Deuteronomy With JesusSýnishorn

Trusting God

When I read about Jesus’ first temptation, I’ve often wondered what the problem is. What exactly is Jesus being tempted to do? The simple answer is that he’s being tempted to turn the stones into bread – but the deeper question is why that matters. Why shouldn’t Jesus turn the stones into bread? After all, in a famous miracle later in his ministry, Jesus multiplies 5 loaves and 2 fish into a meal for 5,000 hungry people. Why would it be wrong for Jesus to do the same thing for himself?

I think the verse Jesus quotes (Deuteronomy 8:3) gives us the answer. It’s about reliance on God, suggesting that the heart of the temptation is about self-reliance, rather than trusting God. That temptation is one we all face again and again.

The message of Deuteronomy 8 is not that bread and food don’t matter, but that God can be trusted to provide them, along with all our material needs. Moses reminds the people that throughout their wanderings in the wilderness God provided for them miraculously. He gave them food to eat (manna), stopped their clothes from wearing out and protected their feet from sores and swelling.

On one level this was a response to an obvious need – the desert is an inhospitable place, and without God’s miraculous help the people would have been in serious trouble. Yet Moses tells them that God was also teaching them an important lesson – that they needed to rely on God for provision. This was particularly clear with the manna, which could only be gathered by following God’s specific instructions – every word that came from the mouth of God (see Exodus 16:4-32).

Moses realised that this lesson needed emphasising as the people entered the promised land. They would soon return to eating ‘normal’ bread, made as the result of their hard work, farming and baking. It would be so easy to lapse into thinking they were now responsible for their own sustenance, and to stop trusting in God for provision. Moses knew that that is one of the great temptations we all face. When we have everything we need, we can easily forget about God and instead put our trust in our own efforts.

The danger is probably even worse for us in our modern world, where even the fear of a bad harvest is far removed from most of us, and in which we can rely on savings, insurance policies, or government help to get us through the bad times. None of these things are wrong in themselves (any more than bread is), but we should never put our trust in them alone. Instead, we need to remember the ultimate source of all we have, and proactively put our trust in the provision of God.

Prayer

Do you trust God for everything in your life, and follow his ways and instructions? Take some time to pray about the answer and ask him to deepen your trust and obedience to him.