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When our combination stove and oven quit working after 24 years of service, we needed to buy a new electric model. The instruction manual that accompanied the electronic appliance was so complicated that I felt I needed a college degree in engineering to use it. Every time I felt myself getting frustrated because it performed a function that I didn’t intend to use, I recalled that for the first ten years of my life I saw my mother bake with a gas oven that lacked a temperature gauge. She used the oven knob to adjust the gas while she held the oven door ajar to watch the flame go up or down. I recall Mother’s joy when she was later able to buy a new gas stove with a temperature gauge so that she could use a knob on the stove to set the oven temperature according to degrees of heat! We ate fresh baked goods from then on!

Even the oven that lacked a temperature gauge was an improvement over the coal and wood fires that the Israelites used to bake and cook their food. We find such a reference in 1 Kings 19:3-6 when Elijah woke up under a broom bush after fleeing from Queen Jezebel. He found bread baked on coals. Another mention of material used to produce fire occurs in Isaiah 44:15-16 where a carpenter uses wood from the same tree to bake bread, cook his meat and fashion an idol. (See those scriptures below.)

As the holidays approach, passages such as these show me how privileged I am to have a modern convenience so complicated that it sometimes seems to have a mind of its own!

Prayer: Thank You, dear Lord, for providing the means to cook and bake food in an efficient manner. I praise You for it, in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

RELEVANT BIBLE PASSAGE

1 Kings 19:3-6 – 3) Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, 4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” 5 Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” 6) He looked around and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. (NIV)

Isaiah 44:13-16 – 13) The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker; he roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses.
He shapes it in human form, human form in all its glory, that it may dwell in a shrine. 14) He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak. He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow. 15) [The wood] is used as fuel for burning; some of it [the carpenter] takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it. 16) Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says, “Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.” (NIV)