and the low lying fields of the Jordan River valley were well under water, the farmer would get into a boat, row out over his fields and sow his seeds upon the face of the water. To the casual observer or the traveler from distant places who witnessed the farmer casting his seed from the boat, that farmer gave every appearance that his elevator did NOT go all the way to the top! The struggles of the every day process of life had taken their toll and that farmer was now Looney-bin material.
What the Palestinian farmer knew that the concerned traveler did not, was that as the seeds sank to the bottom of the water, the current would deposit a rich silt covering over them, almost guaranteeing that farmer of an excellent harvest. Neat, huh? The next time the conversation begins to lag, you can whip this little nugget out and proceed to wow the socks off everyone. Here is the object lesson. When you chose to become a Christian, you joined the ranks of an elite, faith-walking organization. The God you now live for wants you to believe in Him. He wants you to have FAITH in Him. He expects you to stop leaning on YOUR understanding and depending upon YOUR muscles and YOUR smarts. Climb out on the limb. Step out on faith. Put your weight on His strength. Lean on His insightfulness and His wisdom and upon His knowledge. You may have been the sharpest knife in the drawer, but when you became a Christian, you invited Him to become not only your personal Savior, but the Lord of your life. Now back off and let Him be that. God has an interest in every facet of your life. He has a will and a purpose for you. Let Him make your decisions. Let Him be the one to choose your directions. Let Him establish your purpose and your priorities. Did He not conclude the thought by saying, "…for after many days you will find it again…"? You are risking nothing! Think about it.
There will always be those curious, casual and critical observers who think that you have flipped your waffles because you have chosen to yield your life to Jesus Christ. There will always be those folks who scrutinize your life with raised eyebrows because you choose to live by faith. But that’s okay. Just step on into the boat and row out over the waters. You will win some of them. Meanwhile, you have bread to cast…
Casting Your Bread Upon The Waters