{"id":1204,"date":"2009-04-03T22:26:57","date_gmt":"2009-04-04T06:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/2009\/04\/03\/does-mt-44-teach-perfect-preservation\/"},"modified":"2009-04-03T22:26:57","modified_gmt":"2009-04-04T06:26:57","slug":"does-mt-44-teach-perfect-preservation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/2009\/04\/03\/does-mt-44-teach-perfect-preservation\/","title":{"rendered":"does mt 4.4 teach perfect preservation?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is in response to the ongoing conversation in reply to my last post<\/a>. Kent has given his reasons<\/a> for teaching that Matthew 4.4 teaches perfect preservation and continual availability of the word of God in every generation. My thesis is that the text teaches no such thing.<\/p>\n

First let’s look at the text itself:<\/p>\n

\n

Matthew 4:4 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. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is a quotation from Dt 8.3:<\/p>\n

\n

Deuteronomy 8:3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What is the point of the passage? It is possible for a NT quotation to be an application of an OT passage, not giving a new meaning exactly, but instead taking the general principle and applying it to a new situation. This doesn\u2019t appear to be the case in this passage. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The situations are remarkably parallel. Consider:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The Jews spent 40 years in the wilderness; Jesus spent 40 days fasting<\/em> in the wilderness. <\/li>\n
  2. The Jews were in the wilderness at the command of God; Jesus was in the wilderness having been driven<\/em> there by the Spirit (Mk 1.12). <\/li>\n
  3. The Jews suffered lack in the wilderness at the hand of God; Jesus suffered lack by the will of God. <\/li>\n
  4. A major issue in the Jews relationship with God during this period was \u2018where do we get food\u2019; the issue with Jesus was \u2018I am denying myself food\u2019. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I think you will agree with me that the two passages are tightly connected by their contexts.<\/p>\n

    In the temptation, Satan takes it as a given that Jesus is the Son of God (\u2018If  you are the son\u2019 \u2013 first class condition, assuming it to be a fact). The power of the temptation lies in Jesus\u2019 hunger, just as it did with Israel in the wilderness.<\/p>\n

    In the wilderness, the men and women and their little children soon forgot the mighty power of God that delivered them from Egypt and began to complain against God – \u2018why have you led us out here? there\u2019s no food, no water, we\u2019ll die!\u2019 \u2013 they were accusing the good God of being something other than good. Their hunger, and especially, I think, the hunger of their little ones enraged them with fear against God.<\/p>\n

    In the case of Jesus, his hunger is used similarly to tempt him to act independently of God, to in effect say that God is not good or worth following. \u2018Since you are God,\u2019 the tempter says, \u2018what\u2019s with all this waiting around? You can feed yourself. You don\u2019t need to wait on anyone. The Father isn\u2019t doing anything about it, but you can \u2026 and you deserve<\/em> it.\u2019 (The temptation, by the way, is a powerful argument for the real humanity of Christ. If he were not human, the temptation would have no power \u2013 you try fasting for more than one day, see how you like it!<\/font>)<\/p>\n

    Tom Constable says on this temptation: \u201cGod had intended Israel\u2019s hunger in the wilderness to teach her that hearing and obeying God\u2019s Word is the most important thing in life (Deut. 8:2\u20133). Israel demanded bread in the wilderness but died. Jesus forewent bread in submission to His Father\u2019s will and lived.\u201d ((Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible<\/i>, Mt 4:3 (Galaxie Software, 2003; 2003).))<\/p>\n

    This gets us to the heart of Jesus\u2019 reply. The point is that men must learn to depend in faith on what God says \u2013 everything God says, whether it makes sense or not.<\/p>\n

    From the human standpoint, does it make sense to go out into the wilderness on a 40 day fast? This is especially senseless when one lives in a civilized (relatively) area where plenty of food is available and no crisis demands such rigour.<\/p>\n

    Adam was unable to withstand temptation for more than a few minutes, it seems. Israel succumbed within the first few days of their journeyings (after what food they brought with them ran out). Jesus fasted forty days. And refused the tempter \u2013 he lived by the Word of God that sent him to the wilderness.<\/p>\n

    Now, Kent and others are arguing, Jesus is referring to every individual word (at least, that portion that had as yet been given). From this assertion, that Jesus is referring to every one of the words from Genesis to Malachi, Kent reasons that for them to live by every word of God, they would have to have those words available. Hence, he says, this assertion implies<\/em> that God will always make his word available to his people.<\/p>\n

    A couple of things need to be said here:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Kent is using reason to argue a system<\/em> here. The passage in no way says that God will make every word always available to men. This is a reasoned<\/em> position, reasoned by man, not revealed by God.<\/li>\n
    2. The word that the Israelites were told to live by had not been written at the time. It was available only orally, not in any written form. When it became available in written form, how many copies were available to the average Israelite? Probably only one copy during the entire 40 years in the wilderness, kept by the priests in the Tabernacle. The Deuteronomy passage itself was not written until Moses spoke it, at the end of the 40 years.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      So let\u2019s consider the Word that the Israelites had to learn to live by in the wilderness. What was it? I think we can paraphrase it this way: \u201cFollow Moses out of Egypt and go take the land I promised your fathers.\u201d<\/p>\n

      What word was Jesus living by in the wilderness of temptation? This word: \u201cGo out into the wilderness until such time as I call thee.\u201d The Spirit drove him out into the wilderness, remember. Do you think Jesus went out there with a backpack full of scrolls? Do you think he\u2019s thinking, \u201cMan, the Spirit wants me out in the wilderness, I better pack Genesis to Malachi so I won\u2019t die out there. Now where did I put Obadiah?\u201d (I speak as a fool!)<\/p>\n

      No, Jesus knows he is in the wilderness by the Word of God. He knows he will not stay in the wilderness because he has his Father\u2019s business to do, also something he knows by the Word of God. He has learned to obey the word, and will not be turned aside from it.<\/p>\n

      I suppose Kent may argue, \u201cbut the text says every<\/em> word\u201d. Yes it does. But that is a command for us to hear and heed. It is not a promise to us that God is going to always make every individual word available to us. Jesus didn\u2019t have every individual written Word available to him in the wilderness. But he was there by the Word, under the Word, committed to the Word and completely dependent on the Word.<\/p>\n

      May we all have such a trust in God\u2019s Word that we never give in to any temptation to doubt what God says to us.<\/p>\n

      \"don_sig2\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      This is in response to the ongoing conversation in reply to my last post. Kent has given his reasons for teaching that Matthew 4.4 teaches perfect preservation and continual availability of the word of God in every generation. My thesis is that the text teaches no such thing. First let’s look at the text itself: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[92,71,70,110],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2fYWj-jq","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}