The Daily Bread of a Faithful Government
Praying Regularly For the Lord's Good Protection in Grace
Good Morning!
It’s helpful when we come to this part of the catechism to literally consider what the petition is asking and what it is seeking of the Lord. We know at times in the history of Israel God gave bread to His covenant people. Whether as a whole as in the Wilderness, or in part as with David and the showbread or the widow brought a meal by a raven. He’s in the business of providing for the needs of those for whom His Son died. We mustn’t overly spiritualize the promises of God.
We can think sometimes because our problem is mainly spiritual that Jesus is only concerned about taking care of our justified standing before Jehovah. He is obviously in mind to take care of that, and He did so perfectly in the shedding of His blood and His keeping the law perfectly on our behalf and our receiving by faith alone the double imputation of His righteousness. However, when Christ looked on in compassion for those who had gathered to hear Him preach and they had not food for the evening He gave them a meal to eat with their mouths. While in John 6 it is shown that is sadly all they wanted from Him it does not change the fact that when presented with an issue our Lord didn’t answer them with spiritual platitudes, but filled their bellies as needed. He came to save us from our sins and be our King of Kings so that we would have all.
Here is the Q/A for today as we get into talking about the particulars of this question:
Q. 193. What do we pray for in the fourth petition?
A. In the fourth petition, (which is, Give us this day our daily bread,) acknowledging, that in Adam, and by our own sin, we have forfeited our right to all the outward blessings of this life, and deserve to be wholly deprived of them by God, and to have them cursed to us in the use of them; and that neither they of themselves are able to sustain us, nor we to merit, or by our own industry to procure them; but prone to desire, get, and use them unlawfully: we pray for ourselves and others, that both they and we, waiting upon the providence of God from day to day in the use of lawful means, may, of his free gift, and as to his fatherly wisdom shall seem best, enjoy a competent portion of them; and have the same continued and blessed unto us in our holy and comfortable use of them, and contentment in them; and be kept from all things that are contrary to our temporal support and comfort.
My kids when they were younger would often ask why we said grace before we ate. I would always respond that every meal we have was brought to us by the goodness of God in His providence and mercy. So much had to take place for our family to be enjoying supper together. In some ways it is the biblical understanding of the old economic textbook I, Pencil. In that work Leonard Read explains all the work that has to go into producing one single Ticonderoga #2. The graphite has to be mined, the wood needs cut down, rubber pruned from a tree, and all then transported to a factory which forms and combines the raw materials into what we have in our hand. Each of the steps are necessary for the finished product to be of any use to anyone.
If Christians are to pray, worship, and serve the living God than it is good for us to have bodies which are physically capable. It is also good for believers to live in a world where they can gather together without fear of outside forces preventing our fellowship. This is confirmed in what we read in the last line of the answer of Q. 193 as the Divines say, “. . . be kept from all things that are contrary to our temporal support and comfort.” Despite the evil we experience in this nation and the growing judgment of God upon our country we are still free to meet on the Lord’s Day and when we pray this petition it should be in our heart to give thanks for that, and to pray that God would ensure that it would continue to be so for Christians in the United States.
Some will say that it is wrong to ask Jesus Christ and His Father through the power of the Holy Spirit for us to have godly magistrates, and even in the case of a Cyrus, an ungodly one who will benevolently serve the good purposes of Jehovah. These portions of the Lord’s Prayer tell us that such concern is wrongheaded. We should be entreating our God for all His help in both the kingdom of grace (the church) and the kingdom of power (the civil government). They are each in their own way under His authority. While some misuse 2 Chronicles 7:14 the essential promise there is true. If a land wishes to be have its daily bread it must have the Lord as its God.
At the beginning of the Q/A the authors of our catechism make it clear that this is only brought to bear by the grace and love of God. We operate under the same requirements no matter what venue we are operating in. Grace is the free gift and all things are provided to us by the assurant truth that we love God because He first loved us. We cannot and should not ever act in a way that does not begin with humility and thanksgiving. That should be the default setting for every man or woman who claims Jesus as their savior. We deserve nothing because of Adam’s sin but have received everything because the Son of David has come. The contentment witnessed by Paul was born out of a heart which remembered that his standing as an Apostle, as a man given the right and the prividge to preach Christ came due to God’s sovereign calling and gifting alone. Being employed in the Lord’s army comes by the Holy Spirit enlisting you by grace through faith. You fight against sin and all her friends in and through this daily bread provided from Heaven above.
In closing,
We need to have a bigger vision of the Christian life than we often do. Our abilities are limited because we do not comprehend at times how awesome the advantages we have in Jesus Christ. If we are His Bride then we know that He will not only care for us, but will do all things to protect us from all our enemies, both foreign and domestic. As you pray the Lord’s Prayer every week in morning worship I want you to think deeply on each petition, but especially this one, for it is a constant reminder of how incredibly blessed we are to be united to our great King by faith alone.
A final word:
https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/what-does-give-us-day-our-daily-bread-mean
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church