| |
LUKE 4:4 “MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE, BUT BY EVERY WORD OF GOD.” (KJV, NKJV)
“Man shall not live by bread alone.” (ASV, RSV)
“Man shall not live on bread alone.” (NASB, NIV)
“Other things are much more important than bread!” (TLB)
Matthew 4:4 “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” (KJV)
Cool! We get credit for two verses memorized this week. Plus, how could we make it any easier? Luke 4:4 AND Matthew 4:4.
You might also notice that I conclude each of my books with a reminder of what we are trying to do here. The implication of this verse is that we cannot live only on what we eat…bread. We must also have “every word of God” to sustain us! That really stresses the importance of our goal to memorize 100 verses from the Bible. It isn’t just to sharpen our brains. It isn’t just to develop a vital part of our discipleship or discipline. This verse tells us a key ingredient to living life is knowing every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God!
We will miss a lot if we do not notice the context in which this verse comes to us. Jesus is baptized by John. He leaves the Jordan and is led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days. He is tempted by Satan for those forty days and the Gospels tell us nothing about those temptations. It does tell us of three ways Satan tempts Jesus after forty days. After eating nothing for forty days, both Gospels tell us He is hungry. Well, yeah!
Our first look at bread was in Chapter 39, Matthew 6:11 and Luke 11:3, where Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” As we noticed, He is teaching them not only to recognize God’s provision of bread/food in our lives but to remember to thank Him for that provision.
Our second look at bread was in Chapter 45, John 6:48, when Jesus declared that He was the bread of life. He certainly demonstrated that to the disciples in the imagery displayed at the last supper. They didn’t understand it then. But they certainly learned after His death, burial, resurrection and ascension how meaningful and necessary “taking his body which was broken for us” was. We still remember His sacrifice with communion regularly two thousand years later.
Certainly, when Jesus told Satan that He would not give in to the temptation to create bread out of stones, He was teaching us a lesson as well. He was quoting a passage in Deuteronomy 8:3, when Moses summoned all Israel to teach them the decrees of God. The children of Israel were preparing to cross the River Jordan to enter the Promised Land and Moses was reminding them of all God had guided them through for the past forty years.
Moses reminded them how God led them through the desert those forty years, “to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.” Verse 3 is our reference verse. Moses tells them, “He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live by bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”
Now, in striking parallel to that previous trip through the desert, Jesus, fresh from forty days in the wilderness, certainly having fed on manna from heaven that did not feed his stomach but nourished his spirit, reminds Satan of those same words…“man does not live by bread alone.”
Man eats bread. He needs it to survive. God provides it for us but bread alone isn’t enough. We need the words that proceed from the mouth of the Lord.
How does the Lord give us those “every words” that proceed from His mouth? He was there…and is still here for us…to provide us bread to eat AND words from His mouth. Those words feed us far more than bread ever will. Like the water that Jesus provided for the woman at the well who, when she had drunk it, would never thirst again, Jesus promises us not only bread for our stomachs, but through His words brings everything we need for life.
The Bible gives us so many of these words. We need an “every word from the mouth of God” Bible to spiritually feed us. We need to devour it like we can’t live without it.
We receive and study every word that proceeded from the mouth of Jesus while He ministered for three years. Those words are priceless to us. We cannot be nourished spiritually nor grow in faith without them.
We also need a church in which “every word” proceeds from Jesus through His messenger week after week to teach us and fill us with truth. If you haven’t found one, don’t rest until you do. If you don’t attend one of those churches, you must. We cannot grow, we cannot thrive, we cannot survive without “every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” any more than we can long survive without eating bread.
You will not live by bread alone. You need bread, the food the Lord provides. But you need every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord more. Feed that hunger with his Word every day.
Questions to consider: How does spiritual hunger differ from physical hunger? Do they have some things in common? Jesus fasted for forty days in the desert. Afterwards, He was obviously very hungry. Was Jesus’ reply to Satan’s temptation not only meant to confound that temptation but also teach us a truth about our own existence? How do we live by “every word that proceeds from the mouth of God?” Like Jesus did here, is it possible for us to quote some of those words, perhaps that we memorize here, to confound the temptations of Satan too? Is it possible to be so spiritually hungry for God’s word that we can forget about the physical hunger, especially after a very long fast?
Other Scriptures to study: Matthew 17:21 “This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” (Mark 9:29) 1 Corinthians 7:5 “…give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.” Acts 2:42 “They devoted themselves to the teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
A song to remember: Hey! I’ve heard this song before. Remember Chapters 20 and 22 from the first book? This song incorporates today’s memory verse too. Check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3S1wfXmYPw
 
|
|
