Bread
This week's goodness is on Luke 4:1-4:
These are only a few verses but there are a lot of lessons packed in them. Jesus was led by the Spirit to fast for forty days. It wasn't the usual Christian thing where you spend a couple days drinking milkshakes and then return to a normal diet with a renewed appreciation for bacon. This was a grueling ordeal that lasted over a month. At the end of those days, Jesus would have been weak and hungry. It was the devil's best shot at getting control of him, but it didn't work.
The devil's opening volley was his old trick of sowing doubt. "Did God really say?" "Are you really the Son of God?" "Do you really have authority or power?" He wanted to fill Jesus with doubt and make him need to prove that he had God's authority and was the Son of God. If Jesus was unaware of who he was and what God had given him, he'd be missing the truth, and so he'd be receptive to whatever lies he was told. In this case, the lie was that he was nobody and had no power.
Then, thinking he'd gotten Jesus in a vulnerable state, the devil issued a command to Jesus. "Obey me." "Eat of this fruit." "Use your powers to selfishly meet your own needs." "Prove to me that you are full of the Holy Spirit and are the Son of God." He wanted to be in control. He wanted Jesus' authority to be subject to him so that he could subvert God's plan. It wasn't going to happen.
Jesus answers from scripture: "Man shall not live on bread alone." But he's talking about more than a loaf of bread. Our needs are more complicated than just our physical needs. We have spiritual needs as well, and only God can provide for both physical and spiritual needs. The verses Jesus quotes are talking about how God provided manna for the Israelites' hunger, but that man doesn't live on just food, but on every word that comes from God's mouth. We have spiritual hunger as well, and if we only take care of the physical hunger, we're still empty.
But there's more to what Jesus was saying. He was telling the devil "I don't need you." "You have nothing to offer me." "You and your words are irrelevant." The devil couldn't provide for his physical hunger or his spiritual hunger. All the devil had to offer him was a trap, in which Jesus uses his own resources to meet his own needs and gives the devil glory by obeying him. Nobody needs that. It's a counterfeit of God's true provision.
But counter that with Adam and Eve in the garden when they first encountered the devil. Eve's actions show that she thought the devil was a useful advisor, and that his command to eat the forbidden fruit was good. Mankind has suffered a curse to this day because Adam and Eve both accepted the devil's doubt and selfishly obeyed the devil to provide for needs that were already provided for by God anyway. Jesus didn't fall for it. He saw the devil for what he was: useless. Less valuable than a loaf of bread. That should be our attitude towards his temptations. If we need it, God will provide it. The devil is nothing more than a useless would-be middle man. His overhead is damnation.
God will provide for our needs, and there are some needs only he can provide for. We can't save ourselves. We don't always know the best paths for our lives. We don't know what tomorrow will hold. God can help with all of that. We shouldn't accept the counterfeit. We don't need it.
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”
These are only a few verses but there are a lot of lessons packed in them. Jesus was led by the Spirit to fast for forty days. It wasn't the usual Christian thing where you spend a couple days drinking milkshakes and then return to a normal diet with a renewed appreciation for bacon. This was a grueling ordeal that lasted over a month. At the end of those days, Jesus would have been weak and hungry. It was the devil's best shot at getting control of him, but it didn't work.
The devil's opening volley was his old trick of sowing doubt. "Did God really say?" "Are you really the Son of God?" "Do you really have authority or power?" He wanted to fill Jesus with doubt and make him need to prove that he had God's authority and was the Son of God. If Jesus was unaware of who he was and what God had given him, he'd be missing the truth, and so he'd be receptive to whatever lies he was told. In this case, the lie was that he was nobody and had no power.
Then, thinking he'd gotten Jesus in a vulnerable state, the devil issued a command to Jesus. "Obey me." "Eat of this fruit." "Use your powers to selfishly meet your own needs." "Prove to me that you are full of the Holy Spirit and are the Son of God." He wanted to be in control. He wanted Jesus' authority to be subject to him so that he could subvert God's plan. It wasn't going to happen.
Jesus answers from scripture: "Man shall not live on bread alone." But he's talking about more than a loaf of bread. Our needs are more complicated than just our physical needs. We have spiritual needs as well, and only God can provide for both physical and spiritual needs. The verses Jesus quotes are talking about how God provided manna for the Israelites' hunger, but that man doesn't live on just food, but on every word that comes from God's mouth. We have spiritual hunger as well, and if we only take care of the physical hunger, we're still empty.
But there's more to what Jesus was saying. He was telling the devil "I don't need you." "You have nothing to offer me." "You and your words are irrelevant." The devil couldn't provide for his physical hunger or his spiritual hunger. All the devil had to offer him was a trap, in which Jesus uses his own resources to meet his own needs and gives the devil glory by obeying him. Nobody needs that. It's a counterfeit of God's true provision.
But counter that with Adam and Eve in the garden when they first encountered the devil. Eve's actions show that she thought the devil was a useful advisor, and that his command to eat the forbidden fruit was good. Mankind has suffered a curse to this day because Adam and Eve both accepted the devil's doubt and selfishly obeyed the devil to provide for needs that were already provided for by God anyway. Jesus didn't fall for it. He saw the devil for what he was: useless. Less valuable than a loaf of bread. That should be our attitude towards his temptations. If we need it, God will provide it. The devil is nothing more than a useless would-be middle man. His overhead is damnation.
God will provide for our needs, and there are some needs only he can provide for. We can't save ourselves. We don't always know the best paths for our lives. We don't know what tomorrow will hold. God can help with all of that. We shouldn't accept the counterfeit. We don't need it.
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