FOOD?

This is it, folks! I’m down to my last jar of the good stuff. My stash, purchased a few months ago, is down to the final container. The end. Finis! With all the recent panic, menace, and alarm about peanut butter, I am stuck. I don’t need no Salmonella!

Moses was right.

… man does not live by bread alone …
Deuteronomy 8:3

Yup! Man doth not. I vouch for that. Man doth need peanut butter as well. The JIF kind and no other!

And now I’m running out. Woe is me! (I know, I know, it should be “I,” but who cares about predicate nominatives, when one’s out of JIF!)

Well, alright, alright, alright. I hear you.

I gotta go preach in few minutes. And I know you’re saying preachers ought not to be misusing and misquoting the good Book like I just did. I repent. In sackcloth and ashes. (Appropriate vestments for one who is out of JIF, I might add!)

Here it is in its entirety—Moses’s words regarding the Lord’s doings during the Exodus.

He humbled you and let you be hungry,
and fed you with manna …,
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

(Nope, nothing about JIF in that verse.)

Our Savior repeated the salient portion of this verse when He was tempted by Satan. You see, He’d just finished a 40-day fast. And He was tempted by Satan to turn rocks into bread.

But He answered and said, “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

What is way more important than food is doing the will of God, obeying His Word.

Jesus was a bit more explicit to his disciples who had just purchased food for the whole bunch.

… the disciples were urging Him,
saying, “Rabbi, eat.”
But He said to them,
“I have food to eat that
you do not know about.”
So the disciples were saying to one another,
“No one brought Him
anything to eat, did he?”
Jesus said to them,
“My food is to do the will
of Him who sent Me
and to accomplish His work.”
John 4:31–34

So it should be for us. Peanut butter scare or no, economic crisis or no, job layoffs or no—and all of these impact our “bread”—doing God’s will ought to be our primary focus. That alone will satisfy, for that alone is good and acceptable and perfect.

And do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind,
so that you may prove
what the will of God is,
that which is good

and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:2

All else, JIF included, will pass away.

Food is for the stomach
and the stomach is for food,
but God will do away with both of them.
1 Corinthians 6:13

And what, you ask, is the will of God? Here are a few suggestions …

For this is the will of God, your sanctification.
1 Thessalonians 4:3

… live the rest of the time in the flesh
no longer for the lusts of men,
but for the will of God.
1 Peter 4:2

… as slaves of Christ,
doing the will of God from the heart.
Ephesians 6:6

Hey, Lent begins soon. Want to give the discipline of fasting (one meal or more) a try?

(And may all Salmonella perish!)