Congregation Beth Ha'Mashiach
(House of the Messiah) - Worshipping ADONAI
& His Messiah, Yeshua Ha'Mashiach
Living & teaching as our
Messiah taught us to Live
Messianic
Congregation serving Northeast Atlanta Georgia (Gwinnett, Barrow, Dekalb,
Rockdale, Walton)
Phone 770
554-2867 - email:
rabbi@cbhm.org
When a person is fixed upon the material world, he expends his effort for material things. The miracle of the manna was given in order to remind us that the material world is not our source of life. Instead,
God is our source of life. The material world came into existence from the utterance of His mouth. Therefore, we should seek to serve the Creator, not the creation. Yeshua says, “But seek first His kingdom and
His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)
He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by
everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD. (Deuteronomy 8:3)
In an effort to compel Israel to keep the Torah, Moses reminded them of their last forty years in the wilderness. Since leaving Egypt, God had provided their every need. Even their clothes and shoes
miraculously survived the long sojourn. God fed them manna from heaven, and this provision proceeded directly from the hand of God. In Deuteronomy 8:3, Moses says that God fed them manna to teach them “that man
does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.” What does he mean?
A person might suppose that he subsists upon bread, water and the other consumables necessary for sustaining human life. Based upon such a simple “hand to mouth” philosophy, human existence is reduced to
mere striving for food, shelter and clothing. Yeshua refutes such folly. “Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” He asks us in Matthew 6:25. He chides us saying, “For the Gentiles eagerly
seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.” (Matthew 6:32)
The manna was a miraculous food. It was a daily reminder for the Israelites that God was their source of life, sustenance and provision. Not part of the natural order, the manna was a new creation every
day—coming forth from the mouth of the LORD daily as He spoke it into being.
All things have come forth from the mouth of God—spoken into being by His Word. When Moses says that “but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD,” (Deuteronomy 8:3) he reminds us
that the whole world was created by the agency of God’s speech. Through His divine Word (Memra/Logos), the physical universe continues to exist.
The manna, which daily descended from heaven symbolizes God’s divine Word (Memra/Logos) entering the world. This is why Yeshua referred to Himself as the bread from heaven in John 6. He is
the Word of God (and the Word was God) made flesh.
Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of
heaven, and gives life to the world … I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. (John 6:32–35)
Therefore we may understand Deuteronomy 8:3, in a messianic sense, to be speaking of Yeshua, the bread from heaven, the divine Word that proceeds from the Father. We do not live by the sustenance of this
world alone, but by Messiah, the bread of life.
He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by
everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD. (Deuteronomy 8:3)
In Matthew 4, Yeshua quotes Deuteronomy 8:3 in order to refute the Devil’s temptation. Matthew tells us that after fasting for forty days and forty nights, Yeshua became hungry. That seems like an
understatement. “And the tempter came and said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.’” (Matthew 4:3) The miraculous provision of bread was a messianic expectation. The
adversary tempted Yeshua to take a shortcut to revealing His messianic identity and power and to use that power for selfish gain. He had the power to do it, otherwise it would not have been a temptation. Yeshua
quotes Deuteronomy 8:3 saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4)
The literal Hebrew of Deuteronomy 8:3 alludes to Messiah. The Hebrew does not say “a man shall not live on bread alone,” instead it says “the man does not live by bread alone, but the man lives by everything
that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.” Why does the Hebrew use the definite article to speak of “the man” when it surely has every man in mind? “The Man” can be understood as a title for Messiah. For
example, the indefinite term “son of man” means any human being while the definite term “The Son of Man” means Messiah. Using the same principle, we might infer that “a man” refers to any human being while “The
Man” refers only to Yeshua.
Therefore, when Yeshua used Deuteronomy 8:3 to counter the Devil’s temptation, He was applying it to Himself. In essence, He was telling the adversary, “The Messiah does not live on bread alone, but the
Messiah lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.” (Deuteronomy 8:3) He is the divine Word of God, sustained by the Father. He does not need the Devil’s bread.
Shadows of the Messiah "things into which angels long to look." (1 Peter 1:12)
Are you ready for a fresh encounter with the living Messiah? Shadows of the Messiah is the completely revised and rewritten Torah Club 2, written by the author of TC 4 &
5. This new material lifts the veil and reveals the Messiah on every page of Torah. Start a new year of Torah study and encounter the living Yeshua.
