Fourth petition (preceded by Hallowed be, Thy Kingdom, Thy will…), and this is the first of three petitions which references us. All previous were God-focused, this one is focused on us.
These petitions are profound in their simplicity; they reference every aspect of life.
Daily Bread = Present; Forgiveness of Debts = Past; Leading and Delivering Us = Future
There are three petitions which focus on us, the first regarding the daily physical needs of life.
I want us to note 4 things in this petition which teach us about going to God for our needs.
I. The Dependency in the Petition
+ “Give…” - Important to realize this is in the Imperative, but that does not mean we command
Some people believe we should command God
The Health and Wealth charlatans say that we can demand our blessings from God.
QUOTE: A famous H&W preacher said that God is like a waiter waiting to fill your order.
My petitions to God should never be confused with demands
The phrase “give us” is in the imperative, but it is not a commanding imperative
A SUPERIOR speaking to an INFERIOR in the imperative is a COMMAND
An INFERIOR speaking to a SUPERIOR is the imperative is a PLEA
It is a supplication, as in “Give us this or we will die”
The imperative here indicates to us the necessity of having this need met.
If God does not meet this need daily, we will cease to exist.
There is no one else to turn to; only God can meet our needs.
This is not a place where we demand God; but rather one where we show our dependency.
II. The Plurality in the Petition
+ “Give Us…Our” - This is not just personal, but also includes the needs of others close to us.
QUOTE: Albert Barnes NT Notes (in the 1800s) “It is evidently, therefore, intended to be used by more than one, or by some community of people. No community or congregation can meet every day for worship but families. It is therefore evident that this prayer is a strong implied command for daily family prayer. It can nowhere else be used so as fully to come up to the meaning of the original intention; and nowhere else can it be breathed forth with so much propriety and beauty as from the lips of a father, the venerable priest of his household, and the pleader with God for those rich blessings which a parental bosom desires on his beloved offspring.”
This is not a self-centered petition; but one with an eye to the needs of others.
III. The Constancy in the Petition
+ “Give Us This day…” - demonstration of constant need and dependence.
May seem irrelevant to is; we are more like "lord please keep me from daily bread"
Some live month to month, or paycheck to paycheck.
In Jesus time people lived day to day, hand to mouth - for them, this was reality.
Even though most of us do live without a great deal of worry that tomorrow we will not have enough food, we don't know what tomorrow will bring.
There is no one here who cannot guarantee that what you have will last to tomorrow.
Investments can fail, savings can be lost, stocks can crash.
We are dependent daily upon the providence of God.
Furthermore, this constant prayer reminds us from Whom our blessings flow.
1 Corinthians 4:7b “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?”
Not one crumb of our daily bread is guaranteed outside of God’s provision.
If God chose to not give us our daily bread, we would not get it; thus we petition daily.
IV. The Content in the Petition
+ “Our Daily Bread” - A seeming redundancy
NET NOTE: The term e˙piou/sioß does not occur outside of early Christian literature (other occurrences are in Luke 11:3 and Didache 8:2), so its meaning is difficult to determine.
Various suggestions include “daily,” “the coming day,” and “for existence.”
When you don’t know how a word was used, you are reduced to pure etymology
Jerome translated it into a Latin word which means “super-substantial” because the verb “to be” is in this word, therefore it came to be known as the communion bread and a support of the false teaching of transubstantiation (i.e. “Give us everyday the bread of the eucharist”).
Others spiritualized it to mean “Give us the spiritual bread”.
It should rather be constructed from the verb “to go” and it relates to the “day coming” or the “day following”. Give us the bread for the day which is coming. Give us the amount needed for the day.
QUOTE: JFB “Let us not rob ourselves — out of a morbid spirituality — of our one petition in this prayer for that bodily provision which the immediate sequel of this discourse shows that our heavenly Father has so much at heart.
“Bread” Specific euphemism for that which is necessary (i.e. Daily Subsistence)
cf. Matt 4:4 “Man shall not live by bread alone” in this context bread speaks of any physical thing needed for life. (Bread is obvious euphemism for all spiritual sustenance)
QUOTE: Martin Luther “Bread is everything necessary for the preservation of this life”
Does Not Mean: Not so literal as to only mean bread; not spiritual as in the Eucharist.
Not luxuries but subsistencies - do we know the difference?
Prov 30:7-9 “Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.”
Jesus in this passage sanctions the right for us to pray for all of our daily physical needs.
TWO IMPORTANT QUESTIONS:
+ If God has promised to meet our needs, why do we need to ask?
God tells us to ask so that we do not begin to presume we don’t need Him
The greatest failure of the modern man is his belief that he is self-sufficient
We are not self-sufficient; in fact, we are woefully self-insufficient
Consider this: You don't eat anything, live in anything, or wear anything that didn't come from this earth, and ultimately from God. God provides food for man, and food for the food for man. It's all a perfect cycle. Even air is a result of a cycle of dependency which God created. We breathe out carbon dioxide, and plants absorb that and produce oxygen and we breathe that in. The most immediate and constant need we have is being continually produced in a perfect cycle which God has established.
Someone might say, “I worked for all I have” and that may be so… But who gave you the ability to work? Who gave you a strong back and a clear mind?
+ If God has promised to meet our needs, does that mean we don’t have to work?
The Bible is clear that work is one of the means God uses to meet our needs
In fact, God chastens those who are unwilling to work
2 Thess 3:10 “For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.”
This doesn’t speak of the person unable to work, but of the one unwilling.
The petition “give us this day…” does not negate the responsibility of work, it assumes it, because the means of receiving our bread is labor.
CONCLUSION: This petition is about our absolute daily dependence upon God.
QUOTE: JFB “In limiting our petitions, … to provision for the day, what a spirit of childlike dependence does the Lord both demand and beget!”
NOTE: Cannot address this passage without making note of the Manna given in the wilderness.
In Exodus 16, the people of Israel grumbled because Moses had led them into the wilderness and food was scarce. So God gave them bread from heaven which we know as manna (what is it?). God gave them specific instructions to only gather what was needed for the day, and only on the day prior to the sabbath could they get more, otherwise it would get worms in it and rot.
God did this specifically to teach them one important principle: daily dependence.
Consider this: Had God given the manna to them in such a way that they could save it up, it would've been easy for them to come to a point where they felt like they did not depend upon God for their daily bread.
So, too, do we also need to recognize that our daily portion comes from the hand of Almighty God.
It is He who provides our daily bread.
