Give Us this Day Our Daily Bread

Does it not seem strange that in the very center of this great prayer, our Lord should suddenly switch the emphasis from something as majestic as the will of God to a subject as earthy as bread?

But really this is just like Him.

You see, with Christ there really is nothing common. It is one of our human tendencies to tuck things away very tidily into little compartments. We call one thing sacred and another secular. We esteem some aspects of life very spiritual and very special, while others are considered quite simple and rather insignificant.

The fact of the matter is that anything touched by the presence of God has upon it sacred significance. This is why all through the Scriptures God’s people are instructed to live their lives ever conscious of the abiding presence of Christ. When we do this, then even the most mundane objects or activities assume enormous import. Brother Lawrence stated this idea very well when he wrote simply, “I can even pick up a straw from the ground and do it to the glory of God.”

Therefore it should not surprise us unduly that Christ should include in this great prayer a request for food. It is, after all, the very basis of our existence. This applies whether we are dealing with the physical or spiritual aspects of our lives. The two realms are really contiguous. But, because of our traditional thought patterns, they are here referred to separately and will be dealt with in this chapter in that way. Still, we should see that eating nourishing bread can be as significant to us as feeding on food from heaven.

The provision of food for the life of man is discussed all through the Word of God. Initially God gave man all that was needed to support and sustain his life without working for it. But after the first couple deliberately defied God’s instructions and willfully refused to cooperate with His will, this entire arrangement altered. The categorical statement made to Adam after he sinned was, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground” (Gen. 3:19). Or, as another translation puts it, “Thou shalt earn thy bread with the sweat of thy brow, until thou goest back into the ground from which thou wast taken” (Gen. 3:19, knox).

As the carpenter craftsman, working in Joseph’s woodworking shop in Nazareth, Jesus knew all about this. He later had to support His widowed mother and young siblings by the strength of His muscles, skill of His hands, and sweat of His brow. Hacking and chopping, sawing and planing, shaping and fitting the tough, twisted olive wood and hard, heavy acacia timber that grew in Galilee was no child’s play. It was back-breaking toil that turned trees into cattle yokes, plows, tables, and candlesticks, that He could sell for a few shekels to buy bread.

Why then did He dare to ask now that He be given bread? Was it not God’s decree that man must earn his bread? Was it not part and parcel of the whole plan for man on the planet that if a man did not work he should not eat (see 2 Thess. 3:8–12)? Could anyone feel exempt from this principle? It must have been a revolutionary concept to Christ’s disciples. A little later on in this same discourse with them, He elaborates on this concept of working and worrying in our constant struggle to survive. We must examine it to see what He meant.

The principles are fairly plain and straightforward. Basically He teaches us that the natural resources of the earth are supplied for us by God our Father. They are more than adequate to meet our basic needs. Just as He provides for the wild birds and the wildflowers, so He has provided enough for us. In the same way that birds must search for their food, and that flowers must extend their leaves to the sun for sunlight, and their roots into the soil for moisture and nutrients, so we must expend ourselves. God does not drop grubs down the gullets of young birds nor does He give handouts to indolent people who simply sit in the shade and do nothing.

Also, He would have us understand that all the many re-sources put at our disposal are really gifts from God. In James 1:17 we are told, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights.” So, be it soil or sunshine, rain or rare elements in the earth, air or ammonia, plants or animals, whatever is essential for the production of food has its origin with our heavenly Father. It is He who has bestowed this bounty upon the earth. It is through His generosity that the supply is sustained, even in the face of our extravagance, waste, and selfish exploitation of the planet.