“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’ ” (Luke 4:3-4). The devil tried to undermine Jesus’ confidence in God at the very beginning of His public ministry. Jesus had fasted forty days and was hungry. The question Satan presented to Jesus in this challenge is a basic one he still tries to raise with each of us. Can you trust God to meet your needs? Whenever there is a quote from the Old Testament in the New Testament it is helpful to look at the Old Testament setting from which the quote is taken. In every temptation in the wilderness immediately after His baptism, Jesus answered Satan with a quote from Deuteronomy. The reference Jesus used for this response to Satan is interesting. It describes the forty years Israel spent in the wilderness when the only way the people could survive was through God providing their food miraculously. “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” (Deuteronomy 8:3). God proved Himself to Israel. When they could not provide their own food He gave them manna to teach them to trust Him. He is our God, too, and we can trust Him just as Israel did. If the enemy undermines our confidence in Gods ability to provide our needs he can frustrate and weaken our faith. Jesus established, at the very beginning of His ministry, that He could place His confidence in the provision of a God who fed two and a half million people traveling through a barren wilderness for forty years. We can trust Him, too. As Jesus said, “Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!” (Luke 12:24).
Posted on: Wed, 16 Apr 2014 09:46:12 +0000
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