Matthew 6:11. Give us today your daily bread | Alex Macdonald | 260809 | Teach us to pray

To start off, daily bread, before we even get into those five, maybe this is six, daily bread, bread in the time of Jesus was the staple food.

There might be other things, fish and so on, but everybody lived on bread.

This is what kept you alive, the basic stuff of survival.

When we talk about daily bread, we're talking about the necessities you need just to get by.

And Jesus tells us, number one, that all of that provision always comes from God.

The whole prayer that we've been looking at starts, our Father in heaven.

All of this is directed to him.

And this particular line says, give us today our daily bread.

The idea is that as we pray this prayer, we look to that God for today's needs.

It's a prayer for every day, implying that receiving the daily necessities for life is independence on the Lord.

And this way of describing it, this image of bread received daily, brings to mind, for those who know the Scriptures, the story of Israel in the wilderness.

If you've been with us in the morning services, then you will have been working through the book of Exodus when we see God rescue his people who are slaves in Egypt and bring them out eventually into the promised land.

But in between, there's 40 years of walking around in the wilderness.

As soon as they're brought out, this triumphant moment crossing through the sea and then suddenly panic.

But what about our food? But then the Lord provides.

As our first reading from Deuteronomy, summarizing, we could read much longer passages in the book of Exodus, but that passage summarizes in just a few verses, the Lord provided for you.

He provided by preserving their clothing.

He gave them good health along the way.

And then he provided them with manna, something they hadn't known, something miraculous.

Manna, if you're not familiar, was a kind of bread that literally rained down from the sky.

It was left on the ground as the dew evaporated each morning.

And they were told each morning, go out, collect what you need for the day, only for today, and then it will be there again tomorrow.

Each day they were forced to rely on the fact that God would provide for them, day in and day out, each and every day.

It was to teach them and us that then and always, each day's provision comes from the Lord.

This is all throughout the scriptures.