Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4)

This was Christ’s response to Satan when he tempted Him to turn stones into bread to address His hunger. Jesus resisted the enemy with the time tested principle of God’s SUFFICIENCY in Deuteronomy 8:3-4 – “He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”
Jesus and the Israelites faced similar temptations which was hunger in the wilderness, but Jesus did not grumble like the Israelites did. The Israelites complained in Exodus 16:3 when they were faced with hunger. When faced with hunger, Jesus rather reinforced his faith in His Father’s sufficiency and faithfulness. Because of their complaints, God gave each Israelite just an omer (just enough) a day which is one-tenth of the ephah (more than enough) for the next forty years to test them and see whether they will follow God’s instructions, and to show them that their sufficiency is of God!
Beloved, this the truth Christ unveiled: if God was able to sustain them with barely enough (omer) for forty years, He is more than able to sustain you with the abundant grace (ephah) through Jesus! Let’s therefore stop complaining about the wilderness and rather thank God for His sufficiency and our breakthrough. “For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land—a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills” (Deuteronomy 8: 7 -9). Complaining will keep you in the wilderness with omer instead of ephah, but trusting and obeying will move us into a good land!
We confront every challenge with this principle :“Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God ….who has qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit”
(2 Corinthians 3:5).
In any aspect of life where we are going through a desert experience, let us remember to rely on God’s sufficiency, and let us refrain from complaining and grumbling, for we are people of faith.
Thank you Father for the “ephah”
Amen and Amen.
Dr. Isaac Opoku-Asare
www.zoelightministries.org