Sermon Tone Analysis

Setting

Prayer is far more than bringing our needs and requests to God, but that is where we often begin—and frequently end.

Jesus gave us a different model.

In His Model Prayer, the prayer is essentially half over before a single personal request is made.

One important lesson to be learned from this prayer is that only after we have focused on God—seeking His honor and focusing on His lordship and will—are we in the right mindset to present our daily needs to Him.

Let’s look at and

Why do you think “us” was used in verse 11 instead of “me”?

How does relate to this?

ex6.4

Most of the people in Jesus’ day lived hand-to-mouth.

This was true particularly among the lower classes to whom Jesus’ message appealed most.

This request acknowledges God as the provider of every physical need, but it also reminds the petitioner to trust God to provide as the needs arise, and not necessarily in advance.

Compare this with the lesson Israel had to learn during forty years of daily manna; any excess spoiled by the second day.

They were always just one day away from starvation, and yet they ate well during all those decades.

some commentators believe this refers to the spiritual need of the Word of God - see John 6:48-51:

john 6:48-51

What does this teach us about self-sufficiency and how does relate?

Instead, it is an expression of ultimate dependence on God who normally uses human means of production and distribution through which to fulfil his purposes.

Moreover, it seems that Jesus wanted his followers to be conscious of a day-to-day dependence.

The petition that God will ‘give’ us our food does not, of course, deny that most people have to earn their own living, that farmers have to plough, sow and reap to provide basic cereals or that we are commanded to feed the hungry ourselves.3

Instead, it is an expression of ultimate dependence on God who normally uses human means of production and distribution through which to fulfil his purposes.

Moreover, it seems that Jesus wanted his followers to be conscious of a day-to-day dependence.

The adjective epiousios in ‘our daily bread’ was so completely unknown to the ancients that Origen thought the evangelists had coined it.

Moulton and Milligan are of the same opinion in our generation.4

It is probably to be translated either ‘for the current day’ or ‘for the following day’.5 Whichever is correct, it is a prayer for the immediate and not the distant future.

As A. M. Hunter comments: ‘Used in the morning, this petition would ask bread for the day just beginning.

Used in the evening, it would pray for tomorrow’s bread.’6

Thus we are to live a day at a time.

| Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me,

| he will dwell on the heights; his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks; his bread will be given him; his water will be sure.

| Give us each day our daily bread,

| I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.

Let’s look at how Isaiah relates.

Go to Isaiah 38:1-3

| “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.

Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Why do you think “us” was used in verse 11 instead of “me”?

Who was Hezekiah?

The Bible describes Hezekiah as a king who had a close relationship with God (2 Chronicles 31:20)

Give us this day our daily bread.

Some early commentators could not believe that Jesus intended our first request to be for literal bread, bread for the body.

It seemed to them improper, especially after the noble three opening petitions relating to God’s glory, that we should abruptly descend to so mundane and material a concern.

So they allegorized the petition.

The bread he meant must be spiritual, they said.

Early church fathers like Tertullian, Cyprian and Augustine thought the reference was either to ‘the invisible bread of the Word of God’1 or to the Lord’s Supper.

Jerome in the Vulgate translated the Greek word for ‘daily’ by the monstrous adjective ‘supersubstantial’; he also meant the Holy Communion.

We should be thankful for the greater, down-to-earth, biblical understanding of the Reformers.

Calvin’s comment on the spiritualizing of the fathers was: ‘This is exceedingly absurd.’1

Luther had the wisdom to see that ‘bread’ was a symbol for ‘everything necessary for the preservation of this life, like food, a healthy body, good weather, house, home, wife, children, good government and peace’,2 and probably we should add that by ‘bread’ Jesus meant the necessities rather than the luxuries of life.

a son of the wicked King Ahaz, reigned over the southern kingdom of Judah for twenty-nine years, from c. 726 to 697 BC.

The petition that God will ‘give’ us our food does not, of course, deny that most people have to earn their own living, that farmers have to plough, sow and reap to provide basic cereals or that we are commanded to feed the hungry ourselves.3

Instead, it is an expression of ultimate dependence on God who normally uses human means of production and distribution through which to fulfil his purposes.

Moreover, it seems that Jesus wanted his followers to be conscious of a day-to-day dependence.

The adjective epiousios in ‘our daily bread’ was so completely unknown to the ancients that Origen thought the evangelists had coined it.

Moulton and Milligan are of the same opinion in our generation.4

It is probably to be translated either ‘for the current day’ or ‘for the following day’.5 Whichever is correct, it is a prayer for the immediate and not the distant future.

As A. M. Hunter comments: ‘Used in the morning, this petition would ask bread for the day just beginning.

Used in the evening, it would pray for tomorrow’s bread.’6

Thus we are to live a day at a time.

Hezekiah, a son of the wicked King Ahaz, reigned over the southern kingdom of Judah for twenty-nine years, from c. 726 to 697 BC.

He began his reign at age 25 (2 Kings 18:2).

He was more zealous for the Lord than any of his predecessors (2 Kings 18:5).

During his reign, the prophets Isaiah and Micah ministered in Judah.

During his reign, the prophets Isaiah and Micah ministered in Judah.

After Ahaz’s wicked reign, there was much work to do, and Hezekiah boldly cleaned house.

Pagan altars, idols, and temples were destroyed.

The bronze serpent that Moses had made in the desert (Numbers 21:9) was also destroyed, because the people had made it an idol (2 Kings 18:4).

The temple in Jerusalem, whose doors had been nailed shut by Hezekiah’s own father, was cleaned out and reopened.

The Levitical priesthood was reinstated (2 Chronicles 29:5), and the Passover was reinstituted as a national holiday (2 Chronicles 30:1).

Under Hezekiah’s reforms, revival came to Judah.

Hezekiah boldly cleaned house.

Pagan altars, idols, and temples were destroyed.

Cross Refs

The bronze serpent that Moses had made in the desert () was also destroyed, because the people had made it an idol ().

The temple in Jerusalem, whose doors had been nailed shut by Hezekiah’s own father, was cleaned out and reopened.

The Levitical priesthood was reinstated (), and the Passover was reinstituted as a national holiday ().

Under Hezekiah’s reforms, revival came to Judah.

| Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me,

In 701 BC, Hezekiah and all of Judah faced a crisis.

The Assyrians, the dominant world power at the time, invaded Judah and marched against Jerusalem.

God, faithful as always, kept His promise to protect Jerusalem.

| he will dwell on the heights; his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks; his bread will be given him; his water will be sure.

Faced with the Assyrian threat, Hezekiah sent word to the prophet Isaiah (2 Kings 19:2).

The Lord, through Isaiah, reassured the king that Assyria would never enter Jerusalem.

Rather, the invaders would be sent home, and the city of Jerusalem would be spared (2 Kings 19:32–34).

In the temple, Hezekiah prays a beautiful prayer for help, asking God to vindicate Himself: “Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, Lord, are God” (2 Kings 19:19).

God, faithful as always, kept His promise to protect Jerusalem.

“That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp.

When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies!” (2 Kings 19:35).

The remaining Assyrians quickly broke camp and withdrew in abject defeat.

“So the Lord saved Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem. . . .

He took care of them on every side” (2 Chronicles 32:22).

The remaining Assyrians quickly broke camp and withdrew in abject defeat.

“So the Lord saved Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem. . . .

He took care of them on every side” (2 Chronicles 32:22).

| Give us each day our daily bread,

Later, Hezekiah became very sick.

Isaiah told him to set things in order and prepare to die (2 Kings 20:1).

But Hezekiah prayed, beseeching God to be merciful and to remember all the good he had done.

Before Isaiah had even left the king’s house, God told Isaiah to tell Hezekiah that his prayer had been heard and that his life would be extended fifteen years.