Exodus 8:16-32

¹⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, so that it may become gnats in all the land of Egypt.’” ¹⁷ And they did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt. ¹⁸ The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. ¹⁹ Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said. ²⁰ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh, as he goes out to the water, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. ²¹ Or else, if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants and your people, and into your houses. And the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand. ²² But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. ²³ Thus I will put a division between my people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall happen.”’” ²⁴ And the Lord did so. There came great swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh and into his servants’ houses. Throughout all the land of Egypt the land was ruined by the swarms of flies. ²⁵ Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, “Go, sacrifice to your God within the land.” ²⁶ But Moses said, “It would not be right to do so, for the offerings we shall sacrifice to the Lord our God are an abomination to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice offerings abominable to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us? ²⁷ We must go three days’ journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as he tells us.” ²⁸ So Pharaoh said, “I will let you go to sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only you must not go very far away. Plead for me.” ²⁹ Then Moses said, “Behold, I am going out from you and I will plead with the Lord that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, tomorrow. Only let not Pharaoh cheat again by not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.” ³⁰ So Moses went out from Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord. ³¹ And the Lord did as Moses asked, and removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people; not one remained. ³² But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and did not let the people go.

The first church I pastored out of seminary was Stonecrest Baptist Church in Woodstock, GA, which is in North Georgia, above Atlanta.  When I left there I went to pastor First Baptist Church in Dawson, GA, which is in South Georgia.  I remember after telling our first church that we would be leaving to go to Dawson, GA, that a friend of mine said, “So, you’re going to pastor below the gnat line?”

“The gnat line,” I asked.  “What is that?”

“You’ll see,” he said.

Another friend of mine who pastored in another state cautioned me that I would encounter great swarms of gnats in the summer time in South Georgia, and to be prepared.  He told me that he used to pastor down there.  He said he had recently gone to South Georgia to visit and, on the way home, they had to leave the windows open on the interstate in an effort to get all the gnats out that had come in when they had briefly opened their doors.

I am happy to report that I personally found these reports greatly exaggerated.  Yes, the environment in South Georgia was conducive to gnats, and you did have to contend with them, but the visions of the plagues of Egypt I had before going there did not turn out to be true.  The gnats were bad enough, I should say, that you could judge how long a person had been in South Georgia by whether or not they used their hands to swat away the gnats, or whether they simply blew upward into their own faces to dispel them.  There were also numerous home remedies, including putting pickle juice behind your ears, but we never had to resort to such things.

Pickle juice would not have helped the Egyptians.  Nor would the skillful art of blowing upwards into their own faces.  What they faced in this plague was brutal indeed:  massive swarms on gnats that irritated and pestered the Egyptians.  They had nobody to blame but Pharaoh, who, amazingly, persisted in his stubbornness.  Let us consider the next two plagues, both of which deal with swarming insects, and what these rounds in the conflict between Moses and Aaron and Pharaoh reveal.

I. The Inability of the Devil to Keep Pace With God (v.16-19)

In the first two plagues, the devil is able to kind of keep pace with God, as it were, mimicking His power with his own displays of power.  Of course, we know that, in reality, the devil only has such power as the Lord allows Him, but, even so, the Egyptian magicians were able to display their diabolical power in the face of the first two plagues.  Not so with the third.

¹⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, so that it may become gnats in all the land of Egypt.’”

The Hebrew word that most translations translate as “gnat” is used nowhere else.  Isidore of Seville described a gnat as an “animal that flies through the air suspended on wings.  But it is so subtle and minute that it escapes being seen by the eye unless one looks closely.  But when it lands on the body it drills in with a sharp sting.  If anyone cannot see it flying, he still feels its sting immediately.”[1]  The Hebrew word used here may refer to the gnat as we understand it (and that is how I will use it here), or it may refer to mosquitos or ticks.[2]  Whatever its precise meaning, it appears to refer to some kind of small, flying pest with the ability to harass human beings.

This reference to the “dust of the earth” is also interesting.  It brings to mind Genesis 2:7, in which we read that “the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”  Is it possible that by having Aaron strike the dust the Lord is saying something to Egypt about His ultimate power over life itself?  I think so.  It may also be a sign of the coming, dreadful, final plague in which the firstborn sons of Egypt were killed.

¹⁷ And they did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt. ¹⁸ The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. ¹⁹ Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

Have you ever had a small child ask you to run with her?  Unless you want to be extremely unpleasant and open yourself to the censure of all onlookers, you will slow your pace, allowing the child to make a race of it and probably to win as well.   Or have you ever had a little boy ask you to arm wrestle?  Unless you want to win the “Punk of the Year Award,” you’ll hold back your full strength and let the boy make a competition of it.

God need not do any of these things, and He is never open to censure when He displays His full power, but it is striking indeed how the Lord God allows Pharaoh’s magicians to keep pace for a while.  But here, in this plague, He pulls ahead, reminding Egypt that whatever powers the magicians might have, they do not possess power that rises to the level of God’s power.  In fact, the power of the magicians comes nowhere near!  “The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not.”  It’s  kind of pitiful really:  they could not even create a gnat!  They could not, because their powers, such as they were, were on loan anyway, and God had had enough of their petty displays.

Concerning their inability to replicate this miracle, Peter Enns makes an interesting observation:

The first two plagues concern the water, which is the life and power of Egypt, politically, economically, and religiously.  The gnats, however, come from the dust of the earth, which is not the Egyptian “power source.”  Their magic and secret arts are empowered by the Nile, but with the third plague, the magicians are out of their element.[3]

Perhaps there is something to this.  Perhaps their powers were linked to the (in their mind) powerful Nile.  Perhaps they were less confident in the face of this earth-bound plague.  Regardless, the Lord is demonstrating to them that He is the Lord of land and water.  His power is not greater in one place than in another.  He is all-powerful in all places, unlike these magicians.

II. God Protects His People in Trials and Difficulties (v.20-24)

Pharaoh persists in his diabolical hatred and stubbornness, refusing to repent, refusing to let the Hebrews go free.  In doing so, he invites the wrath of God in the fourth plague.

²⁰ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh, as he goes out to the water, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. ²¹ Or else, if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants and your people, and into your houses. And the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand. ²² But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. ²³ Thus I will put a division between my people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall happen.”’” ²⁴ And the Lord did so. There came great swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh and into his servants’ houses. Throughout all the land of Egypt the land was ruined by the swarms of flies.

What is truly telling about this plague is the fact that God protects His people in the midst of it.  The flies swarm over the Egyptians, but not over God’s people.  This is an amazing development!

Does this mean that the plague of flies was not, in its way, frightening to the Hebrews?  Yes, no doubt, as any raw display of the power of God would be.  But the point is that it was frightening as they observed it, not as they experienced it.  They did not experience it!  They were protected from it.  Perhaps, in a sense, they felt here what they would soon feel as they passed through the Red Sea and saw the towering walls of water quivering with power to their left and right:  fear and awe at their close proximity to such power.  But what they did not feel and experience was the wrath of God.  That was reserved for Egypt.  His own people He kept safe, shielding them from the plague itself.

This principle of God’s protection of His people is beautifully demonstrated by the Lord Jesus in His “High Priestly Prayer” in John 17:

¹¹ And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. ¹² While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. ¹³ But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. ¹⁴ I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁵ I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁷ Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

No, we are not promised an escape from the world, but we are promised the presence of God and His protecting hand among us as we live in it.  God’s love is constant, and no tribulation can separate us from it.  Paul put it like this in Romans 8:

³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” ³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Hebrews were experiencing this unbreakable love in exile in Egypt.  We experience it through the indwelling presence of Christ.  God is faithful to protect His people, even, in ways we might not understand, in the midst of persecution.  The martyrs might tell us many things, but they would not tell us that God had failed them, or that He was absent from them.  Indeed, the martyrs’ joy reflects the fact that they experience the closeness of God in their moment of death in ways we can barely imagine.

III. Pharaoh’s Refusal to Make a True Commitment Reveals His Lost Heart (v.25-32)

In the midst of this plague of flies, Pharaoh does something shameful indeed:  he attempts to bargain with God and, once again, he offers half-hearted repentance.

²⁵ Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, “Go, sacrifice to your God within the land.” ²⁶ But Moses said, “It would not be right to do so, for the offerings we shall sacrifice to the Lord our God are an abomination to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice offerings abominable to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us? ²⁷ We must go three days’ journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as he tells us.” ²⁸ So Pharaoh said, “I will let you go to sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only you must not go very far away. Plead for me.”

How very shameful this is!  Do you see what Pharaoh is doing?  He attempts to meet God’s demands on his own terms:  he will let them worship, but only within the land of Egypt.  Moses (perhaps sarcastically), points out to him that this simply will not do as the Egyptians will be offended by their worship and will attack them.  So Pharaoh relents, but, here again, only in part:  “I will let you go to sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness, only you must not go very far away.”

What bluffing, half-hearted repentance this is.  True repentance does not bargain.  True repentance does not seek to meet God in the most minimalist of ways.  There is no such thing as a little bit of repentance.

Pharaoh agrees to let them go, but only a little ways away.  He still wants them within arm’s reach.  Why?  Because he wants his own rebellion within arm’s reach.  If he really wanted to be far from his sin, he would want to be far from Israel against whom he sinned.

It is not unlike the man who swears off drinking, but does not smash the liquor bottles.  He puts them away, but just over there.  It is not unlike the man who swears off pornography, but does not burn his collection of pornography.  It is like the man who swears off adultery, but keeps his flirtations close at hand.

The true quality of Pharaoh’s repentance can be seen in the fact that, once again, he goes back on his word.

²⁹ Then Moses said, “Behold, I am going out from you and I will plead with the Lord that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, tomorrow. Only let not Pharaoh cheat again by not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.” ³⁰ So Moses went out from Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord. ³¹ And the Lord did as Moses asked, and removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people; not one remained. ³² But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and did not let the people go.

Pharaoh goes back on his word because he was only playing with words all along anyway.  He had not truly repented.  He had not truly let go of his own agenda, his own plans, his own lusts.

How about you?  Have you truly let go of that which plagues you?  Have you truly repented, or are you attempting to bargain with God?

Let us learn even from poor, deluded Pharaoh.  Let us learn from his stubborn refusal to bend his knee to the one true God.  Let us learn to tremble before his example of blindness and lostness.  And let us make sure that we have chosen the better path!

Matthew 6:12,14-15

¹² and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.

¹⁴ For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, ¹⁵ but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

The world yearns for forgiveness.  It is one of the fundamental needs of human beings.  John Stott recounts having a conversation with the head of a large mental hospital in England who told him, “I could dismiss half my patients tomorrow if they could be assured of forgiveness.”[1]  Perhaps that is so.

We want forgiveness, but we do not know what to do once we find it.  Some people simply cannot bring themselves to believe that they can be forgiven.  God offers it, but they refuse to believe that they can actually have it.  Other people have become so bound up with justice and the law that their hard, cold hearts do not even know how to process forgiveness:  the giving of it or the receiving of it.  I think here, for instance, of the legalistic Javert’s utter confusion and despair in Les Miserables when Jean Valjean, the man he has hunted for all those years, shows Javert mercy, refusing to kill him when he had the chance.  Javert’s suicide song, sung just before he hurls himself into the Seine, is a case study of a man who does not know how to receive forgiveness.  Even though he should be grateful, it throws his world into such disarray that he can no longer live.

Who is this man?

What sort of devil is he

To have me caught in a trap

And choose to let me go free?

It was his hour at last

To put a seal on my fate

Wipe out the past

And wash me clean off the slate!

All it would take

Was a flick of his knife.

Vengeance was his

And he gave me back my life!

Damned if I’ll live in the debt of a thief!

Damned if I’ll yield at the end of the chase.

I am the Law and the Law is not mocked

I’ll spit his pity right back in his face

There is nothing on earth that we share

It is either Valjean or Javert!

How can I now allow this man

To hold dominion over me?

This desperate man whom I have hunted

He gave me my life. He gave me freedom.

I should have perished by his hand

It was his right.

It was my right to die as well

Instead I live… but live in hell.

And my thoughts fly apart

Can this man be believed?

Shall his sins be forgiven?

Shall his crimes be reprieved?

And must I now begin to doubt,

Who never doubted all these years?

My heart is stone and still it trembles

The world I have known is lost in shadow.

Is he from heaven or from hell?

And does he know

That granting me my life today

This man has killed me even so?

I am reaching, but I fall

And the stars are black and cold

As I stare into the void

Of a world that cannot hold

I’ll escape now from the world

From the world of Jean Valjean.

There is nowhere I can turn

There is no way to go on….

Yes, human beings need forgiveness, but we do not know how to handle it.  We are not good at receiving it and we are not good at giving it.  Even so, Jesus linked both of these acts in the Lord’s Prayer, when He taught us to pray, “and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

I. Citizens of the Kingdom of God Daily Pray for and Rejoice in their King’s Forgiveness.

Let us remember that the Sermon on the Mount depicts how citizens of the Kingdom of God are to live in the world, and the Lord’s Prayer is a model prayer showing how citizens of the Kingdom of God are to pray.  The fifth petition of the Lord’s Prayer is “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

That is, we are to pray daily for forgiveness.  It is interesting to note that this prayer immediately follows the prayer for daily bread.  That means that all of these petitions must be daily petitions.  “Father, forgive us our debts today.”

The idea of sin as debt is fascinating indeed.  Charles Quarles has helpfully explained the Rabbinic background behind the idea.

Rabbi Akiba was fond of describing God as a great shopkeeper who kept an enormous ledger in which He carefully recorded a person’s debits (their sinful deeds) and their credits (their righteous deeds).  Akiba warned that God would send out His collectors to collect payment for the debts at the appropriate time whether or not the debtors were prepared to pay.  Akiba warned that God’s people needed to make sure they performed more good deeds than bad deeds.  These good deeds would add sufficient credits to their account and help ensure that the account was “in the black” rather than “in the red” on judgment day.[2]

What a terrifying idea, our salvation depending upon our doing more good than bad.  What a hopeless notion!  That is works-righteousness in its most horrifying form, and it leaves us in despair.  Fortunately, the good news of the gospel is that while sin is indeed debt, that debt has been paid by Christ Jesus.

Imagine owing more debt than you can possibly pay.  You earned the debt by selfishness and greed.  You bought more than you could pay for.  As a result, the authorities come to haul you to debtors’ prison.  They arrive at your door to take you in.  They ring the doorbell.  You move to open the door.  But just before you do, the Lord Jesus steps around the corner.  “I’ll get it,” He says.  He opens the door and meets your accusers.  “Yes, he is guilty,” Jesus says.  “He has taken on a great deal of debt.  But I am standing here in his place.  I will pay his debt.  I will pay all he owes.”

That is the good news of the gospel:  Christ paying our debt.  Paul put it beautifully in Colossians 2.

¹³ And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, ¹⁴ by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Jesus canceled our debt.  How?  By taking it and nailing it to the cross!  And in so doing, “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame.”  Do you see?  Our creditors have no hold over us.  Our debt has been paid.  When the collectors call now, Jesus answers the phone.

This is the theological foundation for the prayer, “forgive us our debts.”  The certainty of forgiveness through Christ is what makes the prayer possible.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:8-9)

God is faithful.  He will always forgive.  And God is just.  He forgives on the basis of the work of Christ, who paid our debt.  So now we can pray:  forgive us our debts.

It is amazing how many people fantasize about winning the lottery or some large sum of money.  People dream of being able to wake up debt free, owing no man anything.  But the truly amazing thing is how easily we forget that Christ Jesus has offered precisely this to us.  Because of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, we can wake up free men, no longer in debt.  Our sin-debt has been paid for.  We are now free!

II. Citizens of the Kingdom of God Realize They Cannot Ask for Forgiveness Unless They are Offering Forgiveness to Others.

I said earlier that human beings have trouble with these two ideas:  receiving forgiveness and giving it.  Jesus has actually caused these two ideas to hold hands in the Lord’s prayer:  “and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.”  Then, in verses 14 and 15, we read this:

¹⁴ For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, ¹⁵ but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

How wonderful would it be if Jesus had stopped the fifth petition after the first part:  “forgive us our debts”?  What if there was a period after “forgive us our debts”?  Such a period would cause us a lot of joy because it would mean that we have Jesus’ permission to use the cross for personal gain without ever having the show the love and forgiveness of Jesus to others.  In our selfishness and in our flesh, we like that idea.  But a heart that has tasted the forgiveness of Jesus cannot then turn around refuse that forgiveness to another.  We ask for our debts to be forgiven “as we also have forgiven our debtors.”  Jesus said something similar in Matthew 5:7, when He said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”

The merciful receive mercy.  Those who forgive are forgiven.  It is a difficult word, but one we must understand.  To ask for forgiveness without giving it is to live as a vampire off of Christ, to use Dallas Willard’s jarring image.  To do such is to live parasitically off of Jesus, taking gifts from Him that we then selfishly hoard.

General Oglethorpe once haughtily proclaimed to John Wesley, “I never forgive!”  To which Wesley responded, “Then I hope, sir, that you never sin.”[3]  We must understand this.  There is something obscene about a forgiven man refusing, in turn, to forgive.  In Matthew 18, Jesus told a powerful story demonstrating this truth.

²¹ Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” ²² Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times. ²³ “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. ²⁴ When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. ²⁵ And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. ²⁶ So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ ²⁷ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. ²⁸ But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ ²⁹ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ ³⁰ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. ³¹ When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. ³² Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. ³³ And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ ³⁴ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. ³⁵ So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

What an amazing and troubling story!  Have you ever done what the man in this story does:  receive forgiveness without offering it?  Jesus says that we will incur the anger of the Father “if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”  Yes, “from your heart.”  This is not cheap, surface forgiveness.  This is heart-felt, genuine forgiveness.  It is letting go of your anger and hatred and offering to another the beautiful gift that God has offered to you.

And therein lies the answer to the question, “To what extent must I forgive?”  Here is the answer:  “To the extent that you have been forgiven.”  I assure you that this simple rule will insure that you never sin in this area:  forgive others no more or no less than the Lord Jesus has forgiven you.  That is all.  How much has Jesus forgiven you?  Forgive others that much.

Citizens of the Kingdom of God have lives forever altered by the radical forgiveness of Jesus Christ.  As such, they are freed to forgive others.  And when this happens, they are free to pray, “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

One of the most beautiful and moving depictions of forgiveness I have ever seen is found in the film “The Mission.”  If you have not watched “The Mission,” you really should.  The film is about an 18^th century Jesuit missionary endeavor to reach the Guarani tribe that lived above the Iguazu Falls in South America.  A Jesuit priest, Father Gabriel, makes contact with the Indians after they kill a missionary who made an earlier effort to reach them.  Father Gabriel reaches out to the Guarani with love and forgiveness.

But the Guarani themselves have to decide whether or not to show forgiveness.  In the movie, Robert De Niro plays a slave-trader named Rodrigo Mendoza.  He is a swash-buckling, hard man who has started hunting above the falls, killing and enslaving some of the Guarani Indians that Father Gabriel and his brothers are trying to reach.  Rodrigo hunts, captures, and kidnaps the Indians of this tribe, selling them to Spanish plantations.

Early in the movie, after returning from a successful slaving expedition, Rodrigo returns to his home to find that his brother, Filipe, is having an affair with his fiance.  In a fit of rage, he kills his brother and immediately spirals into despair and hopelessness.  He is now a slave trader, a murderer, and the murderer of his own brother.  He feels lost.  He feels hopeless.  He feels beyond all hope and redemption.  Rodrigo believes he cannot be saved or forgiven.

It is at this point that Father Gabriel visits Rodrigo and offers him a path of penance.  He tells Rodrigo that there is a way he could demonstrate genuine repentance for his crimes and his sins.  Rodrigo tells Father Gabriel that he is beyond forgiveness.  Father Gabriel tells him that that is not the case.

Here is what Father Gabriel proposes, in essence, to Rodrigo:  take your armor, your swords, your weapons, and all the dressing that you wore as a slave trader.  Tie it to your back and climb the Iguazu Falls, presenting yourself to the Guarani Indians, the very Indians you have murdered and enslaved.  It is a daring proposal, and one that will mean almost certain death for Rodrigo, for surely the Indians will kill their persecutor when they see him.  But he is so broken that he agrees.

There is an exhausting and grueling scene in the movie where we see Rodrigo lugging his armor behind him, dragging it to and then up the Iguazu Falls.  He struggles.  He falls.  He gets back up.  One of the brothers, concerned that it is too much, cuts his burden loose.  Rodrigo, however, will have none of it.  His penance must be full.  He feels that he must pay for his sins.  So he goes back to his burden, reclaiming it, tying it once again to his weary shoulders.

The brothers accompanying him eventually climb the falls where they are met by the joyful Guarani.  They know these brothers as friends.  But then Rodrigo comes, pulling his burden of weapons.  They recognize him.  They recognize his cruel weapons.  They have seen him before.  He is the murderer of their children, the kidnapper of their sons and daughters, the slave trader who has sinned against them.  And here he comes, lugging his sins in tow.

The Indians see him and stand in confused anger.  One of the young Indians grabs a knife and runs to the now collapsed Rodrigo.  He grabs his hair, holding his head up, then places the knife to the neck of their persecutor.  Rodrigo waits for certain death.  The Jesuit brothers accompanying wait to see what will happen.  The young Indian yells at him menacingly.  Then he pauses, surveying the situation.  He speaks in his tongue to the leader of the tribe who speaks back.

Then the young Indian makes his move, but instead of cutting the throat of Rodrigo, he moves behind him and cuts the rope holding his burden instead.  He severs the rope, then pushes the tied bundle of armor and swords and weapons to the side of the cliff and then over the edge.

Rodrigo is stunned.  He cannot believe it.  He looks in disbelief at the young Indian, then at those around him.  Then he begins to cry.  He weeps.  He has been shown mercy.  He has been shown forgiveness.  He has been shown grace by the very people he persecuted.

The Indians are amused at seeing this powerful man weep.  So they laugh.  The Jesuits surround Rodrigo, laughing and embracing him as he weeps.  The Indians surround him too, laughing and pulling at his strange beard.  And then Rodrigo laughs.  He laughs with tears streaming down his face.

The Guarani were shown forgiveness by the Jesuits.  The slave trader is shown forgiveness by the Guarani.  It is grace, brothers and sisters.  It is a picture of heaven.

How often we carry our sins behind us, lugging our shame and our crimes.  We present ourselves before our judge, guilty and broken.  We expect death.  We deserve death.  But our great King does not give us death.  Our great King gives us forgiveness, life, redemption, salvation.  He cuts the burden loose from us.  He sets us free.

But how He cuts it loose from us is telling indeed!  He cuts it loose from us with His own hands, then He ties it to His own back.  He carries my sin.  He carries my shame.  He carries my crimes.  He takes them onto His back.  He takes them onto His shoulder.  He carries them, my sins, to the cross.  And there He pays the price for them, obliterating them in one great and shocking act of sacrifice.  He sets me free, and I can scarce believe it.

And now I am free to forgive!  I can share in this work of Christ by forgiving those who have wronged me.  I can show Jesus to people in how I forgive, in how I let go.

“Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

Exodus 8:1-15

¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. ² But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country with frogs. ³ The Nile shall swarm with frogs that shall come up into your house and into your bedroom and on your bed and into the houses of your servants and your people, and into your ovens and your kneading bowls. ⁴ The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your servants.”’” ⁵ And the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the canals and over the pools, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt!’” ⁶ So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. ⁷ But the magicians did the same by their secret arts and made frogs come up on the land of Egypt. ⁸ Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, “Plead with the Lord to take away the frogs from me and from my people, and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.” ⁹ Moses said to Pharaoh, “Be pleased to command me when I am to plead for you and for your servants and for your people, that the frogs be cut off from you and your houses and be left only in the Nile.” ¹⁰ And he said, “Tomorrow.” Moses said, “Be it as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God. ¹¹ The frogs shall go away from you and your houses and your servants and your people. They shall be left only in the Nile.” ¹² So Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried to the Lord about the frogs, as he had agreed with Pharaoh. ¹³ And the Lord did according to the word of Moses. The frogs died out in the houses, the courtyards, and the fields. ¹⁴ And they gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank. ¹⁵ But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

In many ways, our text is an odd text for a Lord’s Supper service.  After all, the plague of frogs in Egypt was a symbol of God’s wrath and judgment for the disobedience of Pharaoh, and the symbols of bread and juice are symbols of the grace that God has offered the world through Jesus Christ.  The frogs make us cringe in disgust.  The cross causes our hearts to soar on wings of praise.  The frogs spoke of coming doom.  The cross speaks of coming salvation.  The frogs were a vile inconvenience.  The cross is a beautiful declaration of God’s love.

Yet in both cases God reveals something true and necessary about Himself to the world.  In both cases God works in shocking and jarring ways.  In both cases these shocking acts spell hope and coming deliverance for the people of God.  And in both cases the way is being paved for an Exodus from bondage.

So maybe this is not such a strange Lord’s Supper text after all.

I. Pharaoh begins to differentiate between greater and lesser powers. (v.1-11)

Having, in his view, survived the first plague of blood, Pharaoh steels his resolve to continue his cruel subjugation of the Hebrews.  He had promised to let them go into the wilderness to worship God if the waters of the Nile were turned back to water from the blood.  When Moses interceded for him, however, he changed his mind.  In doing so, he set the stage for the second plague, and a rather grotesque one at that.

¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. ² But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country with frogs. ³ The Nile shall swarm with frogs that shall come up into your house and into your bedroom and on your bed and into the houses of your servants and your people, and into your ovens and your kneading bowls. ⁴ The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your servants.”’” ⁵ And the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the canals and over the pools, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt!’” ⁶ So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt.

Yes, rather grotesque indeed!  I once saw a documentary about the 1993 Australian mouse plague that cost that nation over $70 million in crop damage.  It was a jarring documentary.  Mice were everywhere, moving here and there in foul, teeming waves.  It was unbelievable!  It was also a national catastrophe.  A solution was finally discovered, and the mice were poisoned.   Then the country had to deal with countless piles of mice carcasses.

That gives me the shivers just thinking about it!  And there can be no doubt that this plague of frogs was even worse.  Just imagine.  One commentator pointed out that the Egyptians apparently did not wear shoes indoors.  It is quite possible, then, that there are things worse than stepping on the stray Lego block barefooted.  Yuck!  And it has also been pointed out that the Egyptians did not sleep in raised beds, but on mats on the floor.  Just imagine sleeping on a frog-infested ground.

So the frogs came in foul multitudes.  The Egyptians were used to periods of frog infestation, depending on the condition of the Nile, but they had never seen anything like this.  Yet, just as with the first plague, the Egyptian magicians show that they are able to do the same, at least on a limited scale.

⁷ But the magicians did the same by their secret arts and made frogs come up on the land of Egypt.

Again, what we are seeing in a microcosm is the cosmic battle between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness.  We have already seen that the devil does indeed have some power, only, of course, as it is allowed him by the Lord (Job 1:6-12).  However, it is interesting to see that Pharaoh himself appears less and less impressed by the limited power his magicians yield.

⁸ Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, “Plead with the Lord to take away the frogs from me and from my people, and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.” ⁹ Moses said to Pharaoh, “Be pleased to command me when I am to plead for you and for your servants and for your people, that the frogs be cut off from you and your houses and be left only in the Nile.” ¹⁰ And he said, “Tomorrow.” Moses said, “Be it as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God. ¹¹ The frogs shall go away from you and your houses and your servants and your people. They shall be left only in the Nile.”

Pharaoh appears to recognize the difference between the greater and lesser powers.  Why?  Perhaps he notices that his magicians can only mimic the power that Moses and Aaron yield.  Why can they not work their own magic?  Why must they only copy and distort?  Of course, we know that is how the devil works:  he copies and distorts, but he does not have creative power.  He may also note that his magicians appear to have no power over Moses and Aaron themselves.  There is a wall of protection around them, and, indeed, around all of the Hebrews as well.

So once again Pharaoh pleads for mercy.  He claims, again, that he will let the Hebrews go.  Thus, Moses agrees to pray for Pharaoh on the following day, per Pharaoh’s instructions.

II. God was yet willing for Pharaoh to repent, even as God knew he would not. (v.12-13)

Here we find a great mystery.  On the one hand, the Lord has already revealed His own knowledge that Pharaoh ultimately would not repent.  He did so in Exodus 7.

¹ And the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. ² You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. ³ But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, ⁴ Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. ⁵ The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.”

On the other hand, the Lord called off the second plague after Moses’ intercession for Pharaoh following Pharaoh’s second declaration that he would let the Hebrews go.

¹² So Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried to the Lord about the frogs, as he had agreed with Pharaoh. ¹³ And the Lord did according to the word of Moses. The frogs died out in the houses, the courtyards, and the fields.

We might ask, “Why?”  Why let this play out if God ultimately knows that Pharaoh will not repent?  No doubt the answer lies in the great mystery of the interchange between the sovereignty of God and the response of man.  Some call this dynamic an antinomy or even a paradox, a mystery arising from two ideas that would appear to be contradictory but that ultimately prove not to be.

In a sense, we might say that God was yet willing for Pharaoh to repent even as God knew He would not.  To be sure, the Lord God knows how our lives will play out, yet we still have before us the choice of rebellion or repentance.  In short, I believe this is a comforting passage that gives us hope, even though it may confuse the more analytical parts of our minds.  Regardless, we find here the mercy of God in ending the vile plague of frogs.

III. What appeared to be repentance was really just discomfort. (v.14-15)

Pharaoh appears to repent, but, alas, it is only in appearance.

¹⁴ And they gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank. ¹⁵ But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

How unbelievable!  How tragic!  Once again Pharaoh goes back on his word and reveals his supposed repentance to be a fraud.  There is a telling phrase here:  “But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite…”

I believe that what appeared to be repentance was really just discomfort.  Pharaoh makes certain promises, not because he was genuinely grieved over his sin and desirous for real reformation, but because he was uncomfortable and wanted the plague to stop.  But once stopped, his feigned sorrow disappears.

We may very well see a parallel between the “repentance” of Pharaoh and the “repentance” of Judas Iscariot.  We read of Judas’ despair in Matthew 27.

³ Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, ⁴ saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” They said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” ⁵ And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself.

Judas appears to repent, yet Jesus’ words in Matthew 26 would suggest that Judas would not show real repentance leading to salvation.

²⁰ When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve. ²¹ And as they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” ²² And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, “Is it I, Lord?” ²³ He answered, “He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me. ²⁴ The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” ²⁵ Judas, who would betray him, answered, “Is it I, Rabbi?” He said to him, “You have said so.”

What, then, was this that Judas demonstrated in taking his own life?  Was it genuine repentance?  Likely not.  It would appear to be psychological distress or despair or perhaps regret that he had caused a good man to die, but not genuine repentance.  So too with Pharaoh.

It raises an unpleasant but absolutely essential question:  have I genuinely grieved over my sin or have I simply asked God to make the discomfort resulting from my sins go away?  Have I genuinely pled for a new heart or have I simply asked for the cessation of consequences?  Have I really repented?

That chilling passage from Matthew 7 comes to play here:

²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ ²³ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Is it not the case that there will be people who meet their death with the steady assurance and confidence that they are children of God, but who will discover at the moment of their passing that the Lord does not know them as children?  The Lord Jesus says this is so.  And how else can we delude ourselves on this count except we do so through bluffing repentance, through confusing discomfort for real conviction and sorrow?

If we do not actually repent, then we do not actually know Jesus.  This is a key truth for us to grasp as we approach the Lord’s Supper table.  As we take the ordinance, declaring thereby that we are one with Christ, we must ask ourselves if we truly are one with Him.  Paul put it this way in 1 Corinthians 11:

²⁷ Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. ²⁸ Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. ²⁹ For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. ³⁰ That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. ³¹ But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. ³² But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

Yes, it is imperative that we are one with the Christ whose death we memorialize in the Supper.  How do we know if we are one with Christ?  If we have bent heart and knee and mind and body and soul before Him in sincere, heartbroken repentance.

Do not be like Pharaoh, playing games with words while all the while trying to hold on to your own kingdom.

Matthew 6:11

¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread

In the 1965 film, “Shenandoah,” Jimmy Stewart’s character, Charlie Anderson, sits at the head of his family’s table and offers this prayer over their food.

Lord, we cleared this land. We plowed it, sowed it, and harvest it. We cook the harvest. It wouldn’t be here and we wouldn’t be eating it if we hadn’t done it all ourselves. We worked dog-bone hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you Lord just the same for the food we’re about to eat. Amen.

It is a fascinating and, of course, terrible prayer.  What makes that prayer terrible is its stark lack of any sense of dependence.  There is no dependence in that prayer.  None.  This is tragic because of the many characteristics of true prayer, dependence is surely one of the most crucial.

Contrast Charlie Anderson’s prayer with the prayer of George Mueller, that amazing man of God through whom God touched and changed the lives of countless orphans in 19^th century England.  Mueller wrote this about a time when he realized that he had only enough food for one more meal for him and his orphans:

When I gave thanks after lunch, I asked Him to give us our daily bread, meaning literally that He would send us bread for the evening. While I was praying there was a knock at the door. A poor sister came in and brought us part of her dinner and five shillings. Later, she also brought us a large loaf of bread.[1]

No sarcasm.  No arrogance.  Mueller showed simple dependence on God, and God provided. Give us this day our daily bread.”  That simple statement is a powerful cry of dependence.  It depends upon the goodness of God.  And God is good!  Interestingly, in Matthew 7, Jesus said that good fathers give their children bread.

⁷ “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. ⁹ Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?

Yes, good fathers give their sons bread when they ask for it, and God is a good Father.  What, then, does this fascinating prayer mean?  What are we praying when we pray for daily bread?  What exactly is this petition Jesus instructs us to make?

I. The prayer for daily bread is a faith-fueled trust that God will provide our daily needs.

Simply put, this petition is a faith-fueled trust that God will provide our daily needs.  This petition asks because it believes.  It assumes the presence and goodness of God.  To pray for daily bread is to reveal the presence of faith in our lives.  Consider some fascinating aspects to this little petition.

This is a Daily Prayer of Dependence

In considering the prayer for bread, we might miss the obvious fact that daily prayer is assumed in this little petition.  Why?  Because daily bread assumes a daily prayer for that bread.  Furthermore, daily bread assumes daily prayer because bread, here, refers to the very basic elements of physical survival. When Alfred Delp was awaiting death in a Nazi prison, he wrote this:

Only one who has known the effect hunger can have on every life impulse can appreciate the respect in which bread is held and what the perpetual struggle for daily bread really means.[2]

Without bread, our bodies die.  We pray daily for bread so that we might live.  But the prayer for daily bread only has integrity insofar as it is prayed daily.  You cannot pray for daily bread once a month!  No, by definition, this is a daily prayer.

Why?  Because the petition for the daily elements of physical survival drives us over and over and over again into the presence of the only true source of life:  God.  The truth that only God can give us daily survival creates a powerful sense of dependence upon God.  This is why God tells us to pray for daily bread:  so that we will not drift from Him during long periods of non-prayer.  Just think of it.  If we only prayed for monthly bread, we might be tempted to abandon God for every other day of the month except that day on which we prayed.  But the prayer for daily bread does not allow us to do this.  We come before our great God day after day, seeking daily bread.

You will remember that, in the wilderness, God gave Israel daily manna.  The followers of Rabbi Ben Jochai once asked him, “Why did not the Lord furnish enough manna to Israel for a year all at one time?”  Here was his response.

“I will answer you with a parable. Once there was a king who had a son to whom he gave a yearly allowance, paying him the entire sum on a fixed day. It soon happened that the day on which the allowance was given was the only day in the year when the father ever saw his son. So the king changed his plan and gave his son day by day that which sufficed for the day. And now the son visited his father every morning. Thus God dealt with Israel.”[3]

This is a Prayer for Sufficiency, Not Extravagance

It is also significant that this is prayer for daily bread.  It is a prayer for sufficiency, not extravagance.  It should be noted that “bread,” here, refers to whatever we need for life.  It is not merely a reference to food, but for what we need for life.  Martin Luther may have pressed it a little far, but he is, in general, correct to see daily bread as “food, drink, clothes, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money and goods, a godly husband or wife, devout children, good workers, honest and faithful leaders, good government, good weather, peace, health, law and order, an honorable name, faithful friends, trustworthy neighbors and things like that.”[4]  Again, we are not promised such things as good weather and trustworthy neighbors, but the prayer is indeed a prayer for the essentials of life that go beyond mere bread.  But bread is the staple of life, so that is the word the Lord uses.

This is significant.  We pray for bread, not cake.  John Chrysostom noted that “it is not for riches or frills that we pray.  It is not for wastefulness or extravagant clothing that we pray, but only for bread.  And only for bread on a daily basis, so as not to ‘worry about tomorrow.’”[5]  The word “daily” is significant, but so is the word “bread.”  It is enough that we have daily bread.

Again, in the wilderness, the Lord gave Israel daily manna for survival.  We find this in Exodus 16.

⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. ⁵ On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.”

So God gave Israel enough for the day.  However, many of the Jews found this arrangement insufficient.  Daily manna did not sufficiently allay their fears about the days to come.  So they tried to hoard the manna, but with disastrous effects.

¹⁹ And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over till the morning.” ²⁰ But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them.

Do you see?  Real trust trust does not need to hoard.  Does this mean that our homes should literally only have just enough food for one day.  No.  That is not the point.  The point is that we not think that by hoarding and greedy accumulation we guarantee our survival.  Brothers and sisters, many a rich man has died with his pantry full and many a poor man has lived a long life with only enough food for the day.  The prayer for daily bread is simply a recognition that we truly gain nothing but frantic, fear-based, anxious attempts to insure our own survival.  We may have food for the week in our homes.  Fine and good.  But never trust that your life is in your pantry or your bank account.  Learn to pray for daily bread.

We see the same principle at work in Mark 6, when Jesus sent his disciples out as missionaries.  Listen closely to what He tells them as they prepare to embark.

⁷ And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. ⁸ He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts— ⁹ but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.

Ah!  “No bread.”  Do not take any bread!  Why?  Because He did not want His disciples to embark on their mission with the thought that their lives were in any hands other than His own.  He would give them daily bread.  That should be enough for His disciples.

In Judaism, there is a series of eighteen prayers called the Eighteen Benedictions, or the Amidah.  The 9^th prayer of the Amidah is called the Birkat Hashanim.  It, too, is a prayer for God’s provision and sustenance.  But listen to what it says.  This is how the Jews would pray.

“Bless for us, Adonai our God, this year and its crops. Grant us a blessing on the earth. Satisfy us from Your bounty and bless our year like other good years. Blessed are You, Adonai, who blesses the years.”

Do you see?  The Jews were accustomed to pray for yearly bread, yearly sustenance.  This would have been a prayer that the Jews of Jesus’ day knew well.  Give us this year our yearly bread!  But Jesus changes this.  We are to pray:  “Give us this day our daily bread.”

In Proverbs 30, Solomon actually asks that the Lord not give him too much bread.  Why?  Because extravagance has a way of tempting us away from the Lord.  Listen:

⁷ Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: ⁸ Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, ⁹ lest I be full and deny you
and say, “Who is the Lord?”
or lest I be poor and steal
and profane the name of my God.

Dear church, beware the danger of having too much!  Content yourself with daily bread.

This is a Prayer Born of Certainty

There is daily dependence and simplicity in this prayer.  There is also certainty.  This petition assumes God’s provision.  Jesus does not lead us to ask for something that the Lord wants to deny us.  God is not playing with us.  It is not a petition without a foundation.

R. Kent Hughes tells the story of a lady who purchased fifty Christmas cards to send to family members.  She bought them in a rush and signed them in a rush and mailed them in a rush.  She sent almost fifty cards.  After having mailed them, she relaxed, her Christmas duty having been completed.  A day or so later, she noticed one of the leftover cards and looked inside.  It said, “This card is just to say, A little gift is on the way.”[6]

She had promised a coming gift to almost fifty family members.  Those gifts never came.  Just imagine how let down they were!

Thankfully, the Lord is not like that.  God does not say, “A gift is on the way,” carelessly or flippantly.  He means what He says.  He does not dangle the promise of daily bread before us, toying with our hopes and expectations.  God always delivers.

In 1836, Josiah Conder wrote the following hymn:

Day by day the manna fell;

O to learn this lesson well!

Still by constant mercy fed,

Give me Lord, my daily bread.

“Day by day,” the promise reads,

Daily strength for daily needs;

Cast foreboding fears away;

Take the manna of today.

Lord! my times are in Thy hand;

All my sanguine hopes have planned,

To Thy wisdom I resign,

And would make Thy purpose mine.

Thou my daily task shalt give;

Day by day to Thee I live;

So shall added years fulfill,

Not my own, my Father’s will.

Fond ambition, whisper not;

Happy is my humble lot.

Anxious, busy cares away;

I’m provided for today.

Oh, to live exempt from care

By the energy of prayer:

Strong in faith, with mind subdued,

Yet elate with gratitude!

Yes!  That is it!  “Day by day.”  Give us this day our daily bread.  God will provide for our physical needs.

This raises an interesting and troubling question, however:  why do some who pray for daily bread starve?  Is it not the case that many followers of Christ have starved to death over the years and are starving even now?  Is it not the case that many pray for daily bread that they never receive?  Indeed, that is the case.  But let us simply acknowledge that the starvation of human beings today is a direct result of human selfishness and greed.  There has always been enough bread in the world to feed the world.  The problem is not God’s provision.  God has provided enough bread!  People starve because governments and individuals thwart the good intention of God through their own wickedness, refusing to let themselves be the vehicles through which bread comes to the poor.  The existence of daily bread, then, is not the issue.  The availability of daily bread is the issue.  And bread is often unavailable because human beings do not want to make it available to other human beings.

There is therefore also a missionary challenge in this petition:  am I being the hands by which God gives the poor daily bread?  Can I pray, “Lord, give me today daily bread, and also give my poor neighbor daily bread. And give my neighbor daily bread through me!”

II. The prayer for daily bread is a Christ-informed trust that God will nourish our souls.

That is the plain meaning of the petition.  I think we proceed past the plain meaning of a passage only when there is very good reason to do so.  Human beings have an amazing capacity to spiritualize plain passages.  Again, we should only do this when there is reason to do this, otherwise we may just be reading into the text what we want.  We are not to read into the text, we are simply to hear the text for what it says as the Holy Spirit speaks to us.

But it is indeed very interesting to see how often the Lord gives bread a non-literal meaning at many points in scripture.  For instance, in Matthew 16, Jesus actually rebukes the disciples for not being able to think beyond the physical components of bread.

⁵ When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. ⁶ Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” ⁷ And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.” ⁸ But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? ⁹ Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? ¹⁰ Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? ¹¹ How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” ¹² Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

So Jesus used bread in a physical and non-physical sense.  Perhaps on this basis we can carefully consider what non-physical meanings might be present here.  Again, the petition has a clear, physical application.  But does the prayer for daily bread suggest a deeper kind of nourishment as well?

Let us consider two such non-literal uses of the word “bread” by Jesus.  In Matthew 26, we find the amazing words of institution at the Lord’s Supper.

²⁶ Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”

Here, the word “bread” is used to refer to Christ’s body broken on the cross.  As such, bread refers to the very heart of the gospel:  Christ’s work on the cross.  “Give us this day our daily bread” speaks then of our salvation and the forgiveness of our sins.  Our hearts need daily bread!  Our hearts need the assurance that we have been born again through the work of Christ on the cross and in the empty tomb.

And in John 6, we find an even more extensive spiritual application of bread.

³¹ Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” ³² Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. ³³ For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” ³⁴ They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” ³⁵ Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

⁴¹ So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” ⁴² They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” ⁴³ Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. ⁴⁴ No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. ⁴⁵ It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— ⁴⁶ not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. ⁴⁷ Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰ This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Amazing!  Jesus is the bread of life (v.35a).  Jesus takes away all of our hunger and thirst (v.35b).  Jesus is the bread that comes down from Heaven (v.50a).  He is the bread that grants life eternal (v.50b).  He is the living bread (v.51a).  And He is the bread that God offers to the world (v.51c).

The prayer for daily bread is a Christ-informed trust that God will nourish our souls.  To pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” is to pray not only for daily sustenance, but to pray Christ Himself!  “Give us this day our daily bread of life!  Give us this day, Jesus!”

Do you see?  We live, daily, on the presence and truth of the living Christ.  He is daily bread.  What a tragedy, then, when we forsake the daily bread of His presence in prayer and in His Word.  To go a day without prayer is to say to the Lord that you have no need for the daily bread of Jesus.  To go a day without feasting on scripture is to tell God that you have no need for the daily bread of Jesus.  To not share the gospel with others is to say to the Lord that your neighbors have no need of the daily bread of Jesus.

I ask you:  is Jesus daily bread to you?  Is He?  Do you wake in the morning with a hunger and need for Christ Jesus?  Do you turn, time and again, to the bountiful feast of God’s Word?

Friends, God has given us daily bread in Christ.  There is no need to die from spiritual starvation because we will not turn to Jesus.

Give us this daily our daily bread:  nourishment for our bodies and souls.