Keep the Bread Rolling

Keep the Bread Rolling “When Gideon came, behold, a man was relating a dream to his friend. And he said,, “ Behold, I had a dream, a loaf of barley bread was tumbling into the camp of Midian, and it came to the tent and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down so that the tent lay flat.” Judges 7 v 13 Gideon was waiting on the Lord for confirmation that he would lead Israel to victory against her mortal foes- the Midianites who had set up camp below the hill of Moreh. They were as numerous as a plague of locusts in the sense that one could not precisely estimate the number of soldiers and that they far outnumbered the Israelites and especially the 300 men whom Gideon had been directed by the Lord to choose as the fighting arm. Naturally, Gideon was apprehensive. The Lord discerning his fear, asked him to go down alone near the outposts of the Midianites to hear what they say. At the time, he went down he heard a man relate a dream to his friend: a loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the camp of Midian and struck and overturned the tent. Hearing this dream being related strengthened the hands of Gideon and he had the assurance that “ God has given Midian and all the camp into his hand.” The friend who heard the dream interpreted that it meant that the loaf of bread was the sword of Gideon and the overturned,flattened tent meant that God had given Midian and its camp into his hand. The Lord used the metaphor of bread as Gideon was a farmer who cultivated food crops. Hearing the dream and its interpretation gave Gideon the courage. As the friend rightly interpreted, Gideon and his sword were the least aspect of what brought the Israelites’ victory and the Midianites’ defeat. When the Lord uses us as His instrumentality of deliverance, we and our abilities remain the least aspects of what brings victory and deliverance to people from death, defeat and destruction. The greatest aspects are the power, grace and glory of God. Our vision of the Lord acting on our behalf will strengthen our hand against virtually impossible odds and all kinds of situations. The ‘rolling’ breadroll is the Word of God that is active in our lives. The Word that is not active in our lives cannot impact us. Jesus is Himself described as the Bread of Life. When we participate in the communion, we are strengthened like Gideon in spirit and mind and body. The Word will strengthen us from within as we bite into it from time to time. We need to enjoy it as a special loaf baked for us in Heaven. It will roll down all through our lives like the rolling breadroll and strike the enemy tent. It will help us overcome the opposition, the forces and people who are encamped around us to attack us. God gave Gideon a strategy that is unheard of and unprecedented in military history. It enabled a mere 300 Israelite volunteers to put to rout a well trained, equipped and armed army. God had chosen Gideon, the weakest of the weak to defeat the powerful and mighty. Today too, He chooses the weak like us to confound the mighty, the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. It is scientifically impossible for a mere loaf of bread to overturn a tent that had been pegged into the ground. We only need to keep the bread rolling all the time in our hearts and minds and lives and it will overturn the factors and forces that attack or threaten us. It will flatten the opposition as the bread roll flattened the secure tent. Every uni-verse is like a bread roll. It needs to roll in our hearts and minds and circumstances all through the day and night. Each uni-verse has a concept or management principle, a precept or truth to learn and emulate, a model to follow or to avoid, a promise to remember and claim, a command or instruction to obey, carry out or practice. Indeed, keeping the Bread rolling in our lives is our winning strategy- the one habit that will transform our lives, strengthen us from within, enable us to overcome all circumstances, to triumph in life. Prateep V Philip