Feast on the Word

Jesus, in His temptation in the wilderness in Matthew 4 quotes to Satan that man does not live by bread alone. And instinctively, we know that. We know life must be more than physical food. And as humans, created for more, we seek deeper things for life, satisfaction, and comfort. But Jesus hasn't left us to figure out what to make our food and drink. Even in completing that verse Jesus tells us, that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

In Isaiah 55, God gives a similar call to His people,

1 “Come, everyone who thirsts,

    come to the waters;

and he who has no money,

    come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

    without money and without price.

2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,

    and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,

    and delight yourselves in rich food.

3 Incline your ear, and come to me;

    hear, that your soul may live;

Feast upon, eat and drink, be satisfied in the word of God. Live upon the word of God, incline your ear to it, read it, hear it, and submit to it. It is that which is good, it is that which delights as rich food delights, it is that which nourishes and satisfies our hearts and souls like nothing else.

And yet, there is a problem. Though we know what is good, we at times feast on that which does not last and does not provide. We do, like Isiah 55 says, spend money for that which is not bread and labor for that which does not satisfy. We make other things our food and drink.

Sometimes those things are outright sinful.

Proverbs 4:17 says of the wicked,

"For they eat the bread of wickedness

and drink the wine of violence."

Sometimes we make sinful things our food and drink.

Other times, we replace God and His word with things not inherently sinful, sometimes even things that are good and we make them our ultimate satisfaction and source.

We turn to things like entertainment, Netflix, and social media to be the meal that nourishes us enough to get through the hour, the day, or the week. We make things like doing a good job at work or school the meal which satisfies us enough to make our week a good or bad one. We might even turn to the actual comfort that comes through physical food and drink. There are so many things that we seek ultimate satisfaction from.

But these things, by themselves, will not ultimately satisfy us. Our hearts were made for something and someone more.

And so our hope is not in simply forsaking these things, but our hope is in Christ, He was the perfect Word of God who wasn't drawn to other sources of food or satisfaction or nourishment, even when tempted by Satan in the wilderness for 40 days, even as He went to the cross.

In this Christ we trust, and in doing so, we turn from all those things which we would replace Him with, and in turning, we seek to grow more into the image of Christ, who in John 4 says, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work."