MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE
Matthew 4:4 (AMP)
It has been written, Man shall not live and be upheld and sustained by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.
Man shall not live (and be upheld and sustained) by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God
This VERSE is NOT talking about the verse of the day popping up on your phone, the verse someone posts on Facebook or Instagram, the one you hear on the radio on your way to work, that is NOT enough to sustain the LIFE of your spirit.
There are two words used for God’s word, one is logos, which refers to the written word of God, but the word used here is RHEMA. The best way to describe what this word means is that you are reading the logos, the written word of God and then as you are reading it, it starts speaking to you!!
It’s no longer words on a page but its speaking back to you about your life, talking to you about the decision you have to make, about the relationship issues you face, telling you that you are loved, you have purpose, that with God that impossible thing you face is no longer impossible!
Gen 37:1
So Jacob settled again in the land of Canaan, where his father had lived as a foreigner.
The Rhema word is the word that leaps off the page to you, that makes it relevant and personal for YOU, it gets into your heart and feeds you, it’s the word that gives you life and hope, that speaks into your situation and creates FAITH in you.
Don’t just read words, don’t just go through the motions, let the words speak back to you
- Set time aside
- Don’t get distracted
- Ask Holy Spirit to speak to you
- When a verse stands out read it over and over again, there’s something in it for you,
- Study meaning of words
- Study context
- If it reminds you of another verse, look that up too
This verse Man shall not live and be upheld and sustained by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.
Is saying that if you REALLY want to live life to the full, if you really want to experience ALL there is to experience in life, if you really want to ENJOY life to its full without feeling overwhelmed and under resourced, then you need to focus on more than the physical to survive.
In other words if your life is consumed by your physical needs then you can’t truly experience ALL that life has to offer you
Jesus is quoting God’s words through Moses to the Children of Israel who have just completed 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, doing the same thing over and over again, getting up each morning crying out and complaining about their physical needs, longing to go back to Egypt, wishing for garlics and leeks and slavery!
Deuteronomy 8:3 (AMP)
3And He humbled you and allowed you to hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you recognize and personally know that man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.
They have been living, but not the life that God wanted them to live, they were in slavery, they had depended on their own labour to provide for themselves. It was a harsh existence compared to what God had planned and desired for them. But to get them to understand there was more to life than just their physical needs he had to bring them to a place where they had no ability to provide for themselves, to humble them.
Did you ever stop to realize that God allows lack in our lives to humble us and see if we trust him enough to WAIT for Him to supply our need or whether we are going to complain and take action ourselves?
They had just been surviving in one dimension, thinking about surviving their today. Survival isn’t bad, it’s just not where you are meant to live! You are body soul and spirit. Jesus is saying you can’t TRULY LIVE, just feeding your body, your body will live but your spirit will die.
He explained it further in
John 6:48-58
8 Yes, I am the bread of life! 49 Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness,(that he provided) but they all died.(because it was only a shadow or picture of what God had really planned) 50 Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh.”
52 Then the people began arguing with each other about what he meant. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they asked.
53 So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. 54 But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57 I live because of the living Father who sent me; in the same way, anyone who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 I am the true bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will not die as your ancestors did (even though they ate the manna) but will live forever.”
Today we would think it's bizarre if someone spoke to us about eating their flesh and drinking their blood. If you read on it wasn’t much different then either, people were confused at the language Jesus was using, in fact many couldn’t grasp what He was saying and stopped following Him!
Jesus is saying this to His disciples straight after the feeding of the 5000.
But now He is explaining that He is more than just a social welfare feeding program he is the source of life, not just a ‘get by’ kind of life but a life that has overflow, a life that is supernatural and eternal and multiplies so that you are able to give away more than you initially had.
A life that stretches beyond the physical and into the eternal.
This isn’t a physical statement it’s a spiritual statement that reflects His longing for a deep, connected relationship with you and I that is as comfortable as a marriage of 50 years, where through good times and bad the couple have chosen to REMAIN.
SO WHAT DOES IT PRACTICALLY MEAN TO EAT HIS FLESH AND DRINK HIS BLOOD?
Light from the Old Testament
Interestingly enough, there is an occasion in David’s life where he also uses the image of drinking blood. When he was on the run from Saul he gathered a group of mighty men around him. At one point he was fighting the Philistines who had taken the town of Bethlehem and he remarked how much he would love a drink from the well of Bethlehem. Three of his mighty men heard this and took him seriously. They fought their way through the Philistine line, got water from Bethlehem and brought it back to David.
1 Chronicles 11:19 David says, "Far be it from me, O my God, that I should do this! Shall I drink the blood of these men who have put their lives in jeopardy? For at the risk of their lives they brought it."
He says that to drink this water would be like drinking the blood of these men, not literally their blood, but it would be like profiting from their near death, since they risked their lives for him. You could say, enjoying the benefits which came at the expense of their lives.
There are many places where we read of someone having a man's blood on their head. It means they are guilty of the death of that man. When the Bible refers to blood being poured out or being spilt, or blood anytime outside of the body, it is usually a graphic metaphor for violent death.
Psalm 27:2 "When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell.
David doesn’t literally mean that there are cannibals after him! He is talking here about the wicked that want to profit from his death. They want to kill David because they want to obtain some kind of personal benefit from his death.
This really sums up what Jesus is talking about when He refers to eating His flesh and drinking His blood, He is talking about enjoying the benefits which come from His death.
Not just once at Salvation but DAILY! He wants us to make the most of the power of the cross and His death.
- The healing
- The forgiveness
- The relationship
- The authority
- The freedom
Only Jesus can extend the life we lead and make it full
I have come that you might have life and life to the FULL
MAN ………in all his frailty and weakness, man who was not created to do life alone, man who is at the mercy of human emotions and discouragement, man who at his strongest is still weak, and man who was created to worship God, cant
LIVE…….I mean truly live up to His potential and live life to the fullest, live without regret without exhaustion, without anxiety, without feeling unresourced, by bread or physical food alone BUT by every WORD that comes from the mouth of God.
How strong is your spirit, how well are you feeding it? What are you feeding it?
How strong is your FAITH, are you feeding it, FAITH comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God
Romans 10:17
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (again the word is Rhema)
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