The Strength of Bread and Water

… For he did not say simply that bread and water would be taken from the Jews, but “strength of bread and strength of water” (Isaiah 3:1). We should take it that he means to teach something like this. When we come upon the sacred words and read the divine Scriptures, and then understand them, we receive the strength of spiritual bread. “For man shall not live,” He says, “by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds through the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4; compare Deuteronomy 8:3). You will understand spiritual waters in the same way.

The Jews, for their part, still have the bread and the water; for they busy themselves with the writings of Moses and read the Law. But since they understand nothing, they have neither the strength of the bread nor the strength of the water. For only the bare letter has been given them, which looks like bread and water but in no way nourishes them to spiritual health. Paul will bear witness to this when he writes: “For to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart, not lifted, because it is done away in Christ” (2 Corinthians 3:14-15).

In another way too we say that the strength of bread and the strength of water have been taken from the synagogue of the Jews; and this account is a mystical one. For we who have been called through faith to sanctification have the bread from heaven, that is, Christ, or His body (John 6:32-33). And if anyone should ask what kind of strength it has, we say that it is life-giving; for it gives life to the world (John 6:33).

In the same way we also come to the grace given through holy baptism, which sanctifies us; and we say that the strength of the water is the putting away of sins and spiritual rebirth into conformity with Christ Himself, and besides these, an entrance with boldness into the kingdom of heaven. “For unless one,” He says, “is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5).

So the Jews have been deprived of such good things. They do not have the strength of bread, that is, the life given in Christ. They do not have the strength of the water; for their sin has remained with them unwashed. They will not enter the kingdom of heaven, since they dishonoured Christ, who leads the way in; for they did not believe Him when He said: “I am the way” (John 14:6), and “I am the door” (John 10:9).

Likewise He will take away “the giant and the strong man” (Isaiah 3:2). Who, then, is the giant, and who is the other? For my part, I think he calls “giant” the one who has reached the height of spiritual strength, and “strong man” the one who stands a little below him and falls short of the pre-eminence seen in the first. For to each of us a measure of grace has been given by God (compare Ephesians 4:7). The most wise Paul makes this clear to us when he says: “I wish that all men were even as I myself am; but each …” (1 Corinthians 7:7).