In Deuteronomy 8, Moses is preparing the generation that is about to enter Canaan. Other than Joshua and Caleb, the oldest of them are just shy of 60. They are now facing the challenges their fathers balked at, all the reasons that they have been wandering in the desert these past 40 years. At this crucial juncture in their lives, Moses reminds them of the lessons they have learned during their years of maturation in the desert.
“So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.” (Deuteronomy 8:3)
You got hungry in the desert, Moses reminds them. This is not idle wishing for luxuries; food is a legitimate need. Their legitimate need was going unmet. Fathers had nothing to feed their crying children. Mothers with nursing infants had nothing to eat themselves; how would they feed the baby? This was no accident, Moses says. It was not poor logistical planning on God’s part. He knew exactly what He was doing. God could have fed you at any moment; he could have made sure you never missed a meal. He could have made sure you had enough food for breakfast and second breakfast and elevensies, and lunch, and afternoon tea, and….
God allowed you to be hungry. That’s the first part of the lesson. Then what? “…and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know.” When you were days into the desert with nothing edible in sight, your belly gnawing at your backbone…food miraculously fell out of the sky. And not just any food; something you’d never seen before, something so unexpected that you named it “What is it?” (That’s what “manna” literally means in Hebrew.) When you asked God for food, you had something in mind–a loaf of bread, a cucumber, whatever–but this wasn’t it. This…this is entirely different than anything you imagined. Reflecting on this moment, Asaph will later write:
“He had commanded the clouds above,
And opened the doors of heaven,
Had rained down manna on them to eat,
And given them of the bread of heaven.
Men ate angels’ food;
He sent them food to the full.”
(Psalm 78:23-25)
Angels’ food. I was talking through this passage with my daughter yesterday, and she said, “I wonder what the nutrition facts are on manna?” It had to be pretty nourishing, since it seems that at times they had nothing else to eat. And it tasted “like wafers made with honey” according to Exodus 16:31. That’s pretty good for health food! That’s the second part of the lesson: God meets your needs, miraculously, in a way you never imagined.
Now comes the punchline. Why would God choose to do it this way? Why not just feed them to start with? “…that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.” God is not teaching you that you don’t really need bread; you do, actually. He’s teaching you that in the end, you can’t just live on bread. You need Him! And not just a little of Him: every word that comes from His mouth. You need food, make no mistake–but you need the food He is going to provide. Nothing else will do.
In other words, you need to humbly depend on God, which is how Moses introduced the thought to start with: “He humbled you….”
Now fast-forward to Jesus’ day. After His baptism, Jesus is led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness for 40 days of fasting. We often imagine that Jesus spends the fast in serene communion with the Father, and then faces three temptations at the end, but no. Luke records that Jesus was “being tempted for 40 days by the devil.” The three temptations recorded at the end of the fast are the grand finale, the crescendo of 40 solid days of spiritual attack.
In a masterpiece of biblical understatement, both Matthew and Luke record that at the end of the fast, “He was hungry.” Imagine you’d found Jesus in the desert just at the halfway point, 20 days into His fast. He’s had nothing to eat for almost 3 weeks. He’s already going to be looking gaunt and emaciated, yes? What would you say that He needed at that point? Food, of course! And you wouldn’t be wrong–somebody who hasn’t eaten in nearly 3 weeks desperately needs a meal.
What is God doing about Jesus’ legitimate need? He’s waiting. He’s humbling Jesus, allowing Him to be hungry. At the pinnacle of that hunger, the devil hits him with “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”
We’ve talked about this temptation elsewhere, so I won’t repeat all that here. But I saw something new in my most recent pass through this passage, and I think it’s worth pointing out. Jesus quotes from Moses’ speech in Deuteronomy: “Man does not live by bread alone; but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” He’s drawing on the narrative resources of His people to read the situation He’s in; that much I knew. But Jesus hasn’t experienced the second part of the lesson yet. He’s still in part one, literally starving in the wilderness. Because Jesus knows the story of His people, He has learned from their experience. Knowing where He is in the story, He can anticipate what will come next. The angels’ food is just around the corner. So He hits the devil with the punchline, and when He has triumphed over all the temptations, Matthew tells us, “angels came and ministered to Him.”
What do you think they brought Him to eat?
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