Editor's note: This is the second of three "The gospel in words" segments on "bread."

"Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life." (John 6:35)

After Abraham had smitten the armies of the kings who took Lot captive, he went up to the city of Salem and there Melchizedek, king of Salem, "brought forth bread and wine: and he was a priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, blessed be Abram" (Genesis 14:18-19).

Robert Alter, noted Old Testament scholar, translates this verse, "And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine, for he was priest to (the most high God)." Alter notes in his commentary to this verse that this was a "ceremonial encounter with a priest-king of Jerusalem."

A Jewish commentary on Genesis tells us that "the Midrash comments: He (Melchizedek) instructed him (Abraham) in the laws of the priesthood: Bread alluding to the showbread (of the temple), and wine (a drink offering to God)."

It is clear here that Abraham is being formally instructed in his duties as a patriarch by Melchizedek and that an indispensable element of this instruction is the ceremonial use of bread and wine.

Central to the story of the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt is the Lord's provision of food for them as they traveled in the desert. When they murmured against Moses that they had more than enough food in Egypt, the Lord said unto Moses, "Behold I will rain bread from heaven for you" (Exodus 16:4). Even in Old Testament times the image of bread or manna was used to teach the concept that man should not live by bread only.

The Savior, however, makes an even stronger comparison. When the Jews in Galilee asked for a sign "that we may see, and believe Thee" and told him that "our fathers did eat manna in the desert," Jesus said to them, "Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven" (John 6:30-32). "I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. 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 6:48-51).