Life Bread

Luke 4:3-4 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’”
 
BREAD – or food in general – is necessary for life, isn’t it? But we know there is more than physical life. Spiritual life is the essence of our relationship with God because it is about our forever life.
   Jesus used Scripture to turn Satan away. Unlike Adam and Eve, Jesus trusted God’s Word completely, even when he was starving. Speaking God’s Word will strengthen you in your deepest troubles. That is what Jesus did. The Teacher quoted Moses’ teaching of the LORD’s physical provision for the Jews in their 40 years of desert wanderings. Deuteronomy 8:3-4 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word, that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” Yes, God spoke, and bread came from God to feed his people every day (but the Sabbath) for 40 years. Moses affirmed the LORD was supernaturally caring for the Jews’ physical life to demonstrate he was also at work to enrich their spiritual life. Submitting to Satan causes death. Submitting to the LORD is life eternal.
   John 6 emphasizes both physical and spiritual bread. First is the feeding of the 5000. Then is Jesus’ teaching he is eternal bread. John 6:35 “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”  Jesus’ words became even stronger when he announced in John 6:50-51 Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. 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.”  Once again we read how God had come to demonstrate he could give life with the spoken Word. By grace, we can consume his word – his teaching and preaching – to receive eternal spiritual bread.
   Are you in need of God’s provision? Perhaps you need food on your table. Maybe you are hungry to know God is with you. Possibly your soul feels empty because you try to feed it with the world’s junk food. Follow Jesus away from temptation. Consume Jesus’ words, the Bread of Life, into eternal life. Become filled with all the life power he has to feed you.