HEBREW WORD STUDY – FOOD SUPPLY – NATAH נטה   Nun Teth Hei

Leviticus 26:26: “[And] when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver [you] your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.”

I read an interesting article by Rabbi Menachem Feldman who is a rabbi in a Chabad in Connecticut.   A Chabad is made up of Orthodox Jewish rabbis who see their role as the chosen people as being chosen to bring a knowledge of God to the world. Hence, they are Biblical scholars who devote themselves and their lives to the study of God’s Word.  Rabbi Menachem Feldman gave a commentary on Leviticus 26:26. In this article, he said that there are multiple layers of understanding for every verse in the Bible.  That is a little hard to take in our Western culture as we are a technological society and there should only be one precise mean to each verse.  Hence there should be only one interpretation to a passage of Scripture.  But that is a cultural demand, I don’t believe it is a demand of God.  I agree with Rabbi Feldman, there are multiple layers of understanding to each passage.

Rabbi Feldman points out that Leviticus 26:26 is on the first layer a curse.  That if you disobey God your supply of bread will be cut off.  It is curious that the writer uses the word natah for staff to indicate a supply of bread.  Actually, he should use the word tsedah which really means a supply of food. Natah simply means a staff or rod.  How do we get the idea of supply from a rod or staff?   The word is used only time in the Old Testament as a supply and that is in this verse.  

Note this is in the Book of Leviticus, written by or during the time of Moses.  Ancient man saw magical powers in a rod.  In fact, that is where the magician gets the idea of a wand. Wave the magic wand and a rabbit appears out of a hat.  Egyptians sorcerers had rods, magicians had rods and they perform all sorts of wonders with these rods.  Moses raised his rod over the Red Sea and it parted, he held the rod over his head during the battle with the Amalekites and so long as the rod was lifted the Hebrew people were victorious, Moses put a serpent on his rod and the people were healed and Moses struck a rock with his rod and water came.  It got to the point where people saw the power coming from the rod and not God.  Finally, when the people needed water before entering the Promised Land God told Moses to take his rod but to only speak to the rock to bring forth water. He wanted the people to know it was He and not the rod that created the miracles. 

Use of this word natah leads us to the second layer of understanding which is a blessing.  Rabbi Feldman sees the bread as the Word of God and the more you study it or eat it the less satisfied you are.  I see the Bread as Jesus who is the Bread of Life.  The more you love Him the more unsatisfied you are with His love, you just want to love Him more and more and for Him to love you more and more.  Ten women shall bake at one oven.   We will gather together with others who love Jesus and share in the one oven of His love together which will bring some satisfaction, but we will still hunger for Him.  We will just hunger more and more for Him until our lives here on earth end and we will then find the satisfaction of His love resting in His arms for eternity.