But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Ver. 4. But he answered and said, It is written] "With his sore and great and strong sword" of the Spirit doth the Lord here "punish leviathan, that crooked piercing serpent," Isaiah 27:7. With these shafts out of God's quiver, with these pebbles chosen out of the silver streams of the Scriptures, doth he prostrate the Goliah of hell. The word of God hath a power in it to quail and to quash Satan's temptations, far better than that wooden dagger, that leaden sword of the Papists, their holy water, crossings, grains, dirty relics, &c. It is not the sign of the cross, but the word of the cross, that overthrows Satan. He can no more abide by it than an owl by the shining of the sun. Set therefore the word against the temptation, and the sin is laid. Say, I must not do it, I may not, I dare not; for it is forbidden in such a place, and again in such a place. And be sure to have places of Scripture ready at hand (as Saul had his spear and pitcher ready at his head even while he slept), that ye may "resist the devil," "steadfast in the faith," grounded on the word. Joseph overcame him by remembering the seventh commandment: and David, by hiding this word in his heart, Psalms 119:11. Wicked therefore was that advice of Dr Bristow to his agents, to labour still to get heretics out of their weak and false castle of Holy Scriptures into the plain fields of councils and fathers. The Scriptures are our armoury (far beyond that of Solomon, Son 4:4), whither we must resort and furnish ourselves. One savoury sentence thereof shall do us more service than all the pretty, witty sayings and sentences of fathers and philosophers, or constitutions of councils.
Man liveth not by bread alone] Though ordinarily, as having a nourishing property inherent in it for such a purpose; yet so, as that the operation and success is guided by God's power and goodness, whereon (as on a staff) this staff of life leaneth, Ezekiel 4:16; "A wise woman buildeth her house," Proverbs 14:1. As the carpenter lays the plan of the house in his head first, and contrives it, so doth she forecast, and further the well doing of her family: and yet "except the Lord also build the house, they labour in vain that build it," Psalms 127:1. So the diligent hand and the blessing of God (meeting) make rich, Proverbs 10:4; Proverbs 10:22 .
But by every word, &c.] That is, by anything else besides bread, whatsoever God shall think good, whatsoever he shall appoint and give power unto to be nourishment. Therefore if bread fail, feed on faith, Psalms 37:3. Pascere fide: so Junius reads that text. Jehoshaphat found it sovereign when all other help failed him,2 Chronicles 20:6. And the captive Jews lived by faith, when they had little else to live upon, and made a good living of it, Habakkuk 2:4. To this text the Jews seem to allude in that fiction of theirs, that Habakkuk was carried by the hair of the head, by an angel, into Babylon, to carry a dinner to Daniel in the den. (History of Bel and the Dragon, /Apc Bel 33-39) It was by faith that he "stopped the mouth of lions, and obtained promises," Hebrews 11:33; and by faith that she answered the persecutors, "If you take away my meat, I trust God will take away my stomach." (Eliz. Young, Acts and Monuments.) God made the ravens feed Elias, that were more likely (in that famine) to have fed upon his dead carcase; and another time caused him to go forty days in the strength of one meal, 1 Kings 19:8. Merlyn was nourished a fortnight together with one egg a day, laid by a hen that came constantly to that haymow, where he lay hidden during the massacre of Paris. (French Chronicle.) And who hath not read or heard how, by a miracle of his mercy, God relieved Rochelle in a strait siege by an innumerable company of fishes cast in upon them? Carissima semper munera sunt, author quae preciosa facit. Faith fears no famine (fides famem non formidat); and although it be but small in substance and in show (as the manna was), yet is it great in virtue and operation. The rabbins say, that manna had all manner of good tastes in it: so hath faith. It drinks to a man in a cup of nepenthe, and bids him be of good cheer, God will provide for him. The Bishop of Norwich kept Robert Samuel, martyr, without food and drink, whereby he was unmercifully vexed, saving that he had every day allowed him two or three morsels of bread, and three spoonfuls of water, to the end he might be reserved to further torment. How often would he have drunk his own water! But his body was so dried up with long emptiness, that he was not able to make one drop of water. After he had been famished with hunger two or three days together, he fell into a sleep, as it were one half in a slumber; at which time one clothed in white seemed to stand before him, which ministered comfort unto him by these words, "Samuel, Samuel, be of good cheer, and take a good heart unto thee; for after this day thou shalt never be either hungry or thirsty;" for speedily after this he was burned, and from that time, till he should suffer, he felt neither hunger nor thirst. And this declared he, to the end, as he said, that all men might behold the wonderful work of God. (Acts and Monuments.) He likes not to be tied to the second ordinary causes, nor that (in defect of the means) we should doubt his providence. It is true, he commonly worketh by them, when he could do without, that we may not neglect the means, as being ordained of him. (David shall have victory, but by an ambush,2 Samuel 5:19,24. Men shall be nourished, but by their labour, Psa 128:2) But yet so, as that he doth all in all by those means (he made grass, grain, and trees, before he made the sun, moon, and stars, by the influence whereof they are and grow). Yea, to show himself chief, he can and doth work, other whiles, without means 2 Chronicles 14:11, and against means, suspending the power and operation of the natural causes as when the fire burnt not, the water drowned not, the sun went back ten degrees, the rock gave water, the iron swam, &c. And then, when he works by means, he can make them produce an effect diverse from their nature and disposition; or can hinder, change, or mitigate their proper effect; at the prayer of Elias it rained not for three years and a half. "And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit,"James 5:17,18. A man would have thought that after such a long drought, the roots of trees and herbs should have been utterly dried up, and the land past recovery; but "God heard the heavens" (petitioning to him that they might exercise their influence for the fructifying of the earth), and the "heavens heard the earth, and the earth heard the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they heard Jezreel," Hosea 2:22. Let all this keep us, as it did our Saviour here, from diffidence in God's providence, and make us "possess our souls in patience," Luke 21:19, hang upon the promise, and account it as good as present pay, though we see not how it can be effected. God loves to go away by himself. "He knows how to deliver his," saith St. Peter, 2 Peter 2:9, and he might speak it by experience, Acts 12:9, if ever any man might. "The king shall rejoice in God," saith David of himself when he was a poor exile in the wilderness of Judah, Psalms 63:11. But he had God's word for the kingdom, and therefore he was confident, seemed the thing ever so improbable or impossible. We trust a skilful workman to go his own way to work; shall we not God? In the sixth year of the reign of Darius Nothus was the Temple fully finished. That sacred work which the husband and son of an Esther crossed shall be happily accomplished by a bastard. The Israelites thought that Moses should presently have delivered them, and he himself thought as much, and therefore began before his time to do justice upon the Egyptian whom he slew and hid in the sand. But we see, God went another way to work; he sent Moses into a far country, and the bondage was for forty years after exceedingly increased upon them; yet all this to humble and try them, and to do them good in their latter end,Deuteronomy 8:2,3. He crosseth many times our likeliest project, and gives a blessing to those times and means whereof we despair. He breaks in pieces the ship that we think should bring us to shore, but casts us upon such boards as we did not expect. Lose we then any particular means? saith one; it is but the scattering of a beam, the breaking of a bucket, when the sun and the fountain is the same. But we for the most part do as Hagar did: when the bottle was spent, she falls a crying she was undone, she and her child should die; till the Lord opened her eyes to see the fountain. It was near her but she saw it not; when she saw it she was well enough. "If thou hadst been here," said Martha, "my brother Lazarus had not died." As if Christ could not have kept him alive, unless he had been present. So if Christ will come and lay his hands on Jairus' daughter, Mark 5:23, and Elisha stroke his hand over Naaman's leprosy, they shall be cured,2 Kings 5:11. So the disciples believed that Christ could feed so many thousands in the wilderness, but then he must have two hundred pennyworth of bread, Mark 6:37. But our Saviour gave them, soon after, an ocular demonstration of this truth, "That man liveth not by bread alone," &c. "They shall be helped with a little help," Daniel 11:34. Why a little? that through weaker means we may see God's greater strength.