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THE PENTATEUCH

GENESIS ---EXODUS--- LEVITICUS 1.1-7.38 --- 8.1-11.47 --- 12.1-16.34--- 17.1-27.34--- NUMBERS 1-10--- 11-19--- 20-36--- DEUTERONOMY 1.1-4.44 --- 4.45-11.32 --- 12.1-29.1--- 29.2-34.12 --- THE BOOK OF JOSHUA --- THE BOOK OF JUDGES --- PSALMS 1-17--- ECCLESIASTES --- ISAIAH 1-5 --- 6-12 --- 13-23 --- 24-27 --- 28-35 --- 36-39 --- 40-48 --- 49-55--- 56-66--- EZEKIEL --- DANIEL 1-7 ---DANIEL 8-12 ---

NAHUM--- HABAKKUK---ZEPHANIAH ---ZECHARIAH --- THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW ---THE GOSPEL OF MARK--- THE GOSPEL OF LUKE --- THE GOSPEL OF JOHN --- THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES --- 1 CORINTHIANS 1-7 --- 8-16 --- 2 CORINTHIANS 1-7 --- 8-13 -- -GALATIANS --- EPHESIANS --- COLOSSIANS --- 1 THESSALONIANS --- 2 THESSALONIANS --- 1 TIMOTHY --- 2 TIMOTHY --- TITUS --- HEBREWS 1-6 --- 7-10 --- 11-13 --- JAMES --- JOHN'S LETTERS --- REVELATION

--- THE GOSPELS

Chapter 16 ‘Give Us This Day Our Bread For Tomorrow, and Forgive Us Our Debts as We Forgive Our Debtors’ (Matthew 6.11).

But then we come to the second half of the prayer, and there it seems to be getting personal. At last we can think of ourselves. But if we think like that we are mistaken. For here also everything is concerned with the fulfilment of God’s purposes (and note the plural verbs. There is no ‘me’ here). For this should be the focus of our lives.

‘Give us this day our bread for tomorrow.’ At this point in the prayer some people sigh with relief. Here at last, they think, is something practical. At last we can have something for ourselves. And then we can expand on it and make a list of all the things we would like for ourselves, and call them ‘our daily bread’ and hope that we will get them.

But does it not strike you that on the face of it this prayer is out of place here? That it actually seems to be praying for what Jesus told us that we do not need to pray for (Matthew 6.32). There He said, and in this context, ‘do not be anxious about what you shall eat’, and criticises the Gentiles for being anxious about ‘these things’, which refers to what they eat and drink. Would He then in this prayer tell us to ask for food, contrary to all that He will say? And if He now does tell us to ask for food, what about clothing as well? Those are equally as prominent in what follows. Why if He means food and clothing does He not mention clothing in the prayer?

Of course we can answer this by suggesting that what He allows is that we ask for our basic need to be met. That we are saying that we can live without most things but we cannot live without food. Is Jesus not therefore saying, ‘This at least you may ask from your Father.’ But it is strange then that later He says, ‘your Father knows that you need these things before you ask Him’, and criticises the Gentiles for seeking ‘all these things’ because it demonstrates that they do not trust God fully (Matthew 6.32), for ‘all these things’ clearly refers back to the eating and drinking in verse 31. And the fact is that in the whole passage He is taking our thoughts away from such earthly things. He is stressing heavenly provision. For the whole passage gives the impression that we do not need to pray for earthly things because (like any father would) our Father will provide them without our asking, and all we have to do is say ‘thank You’.

And some would then say, ‘Yes, that is what it is. We are saying, ‘Thank you’ and expressing our dependence. And that is why they like to translate the Greek word ‘daily’. But that is not the impression gained from the whole of the chapter. The impression gained from the whole chapter is that it is concentrating on seeking ‘heavenly’ things, such as heavenly treasure (6.20), God not mammon (6.24), and accepting our food and clothing as and when supplied by God (6.25-31). And while the matter is not fully settled a good amount of opinion favours the translation as ‘tomorrow’, an opinion backed up by the only ancient version of the prayer that we have in Aramaic. That being so it would seem probable that we are to seek in this another meaning connected with heavenly things.

The idea of ‘Tomorrow’ certainly came to be connected with the great Tomorrow, the last days as connected with the Messiah. The Jews were constantly looking forward to the great ‘Tomorrow’. And it seems quite likely then that Jesus was teaching them to pray for the bread of the last days, for the bread of that time when the chosen of God would eat at Messiah’s table, for He wanted them to know that it was imminent. He wanted them to think in terms of soon partaking in the great Tomorrow. That is why He had come, in order to feed men with the Bread of the great Tomorrow.

Bread is in fact very much connected with ‘the last days’, a phrase which in the New Testament includes the life and ministry of Jesus. And we must remember that to the disciples He had brought in these last days. And in the last days the belief was that the Messiah would give bread from Heaven, as Moses had (compare John 6.31-32 in the context of the feeding of the crowds with bread). And that is why Jesus referred to Himself as ‘the bread of life’ (John 6.35). He said that He had come to bring God’s bread to His people. He had come as God’s Bread from Heaven.

Thus we may see here that Jesus’ prayer, given for us to pray, should be seen as pointing to a prayer for the final fulfilment of God’s purposes, a fulfilment to be achieved ‘today’ (or in Luke, ‘each day’). He is saying to His disciple, pray that the imminent approach of the Kingly Rule of God under the Christ, where you will eat of the bread of God, (which He later makes clear then refers to Himself), may not be delayed. Pray that it will come ‘today’. It is essentially a prayer that they might almost immediately partake of Christ and receive life from Him. It was an indication that the Kingly Rule of God was here. And they were to pray that they might have their share in it along with all His people. That they should not miss out on what God has given.

‘Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.’ The Aramaic word for ‘debts’ was used also of ‘sins’. Thus this is a very literal translation by Matthew and the prime meaning is ‘forgive us our sins’, although Matthew (and Aramaic) intends us to recognise that this signifies the debt that we owe to God because we have sinned. In the same way Jesus Himself taught a parable where sin was seen as in the form of a debt (Luke 7.41). Over the centuries man had piled up a great debt that he owed to God, because he had fallen short of what God required. It was for relief of this debt due to sin that Jesus wanted them to pray, so that they might come before God as a forgiven community, as Messiah’s people. They were to seek forgiveness for each and forgiveness for all (‘our’). In the same way they themselves were to forgive those who had piled up a host of sins against them. Widespread forgiveness in this way was a further expectation of ‘the last days’ when all would be made right. Jesus is therefore in both these prayers (bread for Tomorrow and forgiveness of debts) saying to His disciples, the last days are upon you, the Kingly Rule of God is at the door, the time of the Messiah is here. Pray then that you might be fitted for the last days, and receive My bread, and be forgiven, and forgive others, and go forward as the new people of the Christ.

‘And lead us not into testing, but deliver us from evil.’ Again we call to mind something about the last days. They were to be a time of testing and trouble. The Bible speaks of the ‘birthpangs’ that would introduce the time when God’s deliverance came. So the prayer here is that they might be delivered from the worst of ‘the Messianic woes’, the time of suffering in this present age which will lead to glory, so that they may triumph and not go under. They know that their only hope of triumphant victory depends on being led forward by God into deliverance from the Evil One and his evil ways. They do not seek to be tested, they pray that they may be delivered from it, for they know their weakness without Him.

Thus as in the first half, so in the second, we are praying about God’s ultimate purposes. For this, said Jesus, was what was to be our ultimate concern.

It should, however, immediately be made clear that this does not mean that the Lord’s prayer is redundant, for we are still in ‘the last days’, for Christ is risen and is King in Heaven, and is also King on earth among His people. Its point is that they were, and we are, in the last days which commenced with Jesus resurrection. And that in these last days we too should pray for heavenly sustenance, for heavenly forgiveness and for heavenly protection so that His name might be hallowed through what we are. It is stressing that we too should be seeking heavenly things, and not bothering with earthly things any more than we need to. It is very much connecting us with eternity. And its purpose is very much in order to stress the urgency of the days in which we are living. It is saying, remember that you are living in the light of eternity, and let all your concentration in every way be on that. In other words it is a prayer that we might live for Christ, and for Him and His purposes alone.