Devotion - Monday, February 18

Whenever you read a verse of the Old Testament, quoted in the New Testament, you would do well to check the cross-reference.  The single verse is quoted, but the context of that verse is implied.

In yesterday's reading from Luke 4, in response to the temptation to turn the stones into bread, Jesus says "Man does not live by bread alone."  This morning's appointed reading from the Old Testament is the wider context from which that verses comes.

Deuteronomy 8:1-20 is an instruction to the people of Israel.  "All the commandments which I command you this day you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to give to your fathers."

In the verses which follow, they are reminded that throughout the forty years of their wandering in the wilderness, "Your clothing did not wear out upon you, and your foot did not swell."  God provided for them.  God provides for us now.

We tend to forget this, or take credit for the things we have - as if we earned them or deserve them.  We are too quick to claim the things which we have as an indication of our personal success.  It is tempting to look at our pile of stuff and brag that it is larger than the piles of others; and to attempt to imply that we are better than those with smaller piles.

This is human folly;  it is not the way of one who has learned the commandments of God.

"(God) humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna... that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but that man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord."

No amount of hard work or knowledge or skills or connections will provide us with what we need.  What we need is the wisdom which comes from a humble heart, one that turns to God, thanking God for all that he graciously gives us.