“Give Us This Day (Day by Day) Our Daily Bread“
Introduction
In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray in Matthew 6:11, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Luke’s parallel account reads in Luke 11:3, “Give us day by day our daily bread.” Many assume this petition concerns only our physical needs—food, clothing, and shelter. Scripture certainly affirms our total dependence on God for these things. Jesus assures us in Luke 12:22-30 not to worry about daily provisions, pointing to the “the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?” And Jesus plainly states in the last verse, in Luke 12:30, “For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.” Yet from an eternal perspective, physical sustenance is secondary. The deeper question is whether we are being spiritually nourished for everlasting life?
So what is the “bread” that the Bible is really talking about?
The True Bread of Life: The Lord Jesus Christ
When we go back to Isaiah 55:1-4, God instructs us with these words, “¶ Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for [that which is] not bread? and your labour for [that which] satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye [that which is] good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, [even] the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given him [for] a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.”
Isaiah 55:1-4 makes clear that it cannot bet earthly bread, because that bread can only sustain our physical bodies for a time and then we are hungry, and hence unsatisfied again. Rather these verses are talking about bread that sustains the soul! Moreover, the eating of that bread involves “hearing”, thus it is pointing us to God’s Word, Who Is Jesus, and the command to come to Him! John 1:14, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” And the Lord Jesus Christ was given by God to be the “witness to the people“, the “leader“, and “commander to the people” under the “everlasting covenant“! [Note that we are told in Hebrews 2:10, regarding Jesus, “¶For it became him, for whom [are] all things, and by whom [are] all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.“]
And if we go just a few verses further to Isaiah 55:10&11, we get additional confirmation that this is the correct: “For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper [in the thing] whereto I sent it.” Please also see the post on “the Parable of the Sower“.
And we should also remember that this Jesus plainly identifies Himself as the Bread that we need for everlasting life. In John 6:35, Jesus declares “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” Later He adds in John 6:51, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.“
And regarding being satisfied in the eating, we are told in Psalm 22:26, “The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.“
“This Day” and “Day by Day”
When we look closer at Luke 11:3, where Jesus said to pray, “Give us day by day our daily bread.”, This spiritual meaning becomes even more clear when we examine the original Greek of Luke 11:3. The phrase can be rendered more literally as “give us daily our bread sufficient for each day.”
- The word “daily” is from the original Greek word, ἐπιούσιος (epiousios)G1967, which means “sufficient or needful (for the day)”
- The first word translated as “day” is from the original Greek word, κατά (kata)G2596, which has been translated in the Bible variously as “according to (107x), after (61x), against (58x), in (36x), by (27x), daily (with G2250) (15x), as (11x), miscellaneous (165x).
- The next words, “by day” are from the original Greek word, ἡμέρα (hēmera)G2250, which have been translated in the Bible variously as day (355x), daily (with G2596) (15x), time (3x), not translated (2x), miscellaneous (14x). Note that we are also told in 2 Peter 1:19, “¶We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day (ἡμέρα (hēmera))G2250 dawn, and the day star (Jesus) arise in your hearts:“
Matthew’s wording, “Give us this day,” uses the Greek σήμερον (sēmeron)G4594 means “this (very) day/today“, while Luke emphasizes ongoing daily dependence. Both point to the same reality. “This day” carries rich biblical resonance. In Psalm 2:7 (quoted in Hebrews 1:5), God says, “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.” This does not suggest that Jesus had a beginning—He is eternal—but refers to His resurrection, when the Father declared Him victorious over sin and death and having paid the full price for the sins of His Elect.
Similarly, Psalm 118:24 proclaims, “This [is] the day [which] the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” a verse often understood as pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ.Thus, when we pray “Give us this day our daily bread,” we are in effect asking the Father to give us Jesus—our living Bread—today and every day. We are requesting the spiritual nourishment and strength that comes through His Word, the Bible, so we may walk moment by moment in fellowship with Him.
Thus, this portion of the Lord’s Prayer is a petition for spiritual sustenance—Jesus Christ Himself—Who will carry us through every day, much like the manna , the bread that came down from Heaven, which God provided to Israel in the wilderness, and which had to be collected on an ongoing (“day by day“) basis, and to be eaten “daily“.
The Manna in the Wilderness Was a Sign Pointing to Jesus
For forty years in the desert, God fed the Israelites with manna (מָן (mān))H4478, meaning “What is it?“, which formed a daily Heavenly provision that pointed forward to Christ. They were instructed to gather only what they needed each morning; any surplus kept overnight bred worms and spoiled (Exodus 16:15-36). On the sixth day they collected twice as much so they would have enough for the Sabbath, when no manna fell.
NOTE regarding Manna: In Exodus 16:31, we read, “And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it [was] like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it [was] like wafers [made[ with honey.” Numbers 11:7 also tells us, “And the manna was as coriander seed, and the colour thereof as the colour of bdellium.” The fact that the manna was equated to “honey” is another reference to both the Word of God and Heaven as is exposited here: Honey in the Bible.
Deuteronomy 8:3 explains God’s purpose for providing the manna: “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.” Jesus later quoted this exact verse when Satan tempted Him to turn stones into bread after forty days of fasting (Matthew 4:1-4) when Jesus responded with, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” The lesson is unmistakable: physical bread sustains the body temporarily, but the Word of God—Jesus Himself—gives eternal life!
Daily Nourishment Through the Word
No one can claim to be a genuine follower of Christ while remaining unfamiliar with the Bible. Scripture repeatedly calls upon the believer to hide God’s Word in his or her heart as we see in Psalm 119:11. We are also told to seek out the Word diligently in Isaiah 34:16, “Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them.” In Deuteronomy 11:18&19, God instructs, “¶Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.“
We also recognize God’s Word (Jesus) as having eternal authority as is made clear in Matthew 5:18, “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.“and Matthew 24:35, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.“
Just as manna had to be gathered fresh each morning, we need daily time in the Scriptures. Jesus is “the Word made flesh”, as we read in John 1:14, “¶And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”… and Jesus is the only Bread that satisfies forever.
Jesus makes this connection between Himself and the Manna unmistakable in John 6:47-58, where Jesus contrasts the wilderness manna (which sustained life only temporarily) with Himself: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever:”
Subsequent references to eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking His blood provide another vivid metaphor for trusting in His Atoning Death and Resurrection—believing in Jesus as Savior, so completely, that we are united with Him for eternity. This also brings to mind the Last Supper as described in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, “¶For I (the Apostle Paul) have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the [same] night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake [it], and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also [he took] the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink [it], in remembrance of me. ¶For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.” (See also Matthew 26:26, Mark14:22, and Luke 22:19).
In the preceding chapter, in 1 Corinthians 10:16&17, we read, “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we [being] many are one bread, [and] one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.” We can see then that this “communion” is becoming one with Jesus Christ, The Bread of Eternal Life
Conclusion
The petition “Give us this day our daily bread” is far more than a request for physical food. It is a daily plea for the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life, the true Manna from Heaven, Who alone can sustain the believer both now and for eternity. Whatever tomorrow holds, partaking of Him through His Word will refresh the believer’s soul in this life, just as manna sustained Israel in the wilderness, but more importantly, the “daily” is equal to “day by day”, providing a reference to “forever” or “eternally”; with the Living Bread, the Lord Jesus Christ, the One Eternal God, the sole source and sustainer of that eternal life.
Note to the Reader: This post is an excerpt from a longer exposition on the “Lord’s Prayer”.
Postscript
Just as we read in Deuteronomy 8:3 where God wants us to “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.“, a time will come when God withholds the “hearing” of His Word that causes a spiritual famine, hence no eternal life. In Amos 8:11&12, God says, “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find [it].” Note how entirely consistent this is with what God was saying above in Isaiah 55:1-4 and Isaiah 55:10&11!
Please see this post: “A Famine in the Land“
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