Man shall not live by bread alone.

The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’”


This is the first temptation of Christ in the desert and it speaks to the nature of sin - both in the devil's question and Jesus' answer. On the surface it would not seem to be a sinful act to do something miraculous to satisfy a need like hunger - remember how Moses struck a rock and water came out from it.. or how Jesus fed thousands by multiplying a few fishes and loaves. So it seems that sometimes God meets our needs with the miraculous.

Yet in this case the issue was not meeting a need but giving in to the temptation to sin by breaking a fast. I suspect that Christ had plenty of opportunity to eat but he did not because he had set apart this time to seek his Father's will with prayer and fasting. Physical bread would have satisfied for a time but it would have robbed him of the bread that lasts forever. It is a truth that we must often deny our fleshly needs for the bread that satisfies our souls.

Help me Lord to reject the bread that briefly satisfies for the bread that feeds eternally.

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