Today, we’re going to conclude our message series, The Book of Life, talking about the Bible, God’s Word. My message today is entitled “Essential Food for Life.” If I was to do a survey today and ask everyone hear if they ate some food every day last week, I would predict that virtually 100% ate food every day last week. Unless you’re extremely sick or on an extended spiritual fast, you are going to eat. Why? Because food is essential for life, if you don’t eat, you’re going to get weak and eventually die. In fact, if you get so busy that you forget to eat, guess what, your body tells you that you forgot to eat. Your stomach starts growling, you feel hungry and you make sure you get to eat soon.
However, if I did a second survey today and asked everyone here whether they had read their Bibles every day last week, I would get an answer that would be considerably less than 100%. I know because I have done such a survey numerous times, as have many others. Why would this be the case for people who are regular attenders at church? I think the first reason is that many believers don’t really think that reading their Bibles daily is essential. Life is busy, things happen and there’s just not enough time to read God’s Word every day, many would say. The second reason is that although the Bible is spiritual food for us, the signs of spiritual weakness are not as obvious as the signs of physical weakness when you don’t eat. Is God’s Word really essential food for life? Let’s look at what Jesus had to say.
Matthew 4:4 (NIV) Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'”
Jesus is saying that Yes, man needs physical food, bread to live, but that is not sufficient to maintain spiritual life. Spiritual life is birthed and nourished by the Word of God. If you don’t regularly eat the spiritual food of God’s Word, you will grow weak and eventually die spiritually. The Lord’s Prayer that Jesus taught contains the line,
Matthew 6:11 (NIV) Give us today our daily bread.
Now most people pray this with their daily physical needs in mind and surely that is part of the petition. However, when you remember that just two chapters before, Jesus has said that we don’t live on bread alone, but on God’s Word, you realize that this line also refers to the daily spiritual bread of God’s Word. God’s Word, taken in daily, is essential to your spiritual health. Without it, you will be spiritually weak, easily deceived by false teaching and you will eventually fall away from God.
So, today, we are going to look at Isaiah 55 to learn more about God’s Word, our essential food for life. This chapter is in the middle of a section of Isaiah from chapter 49-57 which is about the Servant of the Lord. These chapters are prophetic concerning the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ. So, we must read them in that context.