“It is written man shall not live on bread alone.” (Matthew 4:4) Jesus is quoting when God was speaking through Moses to all the people of God that he had rescued from Egypt. God said to Moses that the commands that God gives, give life. God’s words bring blessings and increase and what God promises to do he will fulfill (Deuteronomy 8:3).

Any suffering or test that God’s people endure, God uses to see if his people will remember this about him. If they will remember that he is their source of life. The words that God speaks and what he commands his people to do bring them blessings. People who have faith in God receive the faithfulness of God to keep his promise to rescue and to provide for people who put their faith in him (Deuteronomy 8:2). 

God says, remember when you were in the wilderness and you had nothing, how I provided for you through my word (Deuteronomy 8:3)? God tells his people that they did not survive the wilderness because there was food but because God spoke provision for them and was faithful to provide. Always remember, “that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3). 

This is what Jesus is reminding people in Matthew 4:4. That when you experience need, that there is a greater hunger that people of God should seek. They should hunger and thirst for the words of God that bring life, because what God speaks happens and what he promises he will fulfill.

When the people of God, Israel, rejected God as their king and looked to the power of people and other nations to rescue them, provide for them and protect them, they were in disobedience to God’s command to look to his word to live. So God allowed his people to be taken captive and oppressed by the people and nations that they had put their trust in (Zephaniah 3:9-20). 

But because of God’s love for his people and desire to bring them out of that situation and back to him, God spoke a word of restoration that purified their hearts and minds and called his people back; to return to him and serve him as the one who rescues, the one whose words bring life, the one who provides for his people and protects them (Zephaniah 3:9-20). 

God said, “Sing, Daughter Zion, shout aloud, Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, Daughter Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away your punishment, he has turned back your enemy. The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you; never again will you fear any harm.

On that day they will say to Jerusalem, “Do not fear, Zion; do not let your hands hang limp. The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you but will rejoice over you with singing.”

“I will remove from you all who mourn over the loss of your appointed festivals, which is a burden and reproach for you. At that time I will deal with all who oppressed you. I will rescue the lame; I will gather the exiles.

I will give them praise and honor in every land where they have suffered shame. At that time I will gather you; at that time I will bring you home. I will give you honor and praise among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes before your very eyes,” says the Lord (Zephaniah 3:14-20).