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We know that life has material requirements. A person has to sleep some.
We have to eat and drink A little exercise is also good. This is basic
stuff. But and if we attempt to live on an altogether material basis, we
will fail. Jesus was being tested by. The Devil. (Matthew 4:1-11). The
first temptation had to do with. Hunger. The Lord had fasted forty days
and nights (not the more frequently practiced dawn to dusk fast). He was
therefore hungry. The Devil said, “If you are the Son of God, command that
these stones become bread.” Jesus could have done this. Indeed He could
have done anything that suited Him and His purposes. But He had in mind
a rebuke for the Devil and a lesson for us. So He answered and said, “It
is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds
form the mouth of God.” Notice that Jesus began by saying “It is written.”
He used this verbal formulation also in verses seven and ten. This expression
“It is written” is neither accidental nor ornamental. It is instead full
of rhetorical power. The power of these three words is revealed by a study
of the context from which Matthew 4:4 is taken. We look back into the Old
Testament, remembering that whatsoever things written aforetime were written
for our learning (Romans 15:4) and see that the quotation is from Deuteronomy
8:3. In this “second law” Moses rehearsed some things with Israel. He reminded
them of their history. He reminded them of the Law. And he reminded them
that God has taken care of them and blessed them spiritually. But Moses
also taught the people. They bad been tested with forty years of wandering
in the wilderness. The purpose of that test was “to know what was in your
heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not” (Deuteronomy 8:2).
As a part of that testing God humbled these people and allowed to become
hungry. Then He fed them with manna, a substance previously unknown to
them. This was designed to teach them that “...man does not live by bread
alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.” In
addition they saw that their clothing lasted much longer than one could
expect and that their feet held up in a remarkable fashion (Deuteronomy
8:4). God took care of them. Their physical needs were met by God in a
situation that would have without His help, spelled doom for them all.
So, the lesson becomes clear. Just as it is the case that man cannot live
without the physical requirements of life, neither can man live without
the spiritual requirements of life. The lesson is also that God meets both
our physical and spiritual needs. Man needs bread; God provides it. Man
needs spiritual bread, the truth. God provides it. We need what has been
written. But we are remarkable creatures in our ability to reject blessings
out of a stupid need to exercise autonomy from God. Some people believe
that we, that is, humankind, feed ourselves physically. They say, well,
we farm, we ranch, we have chicken houses.. .we do it all. Do we really?
Last I looked, nobody can replicate the process by which one grain of corn
becomes three ears. Do we make the chicken lay the egg, or were they made
that way? Don’t miss it. ..God feeds us. And God also provides that spiritual
food we need in and by His Word. Men reject this, too, just as did israel
in the wandering (Hebrews 3:7ff.). Yes, we need bread. But even more we
need the Word that proceeds from the mouth of God. God humbled Israel to
teach them this. May we humbly appreciate our absolute need for God in
everything and therefore diligently study His Word (2 Timothy 2:15).
--Bill Irby
West Hobb Street Church of Christ