Cast Your Bread

 Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. Eccl. 11:1

I came across this verse while studying Ecclesiastes. Why would you throw bread on the water? Then I had a flashback to middle school. We read one of the banned books way back then - Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. I remembered the people in the story casting bread on the water, but I couldn't remember the specifics. So I called on good ol' Google. I found "CliffNotes" with my answer. 

In Huckleberry Finn, Huck's pap locked him in their cabin. Huck figured a way out, but he also wanted to stay free of his abusive father. He planned to fill a bag with rocks and drag it to the river, leaving a path so as to make his father think he had been killed and dumped in the river. He filled another bag and drug it off in the other direction as if the robbers/murderers had taken Pap's "treasure". Huck hid in the woods to see what would happen. Sure enough, Pap wanted the town to help him find his treasure and to find his boy, that the murderers had thrown in the river. 

Huck watched from the brush as the men of the town put quicksilver (mercury) in the bread and set it afloat on the river. Huck was hungry so when one of the loaves came close he fished it out of the water and ate some of it. Of course, this was before the War Between the States so no one knew how poisonous mercury was. No matter Huck didn't die. 

The practice of placing mercury in bread and releasing it on water to find drowned bodies was practiced until the 1870s in the US. Though I had no idea what Solomon was talking about until I recalled the now banned book that I read as a child, I can now see some very important symbolism from this verse. When bread with mercury finds a body, it is supposed to begin to sink over the spot so divers can retrieve the body. 

Solomon used three important symbols in this verse. 

• bread - Jesus is the bread of life
• water - isles of the nations, Gentiles, people of all nations in need of the gospel. 
• find it after many days - rare is the person who repents and is saved after hearing the gospel for the first time.

Solomon had tried it all and had not found true happiness. It was all vanity, emptiness until he realized the real purpose of his life was to cast his bread upon the waters. He had the gospel. He had the opportunity to tell the world. 

Solomon wrote this for our benefit as well. We have the gospel. We have vast opportunities to share it with the world. Though we  may not see the results as this moment, rest assured people will hear and will come to salvation if we faithfully present Jesus. 

The bead was supposed to sink over the body so the body could be retrieved. We were all dead bodies, rotting in our trespasses and sin. Jesus brought us up. He resurrected us. He gave us new life. We see this demonstrated everytime we see a believer immersed in baptism and resurrected to a new life in Christ.

Father God, help me never give up spreading your gospel by whatever means, knowing that You will bring people to you giving them a new life in Christ. In Jesus' name. Amen.