In The Complete Jewish Bible, this line is written as “Give us the food we need today”.
When the Jews listening to Jesus heard this part of the Lord’s Prayer, what might their thoughts have been, knowing the Old Testament scriptures?
They may have remembered their ancestor Joseph, who was the provider of food for all of the known world around Egypt for seven years of famine. The people came to him saying “Buy us and our land for food, and we and our land will be enslaved to Pharaoh” (Gen 47:19).
They might have thought of Exodus 16, which gives the account of God feeding the people of Israel with manna for 40 years until they crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land.
The disciples might have recalled a prayer in Proverbs 30:7-9, similar to this part of the Lord’s Prayer: “God…provide just the food I need today”, or Isaiah’s words: “Though Adonai may give you but bread and water, and not very much at that; your teacher will no longer hide himself, but with your own eyes you will see your teacher…” (Isa 30:20).
These passages may have led the disciples to think that there was something more involved in Jesus’s words than simply provision of food for the body. This man Jesus was requesting what the Israelites would have requested in the wilderness, but with the wisdom of Solomon from his proverbs; and maybe…just maybe, Jesus was the teacher Isaiah prophesied.
What else did Jesus teach concerning the daily need of food?
Jesus provided the day’s main meal for 5,000 men, plus women and children (Matt 14:15-21) and for 4,000 men, plus women and children (Matt 15:32-38). Later, in Matthew 16:5-11, when His disciples were still thinking about bread to fill their stomachs, Jesus explained that His point was not actually about baked bread.
In telling them to guard themselves from the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees, he was not talking about a method of baking, but the wrong teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Each of the two times Jesus provided such food, it was a culmination of His teaching a right understanding of the scriptures, accompanied by signs and wonders. Then, to make the point a memorable one, He gave them something for their stomachs as well. Each person’s whole body had been satisfied.
So, back to “Give us the food we need today”.
For many years, just like the disciples, I have thought that this line referred to the food for our bodies and the means of getting it, albeit trusting God so as not to worry about the future.
I am now, however, seeing that Jesus’s prayer is teaching me to include prayer for daily spiritual sustenance and the obtaining of right teaching, as true and accurate as possible - not watered down or poisoned by man’s interpretation to suit his own agenda.
Later, in Matthew 6:31-33, Jesus makes matters clearer by saying not to be anxious about any of our worldly needs “but seek first his (heavenly Father’s) Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Author: John Quinlan
