Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Deuteronomy 8: Man does not live on bread alone

"Remember"...that is what Torah is about: remebering. Here it is a command to remember what YHWH had doen for Israel in the desert. He provided them with bread. With manna--lit. "What is it?" a substance that came from the earth that they would eat and be filled. It was their "daily bread"-- and Jesus used this Exodus image in his instructions about prayer: "Give us this day our daily bread" (Mt. 6.11). There is another story of Jesus that echoes this one as well. The story of Jesus temptation in the wilderness found in Matthew 4. 1-11.

The whole story is very Exodus-like isn't it? Israel was in the wilderness for forty years, Jesus in the wilderness for forty days. He is starving, and being tempted by Satan to give up on YHWH. And then during each temptation he leans on the Hebrew Scriptures to support him.

Temptation #1: Tell these stones to become bread. Jesus answer: "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God"-- he quotes this very passage from Deuteronomy. But that is not the last time he will do so, which hints at something extraordinary.

Temptations #2: Throw yourself off the temple, become a star so all of the religious community can see you and follow you. Jesus answer: "Do not put YHWH to the test"-- where is this quotation from? Deuteronomy 6. Interesting. Well maybe it is a coincidence. Two times isn't really a pattern.

Temptation #3: I will give you the nations of th earth if you worship me: Jesus answer: "Worship YHWH, and serve Him only"--Wow--thats from Deuteronomy 6 as well! Ok so we have a pattern here, but what is the point?

Jesus is Israel in person. He is where the long story of Israel climaxes. He is its point...he embodies and represents the people in himself. He experiences their exile and their wilderness experience and succeeds where they often failed. Here he is in the wilderness being tempted by the enemy and he quotes all Deuteronomy passages, a book about Israel in the wilderness dealing with her own demons, before they enter the promised land. Is it a coincidence that this story follows directly after Jesus baptism. Israel thorugh the Red Sea before their forty years in the wilderness, anyone?