DOING HIS WORD
“Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3).
This text from Deuteronomy is so powerful that Jesus Himself used it against the devil during His great temptation in the wilderness. “And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:2-4).
Like the children of Israel in the wilderness, Jesus was also hungry. What greater humiliation could there be than to be the Son of God and be brought to a place of total dependence?
As a man, Jesus learned obedience and dependence by the things He suffered, such as this crisis of hunger. What Jesus actually was saying is: “I am not here to please Myself or to pamper My flesh. I am here to do the perfect will of My Father.” Jesus relinquished every single human care into His Father’s hand. In other words, He said, “I will spend all My life and all My time obeying My Father, doing His perfect will—and He will take care of me His way.”
Jesus knew that God only had to speak a creative word: “Hunger, be gone!” But He also knew that the Father could give Him meat that no man knows about so He gave no thought to food or drink or clothes or houses. Rather, He would seek God’s will first and let Him take care of the needs.
Jesus was saying something very profound, to the effect of: “I have not come to ask the Father to keep His word to Me; I have come that I may keep all His words!” Jesus didn’t need a miracle to prove His Father’s love for Him. He rested in the Father’s words. His cry was not, “God, keep your Word to me!” but, instead, “Let me do Thy Word in all things.”
This text from Deuteronomy is so powerful that Jesus Himself used it against the devil during His great temptation in the wilderness. “And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:2-4).
Like the children of Israel in the wilderness, Jesus was also hungry. What greater humiliation could there be than to be the Son of God and be brought to a place of total dependence?
As a man, Jesus learned obedience and dependence by the things He suffered, such as this crisis of hunger. What Jesus actually was saying is: “I am not here to please Myself or to pamper My flesh. I am here to do the perfect will of My Father.” Jesus relinquished every single human care into His Father’s hand. In other words, He said, “I will spend all My life and all My time obeying My Father, doing His perfect will—and He will take care of me His way.”
Jesus knew that God only had to speak a creative word: “Hunger, be gone!” But He also knew that the Father could give Him meat that no man knows about so He gave no thought to food or drink or clothes or houses. Rather, He would seek God’s will first and let Him take care of the needs.
Jesus was saying something very profound, to the effect of: “I have not come to ask the Father to keep His word to Me; I have come that I may keep all His words!” Jesus didn’t need a miracle to prove His Father’s love for Him. He rested in the Father’s words. His cry was not, “God, keep your Word to me!” but, instead, “Let me do Thy Word in all things.”