“He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors 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” (Deuteronomy 8:3).
FOOD FOR THE SOUL AND SPIRIT
When I was young I knew a man named Bill, who once told me that after he’d finished his work for the day he loved to get home and read the psalms because they helped him rest, unwind and renew his strength after a hard day’s work. I remember him saying that he loved to let the words “wash over” him.
I knew what Bill meant because I had had a similar experience. The words of God have a way of feeding our spirit. Have you noticed that after a time with the Lord, reading his Word, you are somehow strangely renewed? The reason is that we are being fed. Not naturally, but spiritually, for human beings are made in the image and likeness of God. We are body, soul and spirit. God has supplied natural food to feed our bodies and his Word to feed our soul and spirit.
When someone is feeling weak through lack of nutrition, a meal will revive them. Jesus knew this so he said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance” (Mk 8:2–3).
Jesus knew the power of natural food to fuel our bodies. When Jesus raised Jairus’s daughter from the dead we read, “Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat” (Luke 8:55). Jesus was practical, yes natural food is important to our physical frame.
However, if we stop there we are not whole. There is something more important than our natural food. When Jesus was hungry after a forty day fast, the tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread” (Matt 4:3).
Jesus did not heed the devil’s advice, he knew that God is well able to provide natural food, it’s our spirits that need feeding Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (Matt 4:4).
God is Spirit and we have a spirit too, and our spirits need to be fed. The Bible says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Col 3:16). This is good food, we can consume it richly because it has no harmful effects as some refined processed foods do that we take into our bodies. “Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matt 16:6). Yes, let’s watch what we imbibe into our soul and spirit, for there is much artificial food around that will cause us harm.
We learn the secret of true food as we grow. Christ’s disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about” (John 4:31,32).
Job’s adversity helped him to realise how important God’s words were: “I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread” (Job 23:12).
So we too need to feed upon God’s Word. When someone is feeling “off colour” someone close to them will encourage them to eat something because it will do them good—the food they eat will get to work and do it job in the human body. We can say the same with God’s Word, simply read it and it will do its own work in your soul and spirit.