LISTEN TO JESUS - OUR DAILY BREAD

LISTEN TO JESUS

OUR DAILY BREAD

But he answered and said,

It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Matthew 4:4

And Jesus answered him, saying,

It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

Luke 4:4

The next time the words of Jesus are recorded in the Bible is on the occasion of His temptation in the wilderness soon after His baptism. Let’s look at the passages in Matthew and Luke together. Mark does not give details of the temptation, just a blurb saying it happened, and John’s gospel does not mention it at all.

Matthew 4:1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

Luke 4:1 And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

Susan: Luke’s gospel tells us that Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit; for even though He was completely man, He was still completely God.

Susie: After He was baptized by John in the Jordan River, the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness for a time of prayer, fasting, and ultimately temptation.

Susan: God does not tempt people Himself but uses Satan as the instrument of temptation, for Satan is under God’s control and must do God’s bidding.

James 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

Susie: We will see that Jesus, in His humanity, was tempted in all the ways we are but remained sinless.

Hebrews 4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

Susie: There are three broad categories of temptation, and Satan tried to trip Jesus up in each of them. Our focus in this study will be the way in which Jesus replied to these temptations.

1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

Matthew 4:2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.

Luke 4:2 Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.

Susan: Jesus fasted 40 days and nights as Moses had at Mount Sinai (Deuteronomy 9:9) and Elijah had after the Lord consumed his offering on Mount Carmel, and he had slain the prophets of Baal, making a spectacle of him (1 Kings 19:8). Then we have the great understatement that Jesus was hungry! Famished would be the word I would use.

Susie: Enter Satan (who had probably been tempting Jesus the entire forty days) to capitalize on the fact that Jesus was starving and tempt Him in the area of “lust of the flesh”—putting your physical wants and even needs above the Lord’s will.

Matthew 4:3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

Luke 4:3 And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.

Susan: The “if” in this verse is not best rendered as a question. It is better translated “Since thou be the Son of God.” Satan was well aware that Jesus was truly the Son of God.

Susie: The Jews ate small round loaves of brown bread, so the stones probably looked very much like bread to Jesus in His famished state. Satan was tempting Him to use the power He had set aside to become human (Philippians 2:7) for His own immediate gratification.

Philippians 2:7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

Matthew 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Luke 4:4 And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

Susan: Jesus’s rebuttals to Satan as concerns all three temptations recorded both in Matthew and Luke are found in the book of Deuteronomy.

Susie: His first response explains why He used Scripture to refute the Devil’s reasoning. He quoted from a passage about the time when God preserved the Israelites with manna which I’m sure got pretty boring after an extended time. But God was making the point that being sustained spiritually by His word was far more important than delicious food for the body.

Deuteronomy 8:3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.

Job 23:12 Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.

Susan: Jesus had the scripture internalized because He not only wrote it; but as a human, he had studied it like all Jewish boys. He was portraying for us the example of the importance of internalizing God’s word in order to use it in our arsenal of Holy armor:

Psalm 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

Ephesians 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. . .

Ways this might apply to our lives:

·     The Bible is the sword, the only offensive weapon mentioned Ephesians 6. We must learn to wield it skillfully against Satan NOT people.

·     It is impractical to carry a Bible everywhere we go, and cumbersome to need to look up a verse when we need it. Therefore, we MUST memorize and internalize God’s word.

·     Just as we need our “daily bread” to sustain us physically, we need a DAILY dose of God’s word to nourish and invigorate us spiritually.