Not by Bread Alone.

You know, food is not the only thing that will sustain you…As many times as I’ve read this scripture from Matthew 4:4, this revelation hit me in a way that I’ve never understood before.

Matthew 4:4:

“But Jesus replied, “It is written and forever remains written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.’”

The word(s) “shall live” is entry number 2198 in the Strong’s Concordance and it is the word: zaó (dzah’-o), meaning to live or to be alive. 

So when Satan was trying to tempt Jesus to turn the stones into bread, it’s no wonder that Jesus replied to him, 

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.”

We were not meant to be sustained by food alone, but by the very words of God, OUR CREATOR! Just as food gives us physical nourishment, the word of God gives us spiritual nourishment.

I like how the Strong’s Concordance’s Topical Lexicon describes the understanding of the words “shall live”: . zaó (dzah'-o)

“…This shapes Christian disciplines of daily Bible intake and preaching ministries that treat Scripture as life-giving, not merely instructive.” 

Scripture is not just mere instruction, but life-giving!

There is this dependence that we were made to have on the Lord and His Word and that was purposed by design. Acts 17:28 tells us that in Him we live and move and have our being! 

Acts 17:28 NKJV

“28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’”

Acts 17:28 NCV

“By his power we live and move and exist.’ Some of your own poets have said: ‘For we are his children.”

Moses even told the children of Israel the same thing in Deuteronomy. 

Deuteronomy 8:3 AMP

“He humbled you and allowed you to be hungry and fed you with manna, [a substance] which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, so that He might make you understand [by personal experience] that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.”

And if you notice, this verse is mentioned in both the Old Testament and in the New Testament! Saints, the Lord is the same today and forever more. (Hebrews 13:8)

Man shall not live by bread alone.