"So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water" (Ex. 34:28a).
Like Elijah and Christ after him, Moses spent forty days and nights in intimate communion with God. During that time, he did not eat or drink, being sustained only by the power of Jehovah. Matthew Henry observes, “When we are weary of an hour or two spent in attendance upon God and adoration of Him, we should think how many days and nights Moses spent with Him, and of the eternal day we hope to spend in praising Him.” Moses knew for a fact that man does not live by bread alone.
This truth is often lost on us today because we are so dependent on worldly comforts. We forget that we live and move and have our being through the Lord God, and that our lives are sustained by His power. If He chose, our lives (and the whole universe!) could end in a moment. We should regularly thank the Lord for sustaining us, for giving us life, and for keeping us alive for His purposes in this world.
When Moses refrained from food and drink on the mountain, God supported him by His power. The one who made the body can nourish it without ordinary means. And while we might think this was difficult for Moses, and maybe it was, he was sustained by communion with God. Like Jesus, he had meat to eat that the world knew nothing about, for it was his meat and drink to hear the Word of God, to pray, and to dwell in His glorious presence. The abundant satisfaction he had in the Word of God and in the presence of the Almighty made him forget his body, and its needs and desires. God fed Moses with things that are greater than food and drink: He fed him with His light, law, and love, with the knowledge of Himself and His will.
Though we are not called to fast for forty days, we are reminded by this extraordinary account that the kingdom of God is not composed of food and drink, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. The less dependent we become on the delights of this world, the better prepared we will be for the pleasures of heaven. This does not mean that we become ascetics and forsake the bounties of God’s creation, but it does mean that we keep them in the right perspective. Feasting on the righteousness, grace, and love of the Lord is of greater worth than feasting on the delicacies of this world. We should, therefore, never allow the latter to stand in the way of the former.
Are you more concerned about meeting your physical needs than your spiritual needs? If you have children, are you feeding them spiritually by teaching them the Word, praying with them, and worshiping with them, or are you mainly focusing on meeting their physical and developmental needs? Meditate on Matthew 4:1–11.
