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NASB | Matthew 4:4 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.'" |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 4:4 But Jesus replied, "It is written and forever remains written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE, BUT BY EVERY WORD THAT COMES OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'" [Deut 8:3] |
Subject: "Every rhema ?" |
Bible Note: Hi Ray, You said helpfully .“The words “were” still continuously coming from God because this Man was speaking the words given Him by His Father. “ My earlier response was a bit hasty. Please consider the following. We are to live today by the word that “is” continuously coming from the God. Notice “were” and “are”. The Israelites were to live by every word that was continuously coming from God. God is presented as speaking continuously throughout the ages. If so what or who is the rhema? How was God speaking before the incarnation.? How does He speak now? Was Jesus always the truth? I think so. Is He still the truth? Yes! John 1 tells us that the Word “was”. So God was speaking through the Word. Then the Word became flesh. The incarnation consisted in the “word became flesh”. Therefore, the Son is the eternal Word of God. The Israelites were to live their natural life by manna which they could eat with their mouths, but they were to live eternally by partaking of the promises of God (out of the mouth of God) which pointed to His Son and all revelation was by the Holy Spirit bringing truth about the promised Son, who is the Truth the Way and the Life. So, God was and is continually speaking (rhema) through His Son. John 6:49, "Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the Bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. (I) am the living Bread that came down out of heaven;..." I believe you are right in capitalizing “Bread” in John 6:49 . “Which comes “ is “active” continuous tense. Only a person can perform an action. He is the living bread who comes down out of heaven. But Jesus changes from using the continuous tense to the aorist tense in verse 51. Why? John 6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. “Came down “ is aorist tense which means that it happened once, referring to Jesus’ incarnation But the truth of the crucified Christ is always the living bread which comes from heaven. “Eat” is also aorist. If we eat this bread once we live forever. In other words the moment that we believe we receive eternal life. Maybe the solution is something like this. God was and still speaking by His Son. When the Bread came down from heaven in fleshly form it was a particular event in history. In all the progressive revelation of the Bible God was speaking through and about His Son. Therefore, even in the Old Testament, salvation was through the covenant in His Son who was slain from the foundation of the earth. The context in John 6 also points to his flesh which He would give on the cross. They did not understand it all in the Old Testament, but God knew what He had promised. So in Matthew 4:4 Jesus means that it was not for Him to concentrate on bread for the body as the Devil wanted him to do, but fulfill the purpose of His coming to bring the bread of eternal life which man needs. This is the bread that man lives by. In His reply to Satan, He implied that He should not misuse Scripture to produce bread for the body (to command that a stone be made into bread) and divert Him from His purpose to fulfill His commission to be the Bread of eternal life through the cross” So man must not live only physically by eating of physical bread but also what comes from the mouth of God which speaks of Christ and the Cross by the Holy Spirit What sayest thou? Please tell me something about your method of discerning and interpreting of numbers. |