707. That "blood" and "flesh" have a like meaning is very clear from the Lord's words:
Jesus took bread and brake, and gave saying, This is My body (Matt. 26:20; Mark 14:22; Luke 22:19).
And again:
The bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world (John 6:51).
And He also says:
That He is the bread of life, and that if any man eat of this bread he shall live forever (John 6:48, 61, 68).
It is this bread also that is meant by the sacrifices that are called bread in the following passages:
The priest shall burn it upon the altar; it is the bread of the offering made by fire unto Jehovah (Lev. 3:11, 16).
The sons of Aaron shall be holy unto their God, and not profane the name of their God, for the offerings of Jehovah made by fire, the bread of their God, they do offer. Thou shalt sanctify him, for he offereth the bread of thy God. No man of the seed of Aaron in which there shall have been a blemish, shall come nigh to offer the bread of his God (Lev. 21:6, 8, 17, 21).
Command the children of Israel, and say unto them, My offering and My bread for sacrifices made by fire, for an odor of rest, shall ye observe to offer unto Me in their due season (Num. 28:2).
He that hath touched an unclean thing shall not eat of the holy things, unless he bathe his flesh in water; afterward he shalt eat of the holy things, because this is his bread (Lev. 22:6, 7).
To eat of the holy things was to eat of the flesh of the sacrifices, which is here called "bread," as well as in Malachi (1:7). The "meal-offerings" used in the sacrifices, which were of fine wheaten flour, and were therefore bread, had the same signification (Lev. 2:1-11; 6:14-21; 7:9-13, and elsewhere); also the bread on the table in the tabernacle, which was called "the bread of faces" or "shew-bread" (of which in Ex. 25:30; 40:23; Lev. 24:59). That "bread" in the Word means heavenly bread, not natural bread, is evident from the following passages:
Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of Jehovah doth man live (Deut. 8:3).
I will send a famine into the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but for hearing the words of Jehovah (Amos 8:11).
Moreover, "bread" means all food (Lev. 24:59; Ex. 25:30; 40:23; Num. 4:7; 1 Kings 7:48). That it also means spiritual food is plain from these words of the Lord:
Work not for the meat that perisheth, but for that meat which abideth unto eternal life, which the Son of man shall give unto you (John 6:27).