Quotes & Notes on:     Matthew 4:4   

• John Wesley's Notes:
    It is written-Thus Christ answered, and thus we may answer all the suggestions of the devil.
  
  By every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God-That is, by whatever God commands to sustain him. Therefore it is not needful I should work a miracle to procure bread, without any intimation of my Father's will. De 8:3. 
   

• Treasury of Scripture Knowledge:

  * It is. Mt 4:7,10; Lu 4:4,8,12; Ro 15:4; Eph 6:17
  * Man. De 8:3; Lu 4:4
  * but. Mt 14:16-21; Ex 16:8,15; 23:15; 1Ki 17:12-16; 2Ki 4:42-44; 7:1,2 Hag 2:16-19; Mal 3:9-11; Mr 6:38-44; 8:4-9; Joh 6:5-15; 21:25,25
  * but.
  That is, as Dr. Campbell renders, "by every thing which God is
  pleased to appoint;" for [rhema <See definition 4487>,]
  which generally signifies a word, is, by a Hebraism, here
  taken for a thing, like {davar,} in Hebrew.
   

• Adam Clarke's Commentary:

   But by (or, upon,) every word] , in Greek, answers to in Hebrew, which means not only a word spoken, but also thing, purpose, appointment, &c. Our Lord's meaning seems to be this: God purposes the welfare of his creatures-all his appointments are calculated to promote this end. Some of them may appear to man to have a contrary tendency; but even fasting itself, when used in consequence of a Divine injunction, becomes a mean of supporting that life which it seems naturally calculated to impair or destroy.
   

• Family Bible Notes:

   It is written; De 8:1 By every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God; every appointment of God for this purpose. Matthew does not here quote the exact words, but the sense.
   

• 1599 Geneva Bible Notes:
   (No comment on this verse).
   

• People's New Testament Commentary:

      It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone. The Lord uses the sword of the Spirit in his reply. The word quoted, found in De 8:3, should be used in its connection, in order to comprehend its force.
  
  But by every word, etc. The meaning is: If it pleases God to sustain by other means than bread, it will be done. His word can be trusted. God fed Israel with manna, sent by his word, and we can trust his promises.
   

• Robertson's Word Pictures:
    (No comment on this verse).
  
   

• Albert Barnes' Commentary:

     But he answered and said, etc. In reply to this artful temptation, Christ answered by a quotation from the Old Testament. The place is found in De 8:3. In that place the discourse is respecting manna. Moses says that the Lord humbled the people, and fed them with manna, an unusual kind of food, that they might learn that man did not live by bread only, but that there were other things to support life, and that every thing which God had commanded was proper for this. The term "word," used in this place, means very often, in Hebrew, thing, and clearly in this place has that meaning. Neither Moses nor our Saviour had any reference to spiritual food, or to the doctrines necessary to support the faith of believers; but they simply meant that God could support life by other things than bread; that man was to live, not by that only, but by every other thing which proceeded out of his mouth; that is, which he chose to command men to eat. The substance of his answer, then, is:--"It is not so imperiously necessary that I should have bread, as to make a miracle proper to procure it. Life depends on the will of God. He can support it in other ways, as well as by bread. He has created other things to be eaten, and man may live by everything that his Maker has commanded." And from this temptation we may learn,
  
  (1.) that Satan often takes advantage of our circumstances and wants to tempt us. The poor, and hungry, and naked, he often tempts to repine and complain, and to be dishonest in order to supply their necessities.
  
  (2.) Satan's temptations are often the strongest immediately after we have been remarkably favoured. Jesus had just been called the Son of God, and Satan took this opportunity to try him. He often attempts to fill us with pride and vain self-conceit, when we have been favoured with any peace of or any new view of God, and endeavours to urge us to do something which may bring us low, and lead us to sin.
  
  (3.) His temptations are plausible. They often seem to be only urging us to do what is good and proper. They seem even to urge us to promote the glory of God, and to honour him. We are not to think, therefore, that because a thing may seem to be good in itself, that therefore it is to be done. Some of his most powerful temptations are when he seems to be urging us to do what shall be for the glory of God.
  
  (4.) We are to meet the temptations of Satan, as the Saviour did, with the plain and positive declarations of Scripture. We are to inquire whether the thing is commanded, and whether, therefore, it is right to do it, and not trust to our own feelings, or even our wishes, in tho matter.
  
  {c} "Man shall not live by bread" De 8:3.
  
   

• Jamieson-Faussett Brown:

  But he answered and said, It is written-- (De 8:3).
  
  Man shall not live by bread alone--more emphatically, as in the Greek, "Not by bread alone shall man live."
  
  but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God--Of all passages in Old Testament Scripture, none could have been pitched upon more apposite, perhaps not one so apposite, to our Lord's purpose. "The Lord ... led thee (said Moses to Israel, at the close of their journeyings) these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments, or no. 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," &c., "Now, if Israel spent, not forty days, but forty years in a waste, howling wilderness, where there were no means of human subsistence, not starving, but divinely provided for, on purpose to prove to every age that human support depends not upon bread, but upon God's unfailing word of promise and pledge of all needful providential care, am I, distrusting this word of God, and despairing of relief, to take the law into My own hand? True, the Son of God is able enough to turn stones into bread: but what the Son of God is able to do is not the present question, but what is man's duty under want of the necessaries of life. And as Israel's condition in the wilderness did not justify their unbelieving murmurings and frequent desperation, so neither would Mine warrant the exercise of the power of the Son of God in snatching despairingly at unwarranted relief. As man, therefore, I will await divine supply, nothing doubting that at the fitting time it will arrive." The second temptation in this Gospel is in Luke's the third. That Matthew's order is the right one will appear, we think, quite clearly in the sequel.
   

• Spurgeon Commentary:

  Out flashed the sword of the Spirit: our Lord will fight with no other weapon. He could have spoken new revelations, but he chose to say, “It is written.” There is a power in the Word of God which even the devil cannot deny.  Our life and its sustenance are not dependent upon the visible, though the visible is ordinarily used for our support: we “live not by bread alone”, though it is the usual means of our support. He who sustained the Savior fasting for forty days could still keep him alive without bread. The secret
  influence of the word of Omnipotence could keep the vital forces in action even without bread. Bread owes its power to nourish our bodies to the secret agency of God, end that divine agency could work as surely without the usual means as with them. The word of the Lord which made the heavens can assuredly support all that it has made. Our Lord Jesus, in fact, told the tempter that he would not distrust the providence of God, but would wait his Father’s time for feeding him, and would by no means be driven to an act of unbelief and self-reliance.
   

• William Burkitt's Notes:

  Observe here, The weapon which our Savior made use of to repel the temptation, and to vanquish the tempter and that is the word of God, It is written.
  
  Learn, That the scripture, or the written word of God, is the only sure weapon wherewith to vanquish Satan, and to beat back all his fiery temptation.
  
  Satan himself has not the impudence to oppose scripture: What monsters of impiety then are they who ridicule and deride it! They not only run counter to the practice of Christ, but outdo the devil himself in impudence.
   

• Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary:

  (No comment on this verse).
   

• The Fourfold Gospel:

   But he answered and said, It is written. Jesus quotes De 8:3. It is a saying relative to the times when Israel was sustained by manna in the wilderness. The case of Jesus was now similar to that of Israel. He was in a foodless wilderness, but he trusted that as God had provided for Israel in its helplessness, so would he now provide for him. Israel sinned by doubt and murmuring, and proposing to obtain bread in its own way--that is, by returning to Egypt (Ex 16:1-9). Jesus avoided a like sin. We should note the use which our Lord made of Scripture: in his hour of trial he did not look to visions and voices and special revelation for guidance, but used the written Word as the lamp for his feet (Ps 119:105); in the conflict of temptation he did not defend himself by his own divine wisdom, but used that wisdom which God had revealed to all Israel through his prophets. Jesus fought as a man (Php 2:6,7), and used that weapon which, as God, he had given to man (Eph 6:17). Jesus used the Scripture as of final, argument-ending authority. Eve also started with "God hath said" (Ge 3:3); but she was not constant in her adherence to God's word. Jesus permitted Satan neither to question nor pervert the Scripture.
  
  Man. In using the word "man" Jesus takes his stand with us as a human being.
  
  Shall not live by bread alone. Called out of Egypt as God's Son (Mt 2:15), Jesus could well expect that he would be fed with manna after his forty days' fast. He trusted that God could furnish a table in the wilderness (Ps 78:19). We, too, have abundant reason for a like trust. God gave us our lives, and gave his Son to redeem them from sin. He may let us suffer, but we can not perish is we trust him. Let us live by his word rather than by bread. It is better to die for righteousness than to live by sin. God fed Israel with supernatural bread, to show the people that they lived thus, and not by what they were pleased to call natural means. The stomach is a useful agent, but it is not the source of life, nor even the life sustainer. Those who think that the securing of bread is the first essential to the sustaining of life, will fail to seek any diviner food, and so will eventually starve with hunger--soul hunger.
  
  But by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. To satisfy our sense of duty is often more pleasant than to appease the pangs of hunger (Joh 4:32-34; Job 23:12; Jer 15:16). The trust of Jesus that God would speak in his behalf and save him, was like that of Job (Job 13:15). God can sustain our lives without food if he chooses. We shall live if God wills it, bread or no bread; and we shall likewise die at his word (Mt 6:25; Joh 6:47-58; Ac 17:28). God can support our lives independent of our body (Mt 10:28).