Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread
Message #3 in the series: The Lord's Prayer
Matthew 6:5-13 (look it up here)
What are you asking God for? What is on your prayer list? What feeds you physically? What feeds your soul?
As we started the Lord’s Prayer, we were reminded that it is to God, our loving Father, to whom we pray. Our first responsibility is to lift up His name, not only as we pray, but in our obedience to Him. We appropriately “hallow” His name by behaving like Him.
When we ask for His Kingdom to come, we voluntarily set ourselves under His rule – in every aspect of our lives.
Finally, after we have properly situated ourselves in this context, we are ready to ask for something for ourselves. Remember that this is the context in which we begin to make requests for our needs.
We ask for God to give us this day our daily bread. In the biblical context, bread is the staple food. It stands as a synonym for food itself as the symbol for everything needed to sustain physical life. Simply put, we ask God for what we need for life.
In Matthew 4, Jesus went into the desert to be tempted by Satan. After Jesus had fasted 40 days and nights, he was hungry (the most understated verse in the whole Bible). The very first thing Satan did then was to tempt Jesus “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
Clever.
Satan already knew that Jesus could do that. He had already witnessed God feeding all of Israel with manna, and he knew that it was said that the Messiah would come, feeding Israel again. So he’s not only saying, “take care of your needs” but he’s also saying, “tip your hand; let everyone know that you’re the messiah.” And in this, he’s also saying, “Show them what kind of messiah you are.”
In this temptation, the devil tried to do two things. He wanted Jesus to elevate bread to the first priority and to make the provision of bread the defining characteristic of Jesus’ Messiahship.
Jesus understood that something else was of higher priority than food. He responds to Satan by quoting from Deuteronomy 8:3, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
Truly there is more to life than food. This is why we don’t request our daily bread first, but instead, we make this request after we’ve properly set God’s holy name apart and after we have situated ourselves as doers of God’s will, as ambassadors of His Kingdom.
Then we ask him to fulfill our physical needs.
That this is Jesus’ response is extremely important in our world. We are constantly faced with people who have physical needs, and last week we witnessed that when Jesus preached about the Kingdom, He was always meeting physical needs: healing the sick, cleansing lepers, driving out demons, and raising the dead. But those physical needs weren’t what drove the Kingdom. Meeting people’s physical needs is part of being Christian, part of behaving like Jesus Christ. We absolutely must do these things. But if it does not fall into the context of God’s sovereign rule, if it does not help people draw closer to God, then it is worthless.
That kind of bread, the kind that merely meets physical needs without touching the spiritual, while it might have tasted good, would have been poison in Jesus stomach. And that was exactly what Satan tried to make happen. He wanted Jesus to be singly defined by his ability to provide for people’s physical needs. Satan would love it if we were all healthy, wealthy, and happy, if it meant that this was all we strove for. But Jesus didn’t just come to feed and heal our physical bodies! He came to reconcile us to the Father! Everything He did was all about preparing us for reconciliation, and then through His sacrifice on the cross, He did what it would take to finish the job.
After he had fed 5000 people using only five small barley loaves and two small fish, obviously the meal of the poor, Jesus told the crowd Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. (John 6:27)
The crowd asked Jesus What miraculous sign will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ John 6:30-31.
Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (John 6:33)
“Sir,” they said, “from now on give us this bread.” (John 6:34)
Manna wasn’t strictly bread, but it was called “bread from heaven” because it was viewed as a gift from God where there was no natural food. Remember, bread doesn’t just mean bread.
But this is a good time to compare the manna God gave to Israel to the daily bread that Jesus instructs us to pray for. The instruction for manna went like this: Then the Lord said to Moses,“I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.” (Exodus 16:4).
Requesting our daily bread fits precisely with this pattern: we have to humbly accept that God is the provider every day. In Matthew 6:33, Jesus tells the crowds: Seek first [God’s] kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Jesus goes on to say, Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matt 6:34).
Like we studied last week, if our focus is fully on God’s sovereign rule, then God will provide for us. Are you walking in full obedience to God? Are you following God’s instructions? Do you trust Him? Are you obedient to God in every relationship you’re in? That includes family, by the way. Are you being obedient with your money? Do you have an obedient mouth? Do your words heal, or do they hurt? Do you encourage, or do you spread gossip? Do you have obedient thoughts? Do you take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ?
So, in this context, it’s no wonder why we want. It’s no wonder we need. We constantly seek after our own wants and needs first and leave God until later. Do you know what happened to the manna when the Israelites gathered more than they needed and tried to hoard it? In Exodus 16:19-20, Moses instructed the people not to keep it overnight; God would provide more in the morning. But some people didn’t pay any attention to Moses and kept it overnight. In the morning, it was full of maggots and had begun to smell.
Likewise, many of us have pursued and held on to other things, and over time, they’re filled with maggots, but we’ve ignored the smell for so long that now we’re used to it. We’re used to having more than we need while our neighbors suffer. We’re used to our three, four, or five daily meals; we have full stomachs, while every day, over 26,000 children under age 5 die from preventable diseases, over ½ of which are associated with malnutrition.
Our wealth is full of maggots, and it smells bad.
Jesus tells us to request our daily bread; but as we request that, reflect on the fact that He might have given us the means to provide someone else with daily bread.
We need reminded that everything we have is a gift. If nothing else, our current economic situation should stand as a reminder that even daily gifts, even those to which we have become accustomed, are still gifts. Our very lives are gifts. Our bodies are gifts from God. This day is a gift from God. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it! (Psalm 118:24)
But these aren’t the greatest gift God has for us. Indeed, when we ask for our daily bread, for everything we need for life, we are asking for much, much more than simple bread.
And when we ask for it, God gives it. Jesus asks a question in Matthew 7:9 Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? His question presupposes that no father would do such a thing. It’s a ridiculous question. Of course no father would do that. Including, and especially our heavenly Father. If we ask, He gives. But what is it that He gives?
Let’s go back to John 6. We left the crowds asking Jesus to give them the bread from heaven. In verse 35, Jesus declared, "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.”
In v. 48-51 He continues: I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
Remember that in Hebrew thought, when we see something repeated, it’s really important. And when we see it repeated three times, it’s super-important. Jesus says three times, “I am the bread of life.” There is none other than him. Also, he uses the same phrase “I Am” as when God revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush. So not only is Jesus making a claim to be bread of life, but he is also saying (three times), “I am God.”
Not only does God give us provision for our daily life, but He also gives us THE provision for eternal life. When we seek God with our whole hearts, when we obey Him and proclaim Him ruler of our lives, He gives us the perfect gift: Himself.
So we ask God to give us this day our daily bread, and He will give us what satisfies our souls.
Matthew 6:5-13 (look it up here)
What are you asking God for? What is on your prayer list? What feeds you physically? What feeds your soul?
As we started the Lord’s Prayer, we were reminded that it is to God, our loving Father, to whom we pray. Our first responsibility is to lift up His name, not only as we pray, but in our obedience to Him. We appropriately “hallow” His name by behaving like Him.
When we ask for His Kingdom to come, we voluntarily set ourselves under His rule – in every aspect of our lives.
Finally, after we have properly situated ourselves in this context, we are ready to ask for something for ourselves. Remember that this is the context in which we begin to make requests for our needs.
We ask for God to give us this day our daily bread. In the biblical context, bread is the staple food. It stands as a synonym for food itself as the symbol for everything needed to sustain physical life. Simply put, we ask God for what we need for life.
In Matthew 4, Jesus went into the desert to be tempted by Satan. After Jesus had fasted 40 days and nights, he was hungry (the most understated verse in the whole Bible). The very first thing Satan did then was to tempt Jesus “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
Clever.
Satan already knew that Jesus could do that. He had already witnessed God feeding all of Israel with manna, and he knew that it was said that the Messiah would come, feeding Israel again. So he’s not only saying, “take care of your needs” but he’s also saying, “tip your hand; let everyone know that you’re the messiah.” And in this, he’s also saying, “Show them what kind of messiah you are.”
In this temptation, the devil tried to do two things. He wanted Jesus to elevate bread to the first priority and to make the provision of bread the defining characteristic of Jesus’ Messiahship.
Jesus understood that something else was of higher priority than food. He responds to Satan by quoting from Deuteronomy 8:3, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
Truly there is more to life than food. This is why we don’t request our daily bread first, but instead, we make this request after we’ve properly set God’s holy name apart and after we have situated ourselves as doers of God’s will, as ambassadors of His Kingdom.
Then we ask him to fulfill our physical needs.
That this is Jesus’ response is extremely important in our world. We are constantly faced with people who have physical needs, and last week we witnessed that when Jesus preached about the Kingdom, He was always meeting physical needs: healing the sick, cleansing lepers, driving out demons, and raising the dead. But those physical needs weren’t what drove the Kingdom. Meeting people’s physical needs is part of being Christian, part of behaving like Jesus Christ. We absolutely must do these things. But if it does not fall into the context of God’s sovereign rule, if it does not help people draw closer to God, then it is worthless.
That kind of bread, the kind that merely meets physical needs without touching the spiritual, while it might have tasted good, would have been poison in Jesus stomach. And that was exactly what Satan tried to make happen. He wanted Jesus to be singly defined by his ability to provide for people’s physical needs. Satan would love it if we were all healthy, wealthy, and happy, if it meant that this was all we strove for. But Jesus didn’t just come to feed and heal our physical bodies! He came to reconcile us to the Father! Everything He did was all about preparing us for reconciliation, and then through His sacrifice on the cross, He did what it would take to finish the job.
After he had fed 5000 people using only five small barley loaves and two small fish, obviously the meal of the poor, Jesus told the crowd Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. (John 6:27)
The crowd asked Jesus What miraculous sign will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ John 6:30-31.
Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (John 6:33)
“Sir,” they said, “from now on give us this bread.” (John 6:34)
Manna wasn’t strictly bread, but it was called “bread from heaven” because it was viewed as a gift from God where there was no natural food. Remember, bread doesn’t just mean bread.
But this is a good time to compare the manna God gave to Israel to the daily bread that Jesus instructs us to pray for. The instruction for manna went like this: Then the Lord said to Moses,“I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.” (Exodus 16:4).
Requesting our daily bread fits precisely with this pattern: we have to humbly accept that God is the provider every day. In Matthew 6:33, Jesus tells the crowds: Seek first [God’s] kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Jesus goes on to say, Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matt 6:34).
Like we studied last week, if our focus is fully on God’s sovereign rule, then God will provide for us. Are you walking in full obedience to God? Are you following God’s instructions? Do you trust Him? Are you obedient to God in every relationship you’re in? That includes family, by the way. Are you being obedient with your money? Do you have an obedient mouth? Do your words heal, or do they hurt? Do you encourage, or do you spread gossip? Do you have obedient thoughts? Do you take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ?
So, in this context, it’s no wonder why we want. It’s no wonder we need. We constantly seek after our own wants and needs first and leave God until later. Do you know what happened to the manna when the Israelites gathered more than they needed and tried to hoard it? In Exodus 16:19-20, Moses instructed the people not to keep it overnight; God would provide more in the morning. But some people didn’t pay any attention to Moses and kept it overnight. In the morning, it was full of maggots and had begun to smell.
Likewise, many of us have pursued and held on to other things, and over time, they’re filled with maggots, but we’ve ignored the smell for so long that now we’re used to it. We’re used to having more than we need while our neighbors suffer. We’re used to our three, four, or five daily meals; we have full stomachs, while every day, over 26,000 children under age 5 die from preventable diseases, over ½ of which are associated with malnutrition.
Our wealth is full of maggots, and it smells bad.
Jesus tells us to request our daily bread; but as we request that, reflect on the fact that He might have given us the means to provide someone else with daily bread.
We need reminded that everything we have is a gift. If nothing else, our current economic situation should stand as a reminder that even daily gifts, even those to which we have become accustomed, are still gifts. Our very lives are gifts. Our bodies are gifts from God. This day is a gift from God. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it! (Psalm 118:24)
But these aren’t the greatest gift God has for us. Indeed, when we ask for our daily bread, for everything we need for life, we are asking for much, much more than simple bread.
And when we ask for it, God gives it. Jesus asks a question in Matthew 7:9 Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? His question presupposes that no father would do such a thing. It’s a ridiculous question. Of course no father would do that. Including, and especially our heavenly Father. If we ask, He gives. But what is it that He gives?
Let’s go back to John 6. We left the crowds asking Jesus to give them the bread from heaven. In verse 35, Jesus declared, "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.”
In v. 48-51 He continues: I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
Remember that in Hebrew thought, when we see something repeated, it’s really important. And when we see it repeated three times, it’s super-important. Jesus says three times, “I am the bread of life.” There is none other than him. Also, he uses the same phrase “I Am” as when God revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush. So not only is Jesus making a claim to be bread of life, but he is also saying (three times), “I am God.”
Not only does God give us provision for our daily life, but He also gives us THE provision for eternal life. When we seek God with our whole hearts, when we obey Him and proclaim Him ruler of our lives, He gives us the perfect gift: Himself.
So we ask God to give us this day our daily bread, and He will give us what satisfies our souls.
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