HEBREW WORD STUDY – ANGEL FOOD –  LECHEM  ‘ABIRIM  ל חם  אבירים

Psalms 78:25: “Man did eat angels’ food: he sent them food to the full.”

The Psalmist is retelling the story of the Exodus and God’s loving protection over his people.  Rather than say he gave them manna from heaven he calls it angel’s food.  Today we have what is known as angel food cake, so named because it is light and fluffy.  The term angel food cake was introduced just after the Civil War by a former slave who published a cookbook. In this book, she had a receipt for, what she called, angel food cake.   She indicated that friends and relatives would often eat angel food cake after a funeral as a reminder that God had sent his angels to take their loved ones home.  Perhaps this former slave was closer to the mind of God than many of our translators, theologians, Biblical historians, and lexicographers. 

As is typical with Semitic storytelling, the storyteller will often interchange a name with a descriptive word. Considering the nature of Hebrew and Semitic storytelling it would not be unreasonable and not a threat to our understanding of the inspiration and infallibility of Scripture to read this term angel food as a storytelling device, something that God is using to send us a very powerful message. The fact that he inspired the Psalmist to call this angel food rather than manna is what the sages would refer to as a hint of a deeper meaning. 

The term in Hebrew for angel food  is lechem ‘abirim which many translators render as bread of the mighty ones or princes.  The common word for angels is male’ale which means messengers.  This word, however, that translators render as angels is ‘abirim which means brave, noble, or strong. This is where the commentators get the idea that this was bread which was eaten only by nobility, kings, and princes.  They may be right and the Psalmist was telling them that God gave them the best, most delicious food imaginable and yet the people grew tired of it and demanded some variety and began to complain.

The Talmud teaches that this manna was something else. It was the perfect food, food that was completely absorbed by the body so that there was no waste.  The body used this food entirely such that there was no need for the people to eliminate the waste from their bodies.  Had their bodies produced waste this would have produced a very real sanitary problem when you have a million or so refugees camping out together.  God eliminated this problem by giving them food that was ‘abirim.  You see another meaning of ‘abirim is feathers or something that is as light as feathers.  This manna drifted from heaven like a feather drifting off a bird onto the ground and the picture is that this was something from God himself that drifted to earth.  Actually, the sages take this further.  If we ignore the Masoretic text we find ‘abirim to be a compound word which would mean the Father who overcomes.  Like a feather off a bird, a feather which causes a bird to fly to the heavens, God shares His feather to his loved ones so that they too can and overcome the penalty of their sins and fly to heaven to be with Him.  When Jesus said “this is my body, do eat of it” the disciples may very well have thought of the manna and how it was a part of God Himself that would allow them to overcome their sins and one day fly to heaven.  Perhaps the old slave was right to name the cake that was eaten at funerals angel food cake for the departed soul was truly eating of the manna of heaven, taking on that part of God, His Son Jesus, who through his death on the cross providing the transportation to heaven.

Today was one of “those old me days.”  My computer crashed, I didn’t pay my last bill to the backup company so I lost a lot of good words and two book manuscripts.  Book sales are down,  speaking gigs are not coming in, temperatures are freezing etc.   I found I was I getting tired of just eating angel’s food and started demanding that God do something different with my life, give me more speaking gigs, more book sales, a new computer etc.   Yet, as stepped outside in the cold weather I realized I had a warm apartment where the landlord paid the heating the bill. Almost without thinking I thanked God for a warm apartment.  Then I realized I was like Israel’s bellyaching over simple manna. I found myself saying: “Don’t get me, wrong God, I am truly grateful for the angel food you have given me. I am grateful for an old outdated laptop as a backup to keep writing. I am truly grateful for the few speaking gigs I have and I am grateful that you called me to search out your heart and share it with an audience of Your choosing.  I will be grateful for the lechem ‘abirim angel food that I have.