Man Shall not Live by Bread Alone

“If you are the son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” But He answered, “It is written: Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:3-4

Have you ever really stopped to think about this and ask for revelation from the Holy Spirit as to what is going on here? Here we have a dialogue between Satan and the 2nd Adam. How Jesus responds should have been how Adam and Eve responded in the Garden when challenged by the Tempter. It should be the way we all respond against demonic opposition. With the Word of God!

“If you are the son of God then tell these stones to become bread.” Could he have done so? Sure, why not! Whether He could or not is not the point though, for Jesus had not gone out into the desert to simply catch some solo time with God, but He went as He was led by the Spirit who proceeds from the Father. His going and fasting was not His own leading but the leading of God. He heard the Word/will of God and obeyed. But it wasn’t the written Word that He was being obedient to by going into the desert, rather, it was the spoken Word of God communicated by the Spirit of God.

He could have turned the stones into bread but He knew that such was not the will of God. He knew it was contrary to His Father’s words for Him. I don’t think the Devil is going to waste time trying to get us to do things that are not contrary to the Word/will of God for our lives. If he comes to challenge us, it will be to challenge those Words or Seeds planted within our hearts. His “has God really said” challenge hasn’t changed since the time of Eden.

“But He answered, ‘it is written: Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

Where is this written?—Deuteronomy 8:3. Let’s begin in verse one for contexts sake:

“You must carefully follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase, and may enter and take possession of the land the Lord swore to your fathers. Remember that the Lord your God led you the entire journey these 40 years in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands. He humbled you by letting you go hungry; then He gave you manna to eat, which you and your fathers had not known, so that you might learn that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

Why must they follow every command? So that they might live and increase, and may enter and take possession of the land the Lord swore to them. Because the Word of God had not been followed or kept we see that God allowed them to wander in the desert and even experience hunger. He disciplined them as any good Father would in an effort to teach them that “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” That is the greater food, the finer wine.

Jesus is for us the perfect example of obedience. As He was a keeper of the Word of God we are shown what “living, increasing, and entering” are really all about. He is the perfect doer of God’s word.

Jesus is the most excellent expression of Gods will/word (I don’t separate the Word of God from the Will of God). John 1 says that He was the Word become flesh. Jesus was the word of God becoming tangible to the five senses. He was also the very Word of God—the Living Word. But even as the Living Word, like us He had to learn to hear the words of His Father. As He heard He obeyed, no hypocrisy could be found in Him. In this way too we could say that the Word of God became flesh. It found perfect residence in human flesh.

“But He said, ‘I have food to eat that you don’t know about.’ The disciples said to one another, ‘Could someone have brought Him something to eat?’ ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work,’ Jesus told them.” John 4:32-34

We have a food of which this world does not understand nor is able to see. This food is found in living by every word of God, in doing the will of God. The word of God is our satisfaction, sustenance, life, and fulfillment.

This eternal food is without an expiration date, it will not perish. So let us live by the word/food of God and grow up into maturity, into Jesus Christ.