“For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water” (Isaiah 3:1).

Staff (Def): (Heb.): Mishenah from Mishen: Support, Sustenance, Walking stick

There is what is commonly known as the “Staff of Life”, i.e., bread and water. This is the bare essential to sustaining human life. It is a supply that provides support and sustenance for daily living. Bread and water, two essentials, and both find their eternal fulfillment in Christ Jesus.

Jesus said to the woman at the well in Samaria: “Whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give Him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14).

Jesus said to the people in Capernaum: “I am the Bread of Life; he that comes to Me shall never hunger, and he that believes on Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). “I am the Living Bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this Bread, he shall live forever; and the Bread that I will give is My flesh which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:51).

The Prophet Isaiah declared that the Lord of Hosts would remove from Jerusalem and Judah the stay and staff of bread and water. This was fulfilled in the cutting off of the Messiah from the people and the rejection of the people of their Savior.

“He came to His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:11).

The Prophet further declared concerning Christ:

“Who has believed our report? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from Him. He was despised and we esteemed Him not” (Isaiah 53:1-3).

Christ, the Bread and Water of Life, the Staff of Life, was taken from Israel and given to the whole world to bring the Staff of Life to the Gentiles that through Christ all may find Eternal Life in Him. The Apostle expressed it this way:

“I say then has Israel stumbled that they should fall? God forbid, but rather through their fall salvation has come to the Gentiles to provoke Israel to jealousy. Now if the fall of Israel be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them, the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fulness? . . .For if the casting away of Israel be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead” (Romans 11:11-12, 15).

The Staff of Life is for all, for Jew and Gentile, bond and free, male and female (cf. Galatians 3:28). The Bread of Life and the Water of Life are freely given to all who will come, to all who will believe.

“It is finished, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end; I will giver to him that is thirsty of the Fountain of the Water of Life freely” (Revelation 21:6). “And the Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come’!. Let him that is thirsty come; and whosoever will, let him take of the Water of Life freely” (Revelation 22:17).

Where are you in all the calling? Where is your heart? Are you hungry for God? For the Living Bread? Are you thirsty for the Water of Life? Sometimes it comes down to the bare essentials, bread and water, the staff of life. The promise has been given. The invitation has been written and sent. It is in your hand, before your eyes right now.

“Whosoever will, let him take of the Water of Life freely”.

“The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” (Revelation 22:21).

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