What does this Bible verse mean?

Sometimes at boat docks on lakes you can see large amounts of fish and birds. The reason? People keep throwing bread and popcorn and food of different kinds into the water.

Were you to go a stream and cast a "bread" into the stream over a long period of time, something would happen. It would begin to teem with life eg. fish, clams, crawdads, even water foul. If the food is there life will flourish.

The verse is an expression of human faith, wisdom, and patience.

Faith........ By the act of "casting" day after day you trust in time there will be results.

Wisdom........ Fish, meat of different kinds, are a wonderful gift worth working for. Especially for such a small investment.

Patience......... It takes time for life to respond to the work of casting.

Just an observation of how human and nature can relate to each other in a good way. And after investing time to bring the life to you, the thought of killing it all for food would not occur. [self control]

A fiercely Independent Irish Christian Eschatologist

Michelle

EDIT: And these principles in a similar way can be applied and seen in the human family. [forgot to make application]

Actually what is meant by this is : To invest wisely in foreign trade if you have money and one of these days it will make you a profit.

Verses 1 to 7 are advice for wise living .

Yes i believe it can be applied to every day life , of course.

Back then bread would have been part of currency, remember that.

The waters , referring to the waters leading to foreign lands.

God bless.

As a child I was told by my mother that if I am a good daughter, wife and mother and take care of my family- as in casting bread upon the waters--it will come back to me in kind with loving care in my old age by my children. In other words one should honor, respect parents and it shall be returned to you in kind in your old age.

considering its coming from a holy book it can be interpreted many different ways. you can either take this as giving bread to someone as food and they will be plentiful and then will eventually be able to come back to life so you can apply that to giving saves lives. OR you could say the person who wrote this likes soggy bread which cannot be applied to every day life really.

the process with all your dreams coming true through god

is all about trusting, waiting and trusting some more, listening and trusting some more

your dreams coming true is the final destiny of every soul

how/when yo get there is based on the choices you make

your dreams that come true((i believe))god put those dreams there in the first place

on our path to our dreams coming true we see other things we also want

we get off focus and lose clarity

because we're creative beings and he answers all our prayers

we distance ourselves from our dreams coming true

while taking the time to enjoy other answered prayers

nothing wrong with this....we need our experiences

when you see an answered prayer coming to you

that isnt part of your dreams coming true prayers

cast it back to god, bless someone else with it immediately

this is trusting god to bring your dreams coming true to you

the act alone helps speed up the process

most of us choose to receive all our answered prayers

spend time enjoying them

which is ok

just time and distance from our ultimate plan thats all

Isaiah 55:11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper [in the thing] whereto I sent it.

Gal 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

The bread is the gospel, the waters is the counsel in the hearts of men.

Prov 20:5 Counsel in the heart of man [is like] deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out.

Prov 21:1 The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turns it wherever he will.

I think it means that if you sacrifice your "bread" or your livelihood out into the "waters" or the world then you will be rewarded.

So essentially I think its saying that your sacrificing of foord or money to help others will pay off in heaven.

But like alot of things in the bible, its up to you to decide for yourself.

I love the NKJV and the KJV but sometimes it is helpful to read other versions to help understand the text a little better. Like this one for instance the NLT says it this way

Ecc 11:1 Give generously, for your gifts will return to you later. Hope this helps

Ecclesiastes 11 (Amplified Bible) 1CAST YOUR bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. +++"The Obligations to Be Liberal; Answers to Objections against Liberality.

Solomon had often, in this book, pressed it upon rich people to take the comfort of their riches themselves; here he presses it upon them to do good to others with them and to abound in liberality to the poor, which will, another day, abound to their account. Observe,

I. How the duty itself is recommended to us, v. 1. 1. Cast thy bread upon the waters, thy bread-corn upon the low places (so some understand it), alluding to the husbandman, who goes forth, bearing precious seed, sparing bread-corn from his family for the seedness, knowing that without that he can have no harvest another year; thus the charitable man takes from his bread-corn for seed-corn, abridges himself to supply the poor, that he may sow beside all waters (Isa. xxxii. 20), because as he sows so he must reap, Gal. vi. 7. We read of the harvest of the river, Isa. xxiii. 3. Waters, in scripture, are put for multitudes (Rev. xvi. 5), and there are multitudes of poor (we do not want objects of charity); waters are put also for mourners: the poor are men of sorrows. Thou must give bread, the necessary supports of life, not only give good words but good things, Isa. lviii. 7. It must be thy bread, that which is honestly got; it is no charity, but injury, to give that which is none of our own to give; first do justly, and then love mercy. "Thy bread, which thou didst design for thyself, let the poor have a share with thee, as they had with Job, ch. xxxi. 17. Give freely to the poor, as that which is cast upon the waters. Send it a voyage, send it as a venture, as merchants that trade by sea. Trust it upon the waters; it shall not sink."

The theme of the chapter seems to be about generousity. Don't harbor or store things away for yourself because you never know what the future can bring. Don't fear the future and trust God to provide for you - so cast your bread out upon water and know that God will bring it back to you in His loving provision.