December 15

If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. — Matt 4:3

If Jesus had turned one of the flat stones at His feet into a loaf of bread to break His own fast, would He have sinned? Why would it have been a sin for Him to do this? For one thing, he would then have taken His guidance from Satan, instead of from the Father.

Another reason was, that He was in this world to live as men must live. He was to meet life as we must meet it. If He had continually used His divine power to help Him over the hard points, He would not have understood our life, for we cannot do this. Therefore He never wrought a miracle for Himself to make life easier. It would have been a violation of this law of His life if He had wrought this miracle to feed His hunger.

Then, again, it would have been distrusting His Father. He was under divine care, and God had given Him no command to make bread of the stones. We too must stand where God puts us, and wait for Him to bring help in His own way.