A Reminder Not to Starve- Matthew 4:4

I have no idea how many times I have read this verse where Jesus stands up against Satan's temptation to turn a stone into bread by quoting the scriptures. I couldn't begin to count the number of times that I have heard it quoted. But until studying for this article, I don't think I ever knew where Jesus was quoting from and what the original passage was all about. If you are where you can get to a Bible, pull it out right now and read Deuteronomy 8:1-3. If you are not,  I want to encourage you to look it up later tonight. I'm going to give you the Cliff's Notes version, but you'll appreciate it so much more by looking it up.

          Basically, Moses is commanding the people to remember everything God has done for them and to remember and to keep God's commandments. In verse three he says, "He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord."

          Did you catch the significance of that? I don't know about you, but I have never just forgotten to eat. Every once in a while, I get too busy to eat on schedule, but I can probably count on one hand the number of times I have missed a meal altogether. I need to eat. I enjoy eating. And when I miss even one of my daily appointments with physical sustenance, every part of me feels it and complains about it.

          The whole reason God let the Israelites feel hunger in the wilderness was to help them feel the hunger for God's word! The obvious question for me is, is the spiritual sustenance of God's word such a part of my life and my schedule and my habits, that to miss a "meal" means that the rest of my day if out of whack? Or have I gone so long starving myself of any real food that I am immune to the hunger pangs that should be registering?

          For those of us who are parents, teachers, or in any other sort of leadership role, the application goes even deeper. We are not just responsible for feeding our children cereal, sandwiches, and lasagna. If that's all they get, they will have plenty of energy physically, but in a much truer sense, they will be starving to death! There are so many opportunities to feed on God's word every day. From the Sunday morning and Wednesday night Bible classes, to the VOW's each week, to the Takin' It Home Sheet for the families of teens, to the weekly memory verse that the whole congregation is memorizing, there is really no excuse for letting anyone starve. So what about it? Is anybody hungry? For it is written that man shall not live by bread alone.