The Lord's Prayer. Is It Ours? Part III A

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.

This phrase of the Lord's Prayer makes me think of manna and the exodus from Egypt. But there is more to come on that in a subsequent post. In this post I will be putting up two different sections of scripture so that you can compare and draw similarities between them.

The first scripture I am referring to comes from Deuteronomy 18. For background you should read Deut. chapter 5.

When you come into the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you any who burns his son or daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination, a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a medium, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord; and because of these abominable practices the Lord your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. For these nations, which you are about to dispossess, give heed to soothsayers and to diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so.

The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brethren—him shall you heed—just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, "Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, or see this great fire any more lest I die." And the Lord said to me, "They have rightly said all that they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not give heed to my words which he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him." (Deut. 18:9-19)

Now for comparison, I quote from a passage in John 6, shortly after the feeding of the 5,000.

Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the son of man will give to you; for on him has God the Father set his seal." Then they said to him, "What must we do, to be doing the work of God?" Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God that you believe him whom he has sent." So they said to him, "Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." They said, "Lord give us this bread always." Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes me shall never thirst…"(John 6: 25-35) …I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh… It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I [speak] to you are spirit and life….(excerpts from John 6:48-63. Read the whole passage for the full context.)

What are your conclusions and comparisons of these two passages?

Ellis Hein