What does it mean that man shall not live by bread alone (Deuteronomy 8:3)?

This is clearly seen from His answer. He detects the old serpent at once. There is no parleying from His side as it was with Eve. He resists the devil at once. The perfect, sinless and spotless One has His "It is written" to hand and this Word, bringing out the Father's will which He is here to do, ends this first temptation. "It is written man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which goes out through God's mouth" (Deut. 8:3). The meaning of the word He uses here is that man lives truly not by bread alone, but by the Word of God, that is, in obedience to this Word. And there is an application for us as believers. One has said on this, (Numerical Bible, New Testament, page 62), "We realize the wondrous privilege that is ours, the solemn responsibility that lies upon us. For we are sanctified into the obedience of Christ, and He has left us an example that we should follow in His steps" (1 Peter 1:2, 2:21). This principle of His life must then be the principle of our lives. If with Him the governing motive was to do the will of God, how simple is it that for us also the will of God must be our motive for action. By every word that goes out of the mouth of God doth man live. What a sustenance of the true life within us to be thus, day by day, receiving the messages of His will guided by that wondrous voice, learning more continually the tenderness of His love for us: "He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear as the learner" (Isaiah 1:4). This is the utterance of the Lord Himself. How blessed to be able to make it our own, and to have the fulfillment of those words: "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way in which thou shalt go; I will guide thee with mine eyes."

This is of unspeakable moment for us, beloved reader. It is as though our Lord Christ had said to the adversary, "Whether I am the Son of God or not, is not now the question, but how man is to live, and the answer to this question is only to be found in holy scripture; and it is to be found there as clear as a sunbeam, quite irrespective of all questions respecting me. Whoever I am, the scripture is the same, "Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord."

Here we have the only true, the only safe, the only happy attitude for man, namely, hanging in earnest dependence upon "every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord." Blessed attitude! we may well say; there is nothing like it in all this world. It brings the soul into direct, living, personal contact with the Lord Himself, by means of His word. It makes the word so absolutely essential to us, in everything; we cannot do without it. As the natural life is sustained by bread, so the spiritual life is sustained by the word of God. It is not merely going to the Bible to find doctrines there, or to have our opinions or views confirmed; it is very much more than this; it is going to the Bible for the staple commodity of life — the life of the new man; it is going there for food, for light, for guidance, for comfort, for authority, for strength, for all, in short, that the soul can possibly need, from first to last.

And let us specially note the force and value of the expression, "every word." How fully it shows that we cannot afford to dispense with a single word that has proceeded out of the mouth of the Lord. We want it all. We cannot tell the moment in which some exigency may present itself for which scripture has already provided. We may not; perhaps, have specially noticed the scripture before, but when the difficulty arises, if we are in a right condition of soul, the true posture of heart, the Spirit of God will furnish us with the needed scripture; and we shall see a force, beauty, depth and moral adaptation in the passage which we had never seen before. Scripture is a divine, and therefore exhaustless treasury in which God has made ample provision for all the need of His people, and for each believer in particular, right on to the end. Hence we should study it all, ponder it, dig deeply into it, and have it treasured up in our hearts, ready for use when the demand arises.

Here, in the face of Satan, our Lord finds His strength; not in doing miracles, or in any provision that He might have made for Himself, but in the word of God. Hunger might have legitimate wants, but here He was, tried by Satan, and He will not step out of the trial till it is over; He will not shift His circumstances or lift one finger for Himself: He waits upon God. "Man shall not live by bread alone," He answers, "but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." God's word had led Him there, for the Holy Ghost acts by the word, and He would not leave the wilderness till God's word led Him out. This completely set aside Satan's temptations. But more: it brought out the real secret of living in dependence upon God day by day, for the food of the new life is the word of God. Of what immense importance this shows the written word to be, and having it as our household bread day by day; not merely reading it as a task or formal duty, but, as it is indeed, the divinely-suitable provision for the child of God! It is good for every one to study it, because it is in every way for the good of the soul day by day to read it intelligently, heartily, as those that receive it from God Himself. And God does not give that which the heart of man cannot take in, but what is adapted to our daily wants, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

And this is another chapter from which our Lord quotes when tempted, to which we may refer in passing. "And thou shalt remember all the way which Jehovah thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no." We see that what has been remarked is just what is expressed in this verse: "And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only," (what exercise of faith was there in that?) "but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of Jehovah doth man live." This is precisely what does put man to the proof morally. The word of God tests whether he submits to it, whether he lives on it, whether he delights in it, whether his meat is to do the will of God as the Lord Jesus proved His meat was.

They must remember how the Lord God had led them all through their forty years of trial in the wilderness. That history was designed by God to humble and test His people, to bring out what was in their hearts, to prove whether they were willing to walk in His laws. Today, God has seen fit to leave believers in the world which is a wilderness indeed, with many occasions of trial that serve to humble us. We need this in order to learn well that we do not live merely by the food we eat, but by the Word of God (vs.2-3). In fact, the food God gave Israel was miraculous, that which was unknown before, and not derived from the lands they passed through. They would not understand that the manna was typical of the spiritual food by which believers are sustained in all their history on earth. The manna speaks of the Word of God concerning Christ in His lowly path of humiliation on earth. Israel ought to have learned through their wilderness experience they were totally dependent on the Word of God.

It will be noticed that nothing is to escape our recollection in God's past dealings with us; we are to remember all the way which the Lord has led us in the wilderness, that we may discern more clearly the object He ever had in view in the various sorrows, trials, and afflictions through which we have passed. When in the circumstances which distress us it is seldom that we can estimate them aright, because we do not sufficiently connect them with the Lord's hand, nor keep His end before our souls. Hence the need of surveying the past in order to apprehend the needed lessons. The first thing Moses brought before the minds of the people was the testing God applied to them to see whether they would "keep His commandments or no." And for this it was necessary to humble and to prove them. And why? Because of the incurable character of the flesh, which ever loves to gratify its own inclinations and to exalt itself even in the presence of God. Pride, as well as the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, lurks in the heart at all times, combined with unbrokenness of will, and even where, sometimes, it is least expected. This will explain many of God's dealings with us. He puts us into trying situations, brings crosses and obstacles across our path, suffers us to have disappointments and adversities, in order that we may know what is in our hearts, and that the flesh is never subject to His word. In one word, He has been teaching us to "keep His commandments"; and to effect this our wills have had to be broken, and we have had to be humbled. Let us not forget it, for then we shall experimentally understand that all things work together for good to them that love God, who are the called according to His purpose.

Secondly, we discover, in reviewing the past, that another object which the Lord had in view was to teach us dependence. "And He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live." It must be carefully observed that the first step in this process is also humbling, for the reason that it is the obstinacy of our wills that so often closes our ears to the divine voice. How many years of searching and humbling have we had to go through before we began even to desire to be as clay in the hands of the potter, before we could just lie in the Lord's hand, to be used or not used as He might will! But how tenderly He has borne with us, and how patiently He has waited until we could take the place of dependence upon Him and upon His word! There are two other elements in this lesson - deprivation and secret sustainment; "He suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna." He withheld from us what we craved, and then fed us with heavenly food; and, speaking of Israel, we might add that the Lord did this in spite of their murmurings. So has it been with ourselves. Cannot we recall that even during the past year we have again and again set our hearts upon obtaining something which we deemed necessary? But the Lord loved us too well to allow us to succeed in our desires; but at the same time, when we turned to Him in our disappointment, He so sustained us by the revelation of Himself that we could then praise Him that He had suffered us to hunger - blessed be His name!

The divine purpose in giving this wilderness food is distinctly stated for us by the Holy Spirit in Deuteronomy 8:3, “He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord does man live.” When our blessed Lord stood in the wilderness and was tempted of Satan, in answer to the first onslaught, He foiled the foe’s weapon with this same mighty sword of the Spirit (see Matt. 4:4 and Luke 4:4). Again we are told, God fed them with manna, “that He might humble thee, and that He might prove thee, to do thee good in thy latter end” (Deut. 8:16). In this we see the end of the Lord in giving us Bread from heaven. We learn by it our entire dependence upon Him for the true words of instruction and sustenance. After speaking of Himself as the true Bread from heaven, our Lord Jesus Christ vitally connected the words which He spoke with that which was spoken, when He said, “The words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63, N.Tr.). At another time He said He was altogether what He spoke (8:25). He Himself was entirely what His precious words conveyed. The words expressed exactly what He Himself was.

Like the Children of Israel in Exodus 16 we need to gather up and eat fresh manna every day if we would be healthy and strong Christians. God said to Israel that He fed them with manna daily "that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live" (Deut. 8:3). We also need to learn this lesson that as Christians we cannot live by material food only; we must have spiritual food for our souls and live by the words that have come from God which are found in the Holy Bible. So let us read our Bibles each day and meditate upon and digest what we read.

We should learn to trust God about things of this present life, because we have such assurance of His loving care as to temporal needs. But there is a far deeper meaning in the manna than this. You remember how the Lord interprets it in John 6, when the people came to Him and asked, "What shall we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. They said therefore unto him, What sign showest thou then, that we may see and believe thee? What Bost thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat." Then you have the Lord's answer, "Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven"; and He adds, "I am the bread of life." He is the antitype of the manna — our God provides sustenance in this wilderness life. The wonder of it is such that men have never been able to fathom or comprehend it. "God manifest in the flesh!" — walking here for nearly thirty-four years. What a matchless truth! Here He gives us to enter into the secret of it all. "My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven." We get it all in this massive chapter.

Then look at Deut. 8:3. "He humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God doth man live." Oh, the power of that word proceeding out of the mouth of the living God ""The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. ""Desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby." God uses the word to impart life to us and then to develop and strengthen it in us.

But what circumstances for the Son of God to be found in in this world! "Having fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards He hungered. And the tempter coming up to him said, If thou art Son of God, speak, that these stones may become loaves of bread." But simple as it would have been for Him, with all divine resources ever at command to help Himself to bread, He would not put forth power to take Himself out of any consequence of the place He had come into as man. He had not become man to command; man's place was to obey, and the enemy is foiled by His keeping that place perfectly. "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." He waits therefore — will only act, if it be but in the matter of taking necessary food, when there is a word from God for it. But more than that, He lived by it, for this was God's will for man according to the passage that He quotes, if now for the first time it was realized in man — not merely a path outwardly directed by the word, but an inward life formed by it, of every movement of which the word was the motive and source.