Man shall not Live by Bread Alone

Deuteronomy 8:3 ESV And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

To “live by” something means to depend on it for the continuation of one’s life. As human beings, we need food. Without food, we will cease to live; we will die.

In Deuteronomy 8:3, Moses explained to the Israelites why God treated them the way he did in the wilderness: God caused the Israelites to hunger physically and then fed them with the Manna so that they would learn that they needed to live by more than just food; they needed to live by the word of God.

God fed the Israelites the Manna in order to keep them alive in the wilderness. Just as they were constantly dependent on God to supply them with the Manna to keep them physically alive, they were likewise constantly dependent on God to supply them with “every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” which they so desperately need in order to remain spiritually alive.

In context, the “every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” refers to the “every commandment which I command you today, you shall keep to do, so that you may live” back in verse 1. From this, we learn that if someone were a true believer, then he would need to “live by” the word of God. He would hunger for it unless he was regularly fed with it!