The Power of Need: Deuteronomy 8:3

             The verse for today's blog post is from an interesting find: it's what Jesus uses as one of his responses to Satan during the temptations in the wilderness. Here is where we find it in Matthew 4:1-4:

1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

          Jesus here responds to his physical need by pointing to his greater need, God, even after having fasted for 40 days in the universe. I find it interesting that the man who gave food to thousands of people miraculously did not give himself the same benefit that he gave to the crowds. Also, Jesus is not opposed to looking out for his own needs, which is displayed by his taking off time to go and be alone in prayer for hours. His words may sound like spiritual snobbery or an ideal beyond our achievement; Jesus looks awful legalistic here. After all, how am I to apply this passage to my life? Do I respond to any need in my life by filling it with something spiritual? That's what Jesus words seem to portray, but I am struck that we don't allow ourselves to process Jesus' words on a deeper level. Jesus was one who understood that our hearts had to be right; this is even more important than any law that we should obey. So what heart condition is driving Jesus' response? Here, we see that Satan is trying to get Jesus to perform a miracle in order to make his trial easier on himself. What would be wrong with this? This is where our confusion with the passage begins. Since we know that Satan is trying to trip up Jesus, we immediately flip back into the Old Testament and desperately search for a law that makes what Satan suggests a sin. However, no matter how hard we try, there is nothing there to find.
           I think the key to finding out what was wrong in the action lies in Jesus' response to the temptation. His response comes from Deuteronomy 8:3:

3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

          Here, we see where Jesus is pulling from in the second half of the verse about living on the word of God instead of just bread alone. We see that physical needs are still honored by God because we do not live on bread alone, which means we still need bread, but we need God more. So, when the Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness, the need for food is not diminished; Jesus is not "too spiritual" for food. So, we see that Jesus is hungry and that he can feed himself without sinning. So why does he not eat? Since the point of Jesus' temptations are to make him stronger, we see that Jesus is embracing his hunger as an opportunity to draw close to God. This is the point of any fast. Jesus isn't putting his life in danger by not eating. Jesus disproves this idea with his subsequent temptation. If risking starving to death to prove his reliance on God was the point of this trial, then Jesus would have risked his life by jumping off the top of the temple later in the chapter in Matthew 4:5-7:

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
    and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

          So, here, we see that Jesus does not refuse food to put the Lord his God to the test. Instead, we see something in Jesus' heart that is very powerful. To see this, we need to turn back to Deuteronomy 8:3:

3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

          I want you to focus on one word: "causing". God "caused" the Israelites to hunger. If you don't sense what is strange about this word, take a minute to reflect on it. God caused their hunger. Intentionally. It wasn't an accident or mistake. He caused them to feel a need. Let's bring this closer to home: if you have ever felt the need for a spouse, God created that need inside of you. The same thing applies for need for rest, comfort, assurance, etc. However, let us camp on the spouse analogy to get our point across. This need is affirmed throughout scripture. Three great verses for this are Genesis 2:18:

 18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

           Proverbs 18:22:

 22 He who finds a wife finds what is good
    and receives favor from the Lord.

           and Proverbs 19:14:

 14 Houses and wealth are inherited from parents,
    but a prudent wife is from the Lord.

            Every human has a God-given desire for a spouse, but you'd be quick to notice that not everyone is married. People who encounter these verses can sometimes get into a circular trap of logic that I like to compare to a jack-in-the-box. You think 1. God loves me. 2. God wants good things for me 3. God tells me that a spouse is a good thing. 4. If I don't have a spouse, it's my fault, not God's 5. I need to earn this through prayer and increasing my faith. This is where the pain hits because the increase in faith and prayer often don't earn you that significant other. This is like leaning over a jack-in-the-box and spinning the wheel until the jack hits you in the face, stuffing the jack back in, and waiting until the pain of the last experience fades away before trying again with the initial question: "God loves me, right?"
            However, what we need to realize is that our hunger and need are opportunities to draw close to God. Fasting, which is just creating a need for yourself rather than letting God do it, is a great way of recognizing our need for God and drawing close to him. However, we need to, like Jesus, go beyond simply fasting. We need to recognize all times of need as opportunities to draw close to God. Jesus' didn't necessarily choose his forty day fast. The Spirit forced him to do it. In the same way, a need that God allows into our lives is a forced fast. Just because you didn't choose to fast does not mean it is not a fast. So, if you have a need for food, money, a spouse, rest, or a vacation and you wish the desire for any of these things would go away, you need a change of perspective. Rejoice in the trial because it will help you to recognize your first and foremost need: God. Oh, and by the way, He does love you. Remember what I have just told you and reflect anew on Psalm 37:4:

4 Delight yourself in the Lord
    and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Peace of Christ to you,
Simeon