Your Daily Bread

When Jesus tangles with the devil in the desert, the first temptation he faces springs from his hunger. “After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.” (I bet!) “The tempter came to him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’” (Matt 4:2-3) Jesus famously fires back, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (4:4) I like how Eugene Peterson put it in The Message: “It takes more than bread to stay alive. It takes a steady stream of words from God’s mouth.”

Words from God’s mouth were Jesus’s bread. They were what sustained him.

Forty days in the desert, hunger and an offer of bread: this scene is a sort of reenactment of Israel’s desert wanderings, for 40 years, which included rumbling stomachs, grumbling words, and the daily miracle of bread (manna) from God.

The first time they complain to Moses about food is in Exodus chapter 16. This is when the Lord begins to provide the daily bread for the Israelites. There’s one strange condition attached to the manna, though:

Then Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.” However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell… Each morning everyone gathered as much as they needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away. (16:19-21)

The manna was literally daily bread: it arrived every day, and it lasted only for the day. Tomorrow, you’d have to get back out there and gather it again.

Now, remember what Jesus said about bread in the desert. “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Words from God’s mouth were his bread. They sustained him in a way literal bread couldn’t—it takes more than that to stay alive.

If we’re going to follow Jesus’s example, we need words from God’s mouth to feed us. We feed our bodies with meat and grain and fruits and vegetables, and we feed our hearts, souls, and minds with God’s words.

And, like the Israelites discovered in Exodus 16, this work must be done daily. Theologian Walter Moberly writes, “Yhwh’s bread is not the sort that can be kept overnight. It can only be collected afresh each new day.” The bread we need from God, his words, won’t keep. You can’t live today off of what you gathered yesterday. Reading scripture, listening for the Holy Spirit in prayer, conversing with brothers and sisters on the journey alongside you—these things nourish us, but what you did yesterday, last Sunday, last week, isn’t enough to sustain you today. You have to get back out there and gather it again.

What are you doing today to feed your heart, soul, and mind? Other voices in the world will gladly feed your anger, suspicion, greed, prejudices, and lust with their words, every single day. So, what are you doing to maintain a healthy diet, to receive the words you need the most?

“It takes more than bread to stay alive. It takes a steady stream of words from God’s mouth.”

Listen to today's devotional right here!