BREAD AND WORD

DAY 340

Matthew 15:32 Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days, and have nothing to eat; and I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.”

The Gospel today tells the story of Jesus and a multitude who had stayed with him for three days listening to him teach. Within this time, even if they had brought food to eat, it would have run out and Jesus was aware of this. Note his choice of words: ‘I am not willing to send them away hungry’.

It was now not just about a desire to perform another miracle, this was about identifying with their current state of physical wellbeing. At the temptation of Jesus presented in Luke 4:4, the first retort to the devil’s advances was “It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God”.

Man was therefore to live by two things: ‘bread and word’, neither on its own. The reason is because man is a creature of two dimensions: spirit  and natural. Ignoring this dual nature can cause any person to live well below God’s best for them, or very likely, may cause them to pay no attention to ‘bread’, and instead focus only on word.

Here lies the dilemma: if you focus on word alone, you will faint on the way as you journey. You will be in lack in ways that could make you question the very existence of God. On the other hand, if you focus on bread alone, you will become a spiritual lightweight, tossed to and fro by every wave of doctrine. You will have no depths in God and no understanding of the promises, prophecies, precepts and principles hidden in His word.

There should therefore be a place for both ‘Word and bread‘- both the spiritual and the natural. That is balance.

#sly