Scripture: Matthew 4:1-11 (NRSV)
DEVOTIONAL:
I have recently started to take the time to bake my own bread, and there are few things I like more than the feel of the bread dough as I knead it, or the smell of the hot fresh bread as it comes out of the oven. I love eating bread, and that’s even when I’ve had plenty to eat for the last 40 days. Bread is a wonderful thing. Is it so awful to want to eat bread?
We’ve been studying the Old Testament in Sunday School and looking at the themes of God’s protection and provision. In the escape from Egypt and the journey through the desert, God protected and provided for the Israelites time and time again. All they had to do was be still and trust. When the Israelites had nothing to eat God provided manna for them, but if they tried to save some for the next day, taking matters into their own hands, it became spoiled.
When the devil tempts Jesus, the devil is asking Jesus to twist this relationship of God’s provision, by telling Jesus to turn stone into bread, and God’s protection, by telling Jesus to throw himself off of the pinnacle of the temple. Jesus is being tempted to take control of God’s protection and provision rather than to be still and trust in God.
So no, bread is not an awful thing to want. We just need to remember to be still, and accept things on God’s terms rather than our own.
Scripture: Matthew 4:1-11 (NRSV)
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. 3The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” 5Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” 7Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; 9and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” 11Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.