Deuteronomy 8:3, commentary and pictures

God humbled Israel in the wilderness by letting them hunger and then feeding them with manna unknown to them and their fathers, to teach them that human life depends not on bread alone but on every word that comes from the Lord. To live by every word means to make obedience to all that God speaks and provides the sustainer of life, putting His requirements first and physical wants second. After fasting forty days and nights and suffering keen hunger, Christ met Satan's temptation to turn stones to bread with only these words, refusing to use divine power for Himself and trusting His Father's voice and time. Where appetite overthrew Adam and Eve and where murmuring Israel fell in the wilderness, Christ conquered by firm reliance on what is written, showing that perfect faith in God's word defeats the tempter. Eating bread carries the spiritual meaning of receiving God's word and Christ Himself as the Bread of life, so that taking every word into the inner life nourishes the soul, purifies character, and keeps the commandments as the condition of salvation.

Wilderness Humbling and Manna

God humbled Israel, allowed them to hunger, and then fed them with manna which neither they nor their fathers had known, to make them know that man does not live by bread alone but by every word proceeding from the mouth of the Lord. The hunger and the unfamiliar provision revealed what was in their hearts and whether they would keep His commandments, teaching them to walk in His ways and fear Him. Their survival through the wilderness, with clothing preserved and health sustained, showed their utter dependence on His care and discipline, as a father disciplines a son.

Christ Himself had spoken these words to Israel after leading them forty years in the wilderness, giving a sufficient and constant supply from heaven when all means of sustenance failed. That provision was meant to teach them that while they trusted God and walked in His ways He would not forsake them. The discipline tested the rising generation and prepared them for entering the promised land and becoming a great nation, and Israel remained daily learners under their divine Teacher of what God required His church on earth to be. The presence of the Lord among them through the journey showed His supreme authority in shaping them into a representation of what His people should be.

Israel often failed the test through unbelief, murmuring when brought into trial and hunger despite the Lord's great mercy and loving-kindness in preserving them from dangers and never forsaking them. When their diet was restricted they clamored for flesh meats, looked back to Egypt's flesh pots and pleasures, and lusted for what they had left there, valuing indulgence above God's service and the freedom He had miraculously given from tyrannical, idolatrous servitude. They wished themselves back in Egypt, preferring slavery and even death rather than be deprived of meat, and in anger God gave them flesh to gratify lustful appetite, so that great numbers died eating the meat they lusted while the curse came upon them while it was yet between their teeth.

God had led Israel where a flesh diet could not be obtained and fed them the bread of heaven, manna rained from heaven, with purest water from the flinty rock, withholding flesh in great measure because it was not essential for health and because He understood its harmful influence upon the human system. He gave the healthy food He designed for them, with covenant promise to put no disease upon them if they obeyed Him in all things, to educate, discipline and train them in correct habits and control of appetite. His purpose was to establish them as a pure, holy, happy people bearing the divine credentials in physical appearance, with none feeble among their tribes, all sickness taken away, and with clear perception and sound judgment. This wilderness training is the pattern for bringing His people back to live upon simple fruits, vegetables and grains, and for those seeking to separate from idolatry to reform habits of eating and remove whatever confuses the mind and conscience or leads to sin.

Moses was instructed to repeat to them this forty-year history of failures and victories, from the promise to Abraham through deliverance from Egyptian bondage and the exodus and long wandering, together with the instruction given at Sinai. The record shows the sacredness of the law given at Sinai and the Lord's faithfulness to His covenant, in which those who obeyed received the promised blessings, and the covenant remains in force with heaven's richest blessings for obedience. Learning this history stirs the heart to new and thorough conversion, calls for willing obedience rather than doing as one pleases, and gives knowledge to be used to bring blessing and light, drawing God's people away from the idolatry of Egypt and other nations.

Living by Every Word

To live not by bread alone but by every word from God's mouth means human life is sustained by obedience to everything God speaks and provides, with God's requirements made first and physical wants secondary. The words were first spoken to Israel after leading them forty years in the wilderness, humbling them and letting them hunger and then feeding them with unknown manna when all means of sustenance failed, with a sufficient and constant supply from heaven to teach them that while they trusted in God and walked in His ways He would not forsake them. In His own forty-day fast Christ practiced the lesson He had taught Israel, meeting Satan with Scripture as the weapon of His warfare, making no attempt to prove His divinity or explain His humiliation, refusing a miracle on Satan's terms to turn stones to bread while emaciated and suffering the keenest pangs of hunger, holding firm reliance on Thus saith the Lord as a greater and incontrovertible sign, waiting for God's time to bring relief and trusting the Father to supply food when it serves His glory. That submission includes God's choice of proper food, for obedience to His words brings special blessing while disobedience through indulgence of perverted appetite and passion brings grievous sin and falling, as when Adam by disobedience brought want and sorrow and death where obedience would have kept him from all three, when the people before the flood perished by water through disobedience, and when Israel with restricted diet fell in the wilderness instead of being established in Canaan as a holy happy people with none feeble. As humanity's representative He did not use divine power for His own benefit to relieve His own suffering and shorten His trial, but endured the trial as a man must endure, leaving an example of faith and trust.

Hunger for temporal food is not the greatest calamity that can befall a person, for to deviate from the purposes of God in even the smallest degree or to incur His disapproval is worse than hunger or death. Suffering whatever may come is a less calamity than departing in any way from the will of God, and obedience to God's will must not be abandoned to obtain food or preserve life. In that position of refusing to obtain food by Satan's suggestion the tempter could gain no advantage, and the testimony stood before the witnessing universe that perfect faith and trust rest in the Father. Obedience to God's requirements is more essential to prolong life than temporal food, and lack of temporal food is a lesser calamity than losing God's approval.

Every word means every word, not one word or many words alone, and no word from God can be disregarded with safety however trifling it may seem. It includes the Father's law, the words spoken from Sinai, which are the conditions of life, so every word of Christ must be heeded and there can be no sinless departure from His teachings. Every commandment of the law is for the good and happiness of man both in this life and in the life to come, and obedience to God's law surrounds man as with a hedge and keeps him from evil, but breaking down this divinely erected barrier at one point destroys its power to protect him, opening a way by which the enemy can enter to waste and ruin. Choosing one's own way places a person in controversy with God and at war with the very principles of heaven, giving him no place in the kingdom of heaven and placing him on the side of Satan, the enemy of God and man. Obeyed, those words give man again free access to the tree of life that the first parents forfeited by disobedience, a transgression that made it needful for Christ to come to reconcile fallen man to God by His own death, for Satan works through appetite because it leads astray soonest, as Eve fell through appetite with every good fruit before her while Christ suffered hunger without yielding and remained faithful without yielding even slightly to sin. True religion is knowing and doing God's will in accordance with every word that comes from Him, and the sure word of prophecy stands through the test of men and the wreck of worlds and is to be lived by without adding to it or diminishing from it.

God's word can provide what is needed, sustain life, direct events and bring order out of confusion, and this is verified in experience as the wicked pass away while the upright come to peace. His provision was sufficient and constant to those who trusted Him and walked in His ways, teaching that He would not forsake them and that suffering is less grievous than departing from His will. The chapter's lesson means much for today and is of the greatest importance, given to present people as truly as it was given to Israel, requiring obedience to God's statutes and commandments. It belongs to a chapter presented as the Lord's words and as instruction and warning for those living at the end of the world, to be read as the Lord's admonition to heed Him rather than trust one's own judgment. What was spoken to Israel more than fourteen hundred years earlier and repeated by Christ in the wilderness remains an admonition now, that life depends not on bread alone but on God who gives life and continually sustains every person, calling for sincere reverence, devotion and love, with God's gift of His Son as a propitiation for sin making it possible to stand on vantage ground with Him, while Israel's prosperity depended on obedience to His statutes and judgments and disobedience and unthankfulness brought loss rather than the promised prosperity and happiness, for knowing the promise did not prevent them from becoming disloyal.

Christ's Wilderness Victory

After forty days and forty nights without food He was pale and emaciated among the wild beasts, suffering the keenest pangs of hunger when the tempter came as an angel of light, as a beautiful angel, with the distrustful challenge that if He were the Son of God He should command the stones of the wilderness to be made bread. To have done what was suggested would have been to accept the doubt betrayed by those first words, to perform a rash act to prove divinity on demand. The demand was to prove Sonship and Messiahship by exercising divine power, and He would not dispute that standing with the adversary.

He answered only with it is written, with this verse alone, making no attempt to prove His divinity or explain His humiliation and entering into no argument, parley, controversy, lingering or reasoning over temptation. He refused the challenge, refused a miracle on Satan's terms, refused to obtain food at Satan's suggestion, and stayed in the path of duty in obedience to God. The lesson stands for every child of God not to accept any challenge of the enemy but to stand firmly on God's word for divine power to overcome.

Having humbled Himself as a man and as humanity's representative, He would not use divine power for His own benefit to relieve His own hunger and suffering or to shorten His trial, for His miracles were to be for the good of others. He would not break His pledge to meet as man in humanity must meet the hunger, difficulty and suffering of trial, but endured as humans must endure. He trusted the word already spoken from heaven, Thou art My beloved Son, rested in His Father's love, relied on His Father to provide food at the proper time, waited for God's time to bring relief, and left an example of perfect faith and trust. He thereby testified before the witnessing universe that suffering whatever may come is a lesser calamity than departing in any way from the will of God or incurring God's disapproval.

Firm reliance on thus saith the Lord is greater than all miracles, an incontrovertible sign that cannot be answered, the weapon of warfare in every temptation. Holding that position gives the tempter no advantage, conquers him, and shows perfect faith, for God's word is a sure defense when one looks not to circumstances or the weakness of self but to the power of the Word with all its strength made one's own. In every temptation God's word was His weapon, and men are to overcome only in the same way by taking every promise as their own.

Where appetite overthrew Adam and Eve and where disobedient Israel fell in the wilderness, Christ succeeded while suffering the keenest hunger. Satan works through appetite because it leads astray soonest, as Eve fell with every good fruit before her while Christ in hunger would not yield. Had Adam and Eve lived by every word they would not have fallen nor lost access to the tree of life, for the every word means the Father's law spoken from Sinai as the conditions of life, and those who now live by God's word will be brought back to Eden with free access restored through Christ's death to reconcile fallen man. Adam in his loyal state lived by every word as the basis of God's confidence and plan for clear-sightedness through cooperation, a plan interfered with when Satan led him into sin so that God could not commune with fallen disobedient man as with sinless man, and Adam and Eve could have kept sinless innocence by choosing good, obeying the direct command, refusing the strange voice and refusing Satan's lie, but by believing the lie what was pure and godlike was perverted and defiled.

He remained faithful without yielding even slightly to sin and gave no license to sin, so that had He yielded once Satan's victory would have been complete. Because He remained faithful Satan could wound Him but could not overcome Him, and the attack brought Satan's own defeat. Disobedience through indulgence of perverted appetite and passion brings grievous sin and falling, as shown when Adam by disobedience brought want and sorrow and death where obedience would have kept him from all three, when the people before the flood perished by water through disobedience, and when Israel with restricted diet clamored for flesh meats and fell in the wilderness instead of being established in Canaan as a holy happy people with none feeble.

Bread of Life Connection

Eating bread carries a spiritual meaning of receiving God's word through study and obedience, for just as food keeps physical life alive, the word of God keeps spiritual life alive. The manna points to the Messiah by whom all Israel would be fed, who calls Himself the Bread that came down from heaven and the bread of life. That deep lesson was shown in the miracle of the loaves, where as the multitude received physical strength and refreshment from the bread given, so all who come and believe receive spiritual strength unto eternal life and never hunger or thirst. Receiving His words as food brings eternal life with the promise of resurrection at the last day, and His words are spirit and life that nourish and sustain, so it is better to endure poverty than to turn from Him by disobedience.

Every soul must receive life from God's word for himself, just as each must eat for himself to be nourished and cannot obtain it merely through another mind. This calls for careful personal study of the Bible with prayer for the aid of the Holy Spirit to understand it, taking one verse and concentrating the mind on finding the thought God put there, dwelling on it until it becomes one's own and one knows what the Lord says. The Scriptures so received provide needed instruction, testify of Christ, give knowledge of God, make duty clear, guide safely, and prepare for the future life. To live by God's word is to receive and absorb it, keep its precepts, and make its truths part of daily life, including instruction in how to regard God and treat one another with love and compassion toward fellow believers and strangers. All that is necessary for salvation has been revealed though not everything, since people could not bear it, and the word is not to be replaced by human suppositions.

Living by the word is how Christ abides in followers, the same vital union as eating His flesh and drinking His blood. His words are spirit and life, so receiving them means receiving the life of the Vine, and that life within produces the same fruits as in Him, so one living in Christ, clinging to Christ, supported and nourished by Christ, bears fruit like Christ without laboring to produce it by self-effort, but by abiding. After the fall all instruction came through Christ, and the words He spoke to Moses were for all who would live on earth, so all His words are verity and truth to be taken into heart and soul and practiced. That eating forms a union in perfect obedience and partaking of the divine nature that kills pride and selfishness, brings body, soul, and spirit into subjection, purifies character, and produces kind words, unselfish actions, tenderness, compassion, and holy care for others. Constantly eating and doing the Word gives eternal life, while merely handling, hearing, or speaking the sacred Word, or claiming faith without caring enough to obey, is only empty pretension, and neglecting it leaves the church spiritually weak. The opposite of this living union is to feed on selfishness, hypocrisy, evil suspicion, envy, and covetousness.

The bread from heaven is to be treasured to meet the soul's needs, with no word concerning eternal salvation neglected or allowed to go unused or lost. Without this food the soul cannot grow nor character develop fully, for God gives life to the whole being of those who receive Him. The soul has a spiritual life that must be carefully sustained, and neglecting its eternal interests for worldly things and business gain robs it of nourishment and puts it at risk of loss. Feasting on the words of eternal life gives the sustenance and inspiration needed to remain spiritually alive. Israel's healing from the serpent plague illustrates this living by every word, for God said to look at the raised serpent, and those who trusted, looked, and obeyed were healed, while those who refused and reasoned against the instruction were not healed.

Obedience Law and Judgment

To live by every word that comes from God is to keep His commandments and do His will in everything He has spoken. True religion is knowing and doing God's will in harmony with every such word, and true sanctification is conformity to God's will as expressed in His holy law, so that only those who live in this way are truly sanctified. To claim cleansing through Christ's blood while sowing rebellion against that law is false light, not sanctification.

Living according to all God has spoken is the condition for receiving the fulfillment of His good promises, and falling short of complete obedience leaves those promises beyond reach. Only those who have so lived will be saved, meaning those who have dwelt with Christ here in every trial and temptation in order to dwell with Him in the eternal world and be ready for His coming in the clouds. This is planting the feet on the Word as the solid rock of truth, searching the Scriptures to see whether one is working the works of God, having the beauty and grace of Christ woven into character, and making Christ the all in all on earth as He will be in heaven, for every person will be rewarded according to works when every secret thing is brought into judgment. Such obedience shows the Word has been received savingly into the heart and remains there, as the divinely appointed instrument of salvation.

The law spoken at Sinai and written on stone is kept in the ark in the heavenly sanctuary and will be brought forth when judgment begins. People are judged by that law together with the record of their deeds, and each receives sentence according to whether the works are good or evil. In that day the mystery of the incarnation and crucifixion will be made plain, and every condemned soul will read and understand that his rejection had this character, that he chose to stand under the banner of Satan the great rebel and thereby destroyed himself. No endowment of talent or supposed wisdom will then enable the rejecter of truth to turn to God, for the door will be shut as the door of the ark was shut in Noah's day.

All society is divided into the obedient and the disobedient. The obedient keep the commandments and compose the church of the living God, while the disobedient choose to follow antichrist as subjects of the great apostate, ranged under Satan's banner, breaking God's law and leading others to break it. They go so far as to frame the laws of nations so that men show loyalty to earthly governments by trampling on the laws of God's kingdom. To turn from God's words to receive Satan's misinterpretations and bewitching lies is to err from truth and reject truth.

The words by which man lives apply to eternal life, so obedience to human authority cannot override obedience to God's word in spiritual matters, because worship and submission concerning eternal life belong to the Creator alone. In all the affairs of this present life fidelity to earthly authority can remain unshaken, in honor or dishonor, in life or in death, because to lose or to gain there is of no consequence to salvation. But when eternal interests are concerned the life-giving word governs, and God does not will that man should submit to man, since submission in spiritual matters is real worship and ought to be rendered solely to the Creator. Therefore God's word is essential to life and must not be set aside for obedience to human authority even when that authority is the emperor, and no person should hold over the mind the authority that belongs to God alone. The Bible stands as higher authority than councils, traditions and laws of men, and the righteous through many centuries have refused to let a human voice stand above God's voice even when obedience was counted a crime, leaving a registered experience as a valuable legacy to guide believers when history is repeated, human commands are exalted above God's commands, and obeying God rather than men is again treated as a crime.

Israel was to live by every word God gave and not depart from Christ's instruction given from the pillar of cloud. The nation received God's law with other spiritual and temporal advantages as a trust, and obedience to His word was meant to guide them into justice, mercy, humility and unselfish service and to make them a pure and wise people who would honor God before the nations. Their prosperity depended on obedience to His statutes and judgments, and they were warned that disobedience and unthankfulness would bring loss rather than the promised prosperity and happiness. Yet knowing the promise did not prevent them from becoming disloyal.

Daily Life by the Word

To live by every word from God is to have a sure defense and weapon in temptation, delusion, and the war that is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and wicked powers. Believing, memorizing, studying and obeying Scripture guards against deception, while neglecting it leads to defeat. As Christ answered the demand to turn stones into bread with Scripture rather than using divine power to prove His sonship or relieve Himself, so believers overcome by answering It is written and trusting what God has said. His victory through self-denial and reliance on Scripture shows that steady trust in what God has said is greater than any miracle and leaves the tempter with no advantage. Its promises give strength to resist sin and keep from sin and the paths of destruction when the tempted look to the power of the Word rather than to circumstances, weakness, or self, taking every promise as their own with all its strength theirs.

Living by the word means welcoming the Book of books into the mind and soul-temple as counselor, guide, and instructor, putting it above worldly policy and the claims of fallible people, allowing nothing to come between the Book and the student as more essential, and bringing its truths into practical life and into good and holy ways. This life by the word gives light and gives understanding to the simple, opens the understanding in a marked manner, and expands, elevates, and purifies the mind. It makes men wise through time and through eternity, gives a determined purpose to obey all He says with power of intellect to discern righteousness from unrighteousness, gives faith that works by love and purifies the soul, reveals God to the world, and keeps from backsliding after blessing has come in rich rays of divine light.

It requires giving Bible study the best mental effort and most sanctified ability, reverencing the living oracles, recognizing His voice in them, receiving and absorbing what God has revealed, keeping its precepts, practicing them, and making its truths part of daily life. It refuses to shut away new light when presented, to excuse prejudice against message or messenger, to condemn what has not been heard and understood, to speak with contempt of those sent with truth, to condemn a message until thorough investigation from the Word proves it untenable, to entrench in the belief that the whole truth has already been unfolded, or to replace revelation with human suppositions. God has not revealed everything, because men could not bear it, but has revealed all that is necessary for salvation, and the Infinite One has more light and precious jewels of truth to be discovered by searching the rich mine of His Word, so that neglect puts momentous issues at stake and striving earnestly for thorough knowledge of every point of truth including present light keeps from being found in the day of God among those who failed to live by all He speaks and keeps from misleading errors and deception clouding the mind.

It is the life of the soul by a continual, abiding sense of God's Word pervading the being, keeping every revealed principle with no departure for human sophistries and principles that divorce the soul from God, thereby securing unsearchable riches and treasure beyond estimate. It is sanctification through the truth and maintaining the authority of the truth, with understanding and heart sanctified by strictest obedience and with action and conscience deriving inspiration from its pure and sacred springs. Holiness is not rapture, imaginary religion, stately worship, devotional forms, keeping truth in the outward court to be admired, hearing truth, or imagining wonderful future deeds, but entire surrender of the will to God and doing the will of the heavenly Father in practical life, trusting God in trial and in darkness as well as in light, walking by faith and not by sight, trusting Him with all confidence and resting in His love. Only this lived obedience makes men the light of the world, prepares them to enter through the gates into the city of God to be eternally saved, grounds faith by accepting Christ's truth and carrying righteous principles into every part of life, centers eternal life in dependence on Jesus by complete consecration and daily trust, places the believer decidedly on the Lord's side to believe every word and not take himself out of His hands, seeks His presence and enlightenment through earnest wrestling prayer, keeps sight of Jesus as hope and consolation when infirmities press and faith is tested severely, and is to be learned and expressed in all one does and says.

Its principle calls Christians to obey God's word rather than indulge selfish desires or serve worldly wealth, for without living by every word the old nature constantly reasserts itself. To live by God's word is to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God, while the opposite is to feed on selfishness, hypocrisy, evil suspicion, envy, and covetousness. Living by it means diligently following His instruction with natural temperaments under control and guidance from the Holy Spirit to attain the high standard of Scripture, rather than spending time on trivial, trifling, and frivolous matters. Hospitality must therefore join temporal food with spiritual food, imparting hope and courage and Christlike love to guests and comforting the troubled with the comfort received from God, trusting that God will give all sufficiency to continue in every good work.

For workers, teachers, schools, health institutions, and parents this means making the Word of God the chief book of study as the most important work at this time, setting before the world an example that honors God, with holy angels working through human agencies and every department bearing the mark of divine excellence. It means heeding His expressed will by drawing near to understand His commands and then obeying them, creating individual responsibility to act on right principles. For a Christian worker it requires treating fellow workers with respect and kindness, doing justice and judgment, having the mind of Christ, bringing every word and thought into captivity to Christ, allowing no selfishness, guile, or harsh speech, refusing to retaliate for unjust and unreasonable treatment, meditating on the Word night and day, and using only It is written as a weapon. It is applied to teaching children from infancy to love, revere, and obey all that God says, with parents training children to obey every word and teaching duty from Scripture, since when parents disobey they set an example that can lead children to break God's law given for their life, and it requires in health institutions a regenerating power and spiritual life and an education after the divine mind and will, not surface work leaving the heart uninstructed, excluding receiving inspiration from those bitter against the truth to criticize and judge brethren whom Christ teaches His followers to respect, to love, and to esteem better than themselves.

Professing to live by everything God speaks requires obeying His plain commands, so that those who make that claim cannot be held guiltless if they spend the Lord's money multiplying faces in pictures contrary to His word. It means continually obeying His requirements, which those who love and fear God aim to keep, while the flesh and the spirit contend for mastery. Its lesson is to be learned and expressed in all that one does and says.