Every Word from the Mouth of God

A commenter on my post Words from the Mouth of God asks:

Would you please comment on Matthew 4:4 in this connection.

Yes, and it’s a most helpful passage to bring up here, and it suggests quite a number of things to me. I’m going to look at the application in connection with what I said in the previous post, but I want to make a few other points as well!

First, however, let’s quote the passage and connect it to its sources. (Unless otherwise noted, all translations in this post are mine and are often intentionally just a bit too literal.)

But he [Jesus] answered:

It is [has been] written, “It not by bread alone that a human being will live, but by every word that comes from God’s mouth.”

Jesus answers with a quotation, and the perfect verb form emphasizes that the word is established and remains so. It’s a clear and intentional quotation of scripture, and the line comes from Deuteronomy 8:3. It’s part of the reminder of the law that is given to the Israelites as they prepare to cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan. But let’s look at that passage as well.

You shall be sure to the entire body of commandments which I command you today so that you may live and grow and enter and possess the land which YHWH swore to your ancestors. ²And you will remember all the way that YHWH your God has brought you over these 40 years in the desert so as to humble you and test you to find out what is in your heart, whether you will obey his commands or not. ³And he humbled you by making [letting-NRSV] you suffer hunger, then gave you manna to eat (something you weren’t acquainted with and neither were your ancestors) in order to teach you that it is not by bread alone that a human being will live, but rather by everything that comes from the mouth of YHWH shall a human being live.

I think this illustrates something I have been mentioning in my study of John, and indeed something I mention quite regularly in Bible study, that the New Testament writers could draw in a broad range of imagery from the Hebrew scriptures through a simple quote. Note here that it’s not simply that Jesus was hungry, though he doubtless was, but also the 40 years of wilderness wandering are evoked by the specific reference, assuming readers were acquainted with that passage.

That wilderness time was a time of testing, and it was also a time of humbling the Israelites by forcing them to depend on God. They may have had miraculous food on a daily basis, but they didn’t understand it and couldn’t be sure of the next day based on any natural experience. They received this bread so that they’d know that they were truly dependent on God.

This is evoked in the temptation in that Jesus is going through this experience of testing and humbling, but with the added note, so briefly mentioned in the gospels, that he had fasted those 40 days. So he suffered this experience without the presence of miraculous food, and in fact rejected bread that came from the wrong source or from wrong actions.

Besides showing that Jesus experienced testing as we might, it also shows Jesus doing it right, according to Matthew, where the Israelites (and all humanity) have gotten it wrong. Often in discussing the mission of Jesus we miss the importance of Jesus both living his life as a human being and getting it right. It is not just that he died for our sins, but that he lived through our hardships and temptations. Matthew in particular evokes the story of the exodus and wilderness wandering.

I’d add here that I believe this is what he is trying to do in Matthew 2:15 which quotes Hosea 11:1. Some have tried bravely to make a Messianic prophecy out of Hosea 11:1, to make Hosea actually predict the flight into and return from Egypt. But what Matthew is trying to do with that passage is not present a prediction that is fulfilled, but rather to evoke a story that needs to be completed. Jesus comes out of Egypt (Matthew 2:15) and he experiences the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11), and he does it right.

Before I leave this theme, I want to note that this passage is reflected in Wisdom of Solomon 16:20-29, but especially verse 26: “… so that your children, whom you loved, O Lord, might learn that it is not the production of crops that feeds humankind but that your word sustains those who trust in you” (NRSV). I find quite a few nifty little nuggets in the apocrypha, and the Wisdom of Solomon is quite a great source on this, and shows how the Deuteronomy passage, to which it doubtless alludes, was heard somewhere around the time of Jesus (+/- 50 years or so!).

But now I turn to how this applies to my understanding of inspiration, expressed in my previous post. The fact is that I think it reinforces it. As I have noted, all scripture begins with an act of God. That may be a speech act, but it may not, in the narrower sense of “speech.” But that’s where I may have conceded too much, and I’m happy to correct my error. If we look at the world as described in scripture, there is no act of God that is not an act of the Word of God. Genesis 1 and John 1:1-18 should make that quite clear. So word and act are united in God. By the report of God’s act we know of it, although we may also know of it by its result. We see the Word of God in everything that is. The light by which I type this comes from God’s word. In scripture we have the genuine testimony of those who have seen God in action. Sometimes that will include words attributed to God, but sometimes they will report actions.

In Deuteronomy, I would read the word “word” in a narrower sense suggested by the context, particularly that a human being lives by living according to the law/Torah/instruction provided by God. Those are the specific words referenced. I think Jesus, in using this passage, conveyed to us by the words of Matthew, intended to expand that concept. Certainly, as Christians read it, they came to believe that we would all live by the Word that proceeded from God.