Introduction
     While on duty in Iraq, during a time when not only bombs and bullets were claiming lives – three of my comrades included – the severity high, arid temperatures, coupled with wearing full body armor, was incapacitating soldiers.
    There was a saying among us: “Hydrate or die” – perhaps a bit exaggeration, as nobody in our unit was dying of dehydration but many, waking up with intravenous intubation infusing normal saline into their arms, were asking, “What happened?” It seemed to have happened all of a sudden, but as I learned the hard way, if a person is thirsty, they’ve already started to become dehydrated. So, I ask, “Are you dehydrating ... spiritually, and wondering why you’ve been feeling lethargic?”

Give Us This Day, Our Daily Bread
     In the wilderness, Yahweh daily provided the children of Israel with manna, the “bread from Heaven,” and gathering it but six days, they ate of it, daily. Yahweh, of Whom it is written in Malachi 3:6, “changes not,” still provides bread from heaven, daily.
    Had many of the disciples of Yahshua been able to grasp His declaration, “I Am the Bread of Life ... For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed ... Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you” (John 6:48, 55, 53), they would have not have replied, “This is a hard saying, who can hear it?” and gone back, walking no more with Him (John 6:60, 66).
    He tried to explain to them in the simplest of terms, This is the Bread which cometh down from Heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die, John 6:50. But as Isaiah questions, Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of Yahweh revealed? Isaiah 53:1. (The King James Version used throughout.)
    To one unfamiliar with the language of the sacred texts, upon first hearing “our report,” Yahshua’s invitation to eat His flesh and to drink His blood, does come as quite a mysterious metaphor. Add to this seemingly incomprehensible diet of His flesh and His blood, His observance of His last Passover meal with His disciples. And as they were eating, Yahshua took bread, and blessed [it], and brake [it], and gave [it], to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” And He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave [it], to them, saying, “Drink ye all of it; for this is My blood of the new testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins,” Matthew 26:26-28.
    Again, the solemnity of this event was lost on the disciples. Now, He was saying that the unleavened bread and the fruit of the vine were His body and His blood – His flesh, meat indeed; His blood, drink indeed (John 6:55). Now, He was equating the Passover species with His body and His blood, and suggesting, moreover, what the Apostle Paul later affirmed: “For even Messiah our Passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Cor. 5:6) – “the Mediator of the new testament ... For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the Testator ... without shedding of blood is no remission” (Heb. 9:15, 16, 22).
Secret? Mystery? Yahshua’s life and ministry were attended by patterns and examples. Whereas He said, “My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed,” for us to eat and to drink, He also declared, “My meat is to do the will of Him that Sent Me, and to finish His work” (John 4:34).
    “My meat … His work?” May we understand, His meat … Yahweh’s work, in the context of His Gethsemane prayer? “I have given them Thy Word … Sanctify them through Thy Truth; Thy Word is Truth … Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their Word” (John 17:14, 17, 20).

Desire the Sincere Milk of the Word
     Though the mysteries of the Kingdom were reserved to them whom Yahshua foreknew, yet did He speak in parables so that only they which had been given ears to hear could perceive and understand what He was saying. Nevertheless, there were yet some things, apparently, that were withheld until they were able to bear (John 16:12). The Apostle Paul could not speak some things to the Assembly at Corinth, owing to their carnality of envy, strife, and division (1 Cor. 3:1-3). On the other hand, having labored among the Ephesians for three years, upon his final departure from them, he affirmed that he had “kept back nothing that was profitable unto them” (Acts 20:20), neither had he “shunned to declare unto them all the counsel of Yahweh” (Acts 20:27).
    The difference of approach between the two assemblies was their heart preparation to receive the meat of Yahweh’s Word.
    A baby learns to crawl before he can walk. He drinks milk before he has teeth with which to masticate solid food. But an infant is not purposed to remain in a state of infancy, but to grow … to become of full age. Even so, we “desire the sincere milk of the Word, that we may grow thereby” (1 Pet. 2:2) – growing in grace and in knowledge of our Savior and Master Yahshua Messiah (2 Pet. 3:18) – that studying to show ourselves approved to Him, we might rightly divide the Word of Truth (2 Tim. 2:15), speaking It as an Oracle (1 Pet. 4:11) and Which, by reason of use, we have our senses exercised to discern both good and evil (Heb. 5:14). And seeing that we cannot know Yahweh any better than we know His Word, we shall not be able also, without knowing His Word, be able to discern between the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of error (1 John 4:6).

Conclusion
     It is said, “You are what you eat.” So, what are you eating? Wholesome words and sound doctrine? or, damnable heresies, doctrines of demons, and lies in hypocrisy? And are you growing and matured from drinking milk to eating strong meat?
    Messiah exhorted His followers, saying, both to “take heed what ye hear” (Mark 4:24) and to “take heed therefore how ye hear” (Luke 8:18) and, moreover, If any man have ears to hear, let him hear … and unto you that hear shall more be given. For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he … seemeth to hath” (Mark 4:23, 25; Luke 8:18).
    Maybe, this is that perfect time to consider your diet. This was just an appetizer, a little food for thought. Where’s your Bible?