Today I heard this phrase from the Spirit…”Man shall not live by bread alone” and I was reminded of Deuteronomy 8 where it is first mentioned. I am telling you by the Spirit of the Lord that this whole chapter is crucial to where we are at.
Deut 8:3 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.
God here takes the credit for allowing us to hunger.
Get it straight from His mouth…I ALLOWED YOU TO HUNGER.
Why would God do that?
So that you would KNOW by intimate experience that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
Of course we know that Jesus Christ is The Very WORD that proceeds from God’s mouth…Thus Jesus is the LIFE that is WORD which we ARE.
Man does not live by his own efforts but by the Life of God.
But we do not realise that at first so God has to take us through a burning wilderness journey to humble us and to reveal the tares and truth to us.
The humbling is necessary because we mistakenly think that we must have what it takes to obey God and to enter the Promised land. We do not know that we are NOT ABLE of ourselves to obey Him. God takes us through a fiery wilderness and allows us to hunger. Then He feeds us with His choice of food…not ours. That food becomes pretty bland over time….but He leaves us in the same situation year after year until we cease complaining about it.
The test just does not go away does it? He leads you into the wilderness promising great things ahead and it never seems to get any closer. You always fail the test. This reveals to us so that we know once again that we do not have what it takes to pass the test. But God does. What is God looking for? He is looking for the meekness that comes to those who know they cannot but He can. He is looking for agreement with Galatians 2:20 —
It is no longer I that live but Christ that lives in me….
and the life I now live in the flesh
I live by the faith of the son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me.
Forty years in the wilderness till that whole generation that thought they could do it died. Forty years ago I was 20. My dad had just died December 7th three days after my 19th birthday. I had entered into my 20th year. Though my mother tried to keep me in that little town God had other plans and He drew me back to Western Australia 3,400km away where I wandered in the wilderness till this day forty years later.
God does indeed allow us to hunger so that we might be humbled and tested. God does indeed chasten His sons and daughters. Why? That He “may do them good in the end.”
Deu 8:15 who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end—
For He says through Jeremiah 29: 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
We cannot enter into the Promised Rest of God until we pass through the fiery wilderness where we are humbled and tested. God will not allow it.
All must go through the fire.
God is a consuming fire and He will consume the dross out of us.
Thus He chastens us that we might be partakers of His divine nature.
Or said another way Jesus said TAKE MY YOKE UPON YOU.
Jesus said His yoke is easy…But to the flesh it is NOT EASY AT ALL.
When God chastens us it is through a work situation where we chafe against the bit and the saddle rubs us the wrong way so we buck against it like an unbroken steed. When God puts us with a person who does not understand us or who takes advantage of us He is chastening us. When every day there are people who annoy us on the highway. When every day we hear ourselves complaining about something….KNOW that we are in a test and God is after something.
Will we allow Jesus YOKE to rest upon us or will we kick against the goads? God chastens his sons so He may “do them good in the end”
Heb 12:10b”…but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
The training in the hard situation…being left in it a long time(what 40yrs represents)is intended for our good that we come into a place of PEACE AND REST inside of Jesus Christ. There is no short cut. You cannot attain that rest simply by speaking the Scriptures over yourself. You must go through the wilderness and allow God to deal with you. He will anyway whether you let Him or not because He has covenanted to do so.
He brought you out of Egypt and He will bring you into the Promised land. You can say that you are already in Christ and yes that is true…but God’s training will prove Christ in you to you…Till you know that you do not live without Him being your life.
I shall not live by bread alone. I shall not live by what I can produce. I live by every word that proceeds from God. I live always coming out from Jesus Christ who is always coming out from Father.
When I fall He picks me up. When I hunger He feeds me. When I thirst He gives me a drink. When I fail He washes me and fills me with His love. When I stumble I am held in His grip. I cannot learn any of that by mere mental assent to a bunch of Scriptures. I must go with Him into the howling wilderness of life on this Earth among scary people and be with Jesus out there.
Deuteronomy: God wants us to KNOW
Deut 8:2. God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.
You see God wants to qualify you for something up ahead. The journey is for you to come to know what was in your heart–Because God being all-knowing already knows! We don’t. During this long journey God is with us leading us all the way through each lesson and trial…NOT TO DISQUALIFY YOU but to teach you that He is the ONE getting you through. Once you learn that you pass.
Deut 8:3b So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know
You did not know! A new way. God puts you into new situations unfamiliar to you ON PURPOSE…so you will be forced to lean upon Him completely.
Deut 8:3b “…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’S STATED PURPOSE —THAT HE MIGHT MAKE YOU KNOW!
This is the renewing of the mind and it does not occur simply by eating words(bread) but through every WORD suited to your situation at the time in your journey.
When you are facing constant financial lack and you are forced to seek God for why and how…and He answers you with a WORD SPOKEN TO YOU…this is that word that is LIFE to you at that time. In that situation you learn–YOU KNOW– that man does not live financially by his own good planning and investments but by WHAT GOD TELLS HIM TO DO.
You should not tithe because a verse of Scripture tells you to. You should seek God for Him to show you what to do.
Deut 8:5 You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.
In other words when you are going through a tough time in any area of your day to day life,,,at work, at home, with certain people, in an attitude, a relationship…GOD IS CHASTENING YOU. You should know it in your heart…It should be a spiritual fact to you that your Father loves you so much that He disciplines you by placing you in unsavoury situations for your good in the end.
The end that God envisions is for you to be like Jesus in all your ways. Thus He feeds us Jesus Bread that we may feed upon Him and He puts us into the oven until all the leaven is cooked out of us. For our God is a consuming fire. Some may try to escape the fire by saying they will not obey a voice any more….but there simply is no way to avoid His way. His way is the difficult way…the narrow way. His way is through the wilderness –where we would not want to be…until we KNOW to rest inside of Him and to give thanks for all that comes our way.
Joseph rotted in prison until the prison became a resting place–then and only then was he released.
