“The Bread of Life,” Liahona, Dec. 2022.
Come, Follow Me
Micah
The Bread of Life
Nativity, by David Cooke, all rights reserved 2022 / Bridgeman Images
Throughout this year in our Old Testament studies, we have discovered many symbols that help us deepen our love and understanding of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. One of these symbols, though less obvious than many of the others, is the Savior’s birthplace—Bethlehem.
Of the Savior’s birthplace, the prophet Micah declared, “Thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2).
“Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger” (John 6:35).
Detail from Always Remember Him, by Robert T. Barrett
President Russell M. Nelson taught: “He chose to be born in Bethlehem, adjoining Jerusalem. Why Bethlehem? Is there symbolic significance in the meaning of the name Bethlehem, which in Hebrew means ‘house of bread’? The Great Provider declared Himself to be the ‘bread of life.’ (See John 6:48.) How appropriate it was that He, the ‘bread of life,’ was to come from the ‘house of bread.’”1