Our Daily Bread

Our examination of the fourth petition in the Lord’s prayer brings us back to the beginning. When Adam and Eve were in the garden of Eden, the Lord God provided everything for them. The garden contained everything they needed to live. God supplied all their needs. They lacked for nothing.

Then, after falling into temptation, God graciously provided clothes for them. He slaughtered an animal in order to cover their nakedness. This points to Jesus Christ, as one who has fully paid for all our sins, covering over our nakedness—that is, covering over our utter inability to be righteous and holy, and clothing us with His righteousness, power and strength, the full armour of God, so that we can withstand sin and temptation.

This is what God has done. This is God’s provision. God has, God is, God will continue to supply all our needs. We respond by trusting God. We know that God is the only source of everything good. How we respond to God’s provision reveals our heart, our trust in God.

1. Offerings

In Genesis 4, we have the history of two of Adam and Eve’s sons. In response to God’s provision, Cain and Abel made offerings to the Lord. The gifts they offered, reveal to us how they viewed, how they loved, how they appreciated the Lord. In Genesis 4:3 it says, “And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord.” Then, in Gen 4:4 “Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering,” It is not so obvious at first glance, but there is a heart difference in these offerings, which plays out in the rest of the chapter. Cain offered a lesser sacrifice than Abel, because his heart was less appreciative to God for His blessings. He thought his effort produced abundant results.

In contrast, Abel offered his very best portion. Indicating that he appreciated God for His blessings. He did not think his efforts produced the abundant results. Both worked hard. Both put in effort. But God blessed them, based on their attitudes in their heart. Abel’s heart gave God the very best, but Cain offered second best, or whatever was left over after he’d done with what he’d wanted. His heart wasn’t in his offering, his heart wasn’t directed to God. He didn’t appreciate that God is the source of everything good, and therefore he didn’t honour God with his offerings.

Far from being a means of getting into favour with God, our offerings are always a response to what God has already given us. The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. We have nothing except that which God has given us. How we respond to God’s good gifts tells us exactly what we need to know about our hearts. Do we hold onto what we have? Do we hoard it? Do we seek to get more and more, and are never ever satisfied? From these verses in Genesis, there appears to be only two responses to God’s gifts. Either we respond in love by giving our very best to Him, or we respond with hatred by giving the very best to ourselves. Yes, it is putting it bluntly, but it follows in that there are only two positions in regard to faith. Either you believe in the one true God, or you do not. There are not many ways to God, there is only one way, Jesus Christ. God our Father loves us and he provides for us exactly what we need so that we will continually recognise Him for what He’s given. This is the lesson Israel learned in the wilderness with both the Manna and the Promised Land

2. Manna & The Promised Land

Even while Israel was subjected to slavery in Egypt, they were not totally dependent upon God. The Nile River continually refreshed the land by being a continual water source. Irrigation, flood mitigation, fishing, you name it, the Egyptians implemented it. Thus they were able to sustain themselves even during the harshest times—the seven year famine in the time of Joseph being an exception. The Israelites continually referred to how well they’d had it in Egypt, with its many melons and locally sourced vegetables. They lamented leaving Egypt, in exchange for a full stomach. Somehow they forgot about the slavery, the making bricks but having to provide their own straw, the killing of the male children, the beatings and other sufferings. They did not beware the cravings of the stomach!

So God brought them out Egypt, to bring them to the land of Israel. Israel flowed with milk and honey, and it provided in abundance, but only according to God’s will and provision. Unlike Egypt, it didn’t have such a great river. No, Israel was and still is, dependent upon good and timely rainfall. The Lord blessed the land with lean and full years, as Israel was or wasn’t faithful. But how did God teach them that they could depend upon Him?

God brought Israel into the wilderness, a desert, where nothing grew nor could be grown. There He proved His ability to provide. There He proved His faithfulness. For the 40 years they wandered, God provided Manna and water, and their clothes never wore out.

Manna was not the most delicious or satisfying food. Though it was perfect for nourishing the body, its flavour was nothing to write home about. Brothers and sisters, there is nothing in this world that can compare to God the creator. Everything pales in comparison to Him. Let us be very careful to appreciate God for who He is, and not for what He does for us. Let us not stop at merely asking for our daily bread—rather, let us ask Him for Him. For that’s the true bread we receive, as we learn in Jesus’ temptation.

3. Temptation

The first temptation Satan throws at Jesus is when He was very hungry after fasting for forty days. Satan came to him and said, “If You are the Son of God, command these stones become bread” (Matt. 4.3). Jesus answered and said, “It is written, ‘man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’” (Matt. 4:4).

We may well wonder how Jesus was able to resist the devil. We may wonder how he was able to sustain his incredible hunger and not give in. I’ll be honest with you, I find food very comforting. For a long time I turned to food to cope with things that were happening in my life. I chose food over God.

God has been patient with me, and He is patient with all of us. He has been revealing to me, and He is revealing to all of us, particularly with Covid, where our true hope lies. God is at work in you, in me. And this work is taking our eyes off ourselves, our eyes off the world, our eyes off anything other than God, and He is lifting our eyes up, so that we can truly see Him.

Just as Satan tried to keep Jesus’ eyes off His Father, so Satan tries to keep our eyes off of God. Satan will continually try to convince us to worry and fret. “Don’t go to church, you could catch cold from someone and die. Don’t give your first fruits, what if an unexpected bill comes, how will you pay it? Don’t take time off work, how will you pay for everything? Do spend your money on yourself, you deserve it. You should reward yourself with that little thing. Find comfort in this that or the other thing—trust me, it will bring you real joy and satisfaction.”

Satan’s attempts are all the same, the same since the beginning, they are attempts to take our eyes off of God. They are attempts for us to find meaning, joy, delight, hope, happiness, success, in ourselves, apart from God. But true joy, true hope, true rest, true freedom from worry comes from trusting in the Father, as Jesus did. Consider how fearlessly Jesus was throughout His ministry. Though many times people tried to force Him to be king, or to kill Him or hurt him, though storms came up in the night, He never feared. He trusted His Father, and His Father’s provision of His daily bread.

Jesus’ response to Satan is a quote from Deuteronomy 8:3 “So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.” What is the word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord? It is His decree, yes, but it is His Son, Jesus, whom John identifies as the Word: Jn 1 1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Our greatest treasure, our Daily Bread is Jesus. Knowing this, we respond with faithful living.

4. Faithful Living

Faithful living is not some mysterious thing. It is going about our daily lives in all normalcy. Okay, I realise that normalcy isn’t the most biblical word, and my mom always said that normal is a setting on the dryer, not something to describe people.

Faithful living simply means trusting God is who He proves He is. Our passage, which I’ve been pointing at all afternoon, lays it out very simply. Don’t lay up treasures on earth; lay them up in heaven. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. If your eye is on the world, you will be in darkness; if it is on God, you will be in the light, and be able to see things clearly. You can’t serve God and money, either you will hate one and love the other. The way of the world is to love money, not God. The way of Christ is to love God, not money. Cain loved his abundance, his grain, his wealth more than he loved God. Abel loved God more than he loved his wealth from his flocks and herds.

All the worries of this life, all the cares and anxieties—with the exception of clinical anxiety that is rooted in deeper things, or that is due to chemical imbalance—comes from loving money, loving earthly treasures, loving one’s life more than loving God.

The Lord cares for His creatures—the birds of the air. Since you are made in His image and likeness, how much more will he care for you? Exercise faith by trusting God to provide you with work, with the clothing, the shelter and the food you need. Do not get caught up with the worries of the world which will always choke out your faith. Resist such temptation. Trust instead that your Father in heaven knows you need them. Trust Him to provide for you. Trust Him with your life.

Faithful living means trusting God. We demonstrate our trust in God by seeking Him and His kingdom first. A very practical way to do that is to order your life around God first. Pray when you get up in the morning and when you go to bed at night. Pray before meals. Pray with your family. Pray with your friends. Begin your week with God, by going to church. Double your commitment by going twice. Tell your friends and family that going twice is a demonstration of faith—it is an act of trust that God will provide you with the time you need with family, friends, relaxation, etc. I myself have used all the excuses in the book to justify going to church only once on Sunday. I believe, and I know I’m speaking to the choir here, but I believe that going twice on Sunday is of a far bigger benefit that any of us really realises. Let’s encourage one another, and others to attend to it. Not for our benefit—but for God’s glory. Amen.