Depending on how we count its phrases, Jesus Christ’s Model Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) can be said to contain eight of them. The first four cover addressing, praising, and harmonizing with God and His purposes, particularly the advancement of His Kingdom. The prayer does not turn to the supplicant’s physical needs until the fifth phrase, beginning with, “Give us this day our daily bread” (verse 11). Yet, even this phrase contains more than meets the eye.

As the “staff of life,” bread is a well-known catchall term for food in general. In turn, the idea of God’s supplying food to His creatures stands for His wondrous providence of everything necessary to maintain human life. Humans also require water, air, shelter, clothing, temperate climates, and many other necessities of life. God provides all these things and more on a second-by-second basis. In our prayers, Jesus wants us both to acknowledge what God provides so freely and abundantly and to convey our extraordinary needs to Him as the Giver of all good and needed things.

1. What is “our daily bread”? Exodus 16:4-5, 14-24.

Comment: In Matthew 6:11, Jesus is probably alluding to one of the great miracles of all time, God’s supplying of food to the Israelites in the wilderness every day for 38 years, except on the weekly Sabbath. In this daily miracle, a substance the Israelites called manna (meaning “What is it?”)—later poetically called “bread of heaven” and “angels’ food” (Psalm 78:23-25)—appeared on the ground each morning in quantities sufficient to feed millions of people. It lasted only one day; leaving it over for another day would cause it to breed worms and stink. So, the miracle of manna became a test for the Israelites to trust God to feed them adequately each day.

Our Savior’s expression, “our daily bread,” is not an easy one to pin down because the Greek word for “daily,” epiousion (Strong’s #1967), appears in the New Testament only in Matthew 6:11 and nowhere else in Greek literature. Depending on the root word they link it to, scholars argue that the word can mean “necessary” or “essential”; “for this day” or “daily”; “for the following day”; or “for the future”! Early church fathers like Chrysostom understood it to mean “daily” or “for the coming day,” assuming that a Christian would pray in the morning upon awakening and ask for food sufficient for that day’s activity.

In another context in His Sermon on the Mount—in fact, later in this same chapter—Jesus uses the phrase “sufficient for the day” (Matthew 6:34), and He may intend the same idea in the Model Prayer. The context in which it appears is a passage on not worrying about physical needs like breath, clothing, food, and drink (Matthew 6:25-34). He urges His disciples to exercise faith in God to supply their needs, which He already knows and readily fulfills for those whose primary priorities are seeking His Kingdom and righteousness.

2. Does physical bread have a spiritual counterpart? Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4; Luke 4:4.

Comment: In Deuteronomy 8:3, God draws a straight line between the Israelites eating bread He supplied from heaven and consuming and using His Word. The miracle of the manna was a daily lesson to impress on them that real living requires the individual to conduct his life in obedience to God’s instructions. He urges them in Deuteronomy 30:15-20 to “choose life,” which He defines as “to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the LORD your God will bless you . . .” (verse 16).

Jesus’ response to the Devil’s temptation in Matthew 4:4 and Luke 4:4, where He quotes Deuteronomy 8:3, strikes the same chord. He was famished, having fasted for forty days, and Satan suggested that He could save Himself the weakness and pain by turning stones into physical bread, something the Creator God could easily do. But Jesus understood the Adversary’s temptation: to put His physical life before His spiritual life. He would never do this, knowing that, as the apostle Paul would later put it in Romans 14:17, “the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

Our requests for daily bread, then, also cover instruction from God through His Word to enhance our walk on the path to His Kingdom. As Peter advises in II Peter 3:18, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Paul concurs, writing, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom” (Colossians 3:16), “increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:10), and “rightly dividing the word of truth” (II Timothy 2:15). Scripture commends the Bereans of Acts 17:11 for “receiv[ing] the word with all readiness, and search[ing] the Scriptures daily,” just as the Model Prayer suggests.

3. Does bread have an even higher antitype? John 6:32-40, 48-58.

Comment: Jesus Christ titles Himself “the Bread of Life”: “For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6:33). Our Savior not only gave His life in sacrifice for the remission of sins, but He also says that He gives His flesh and blood to those who believe in Him so they can have eternal life.

The metaphor Jesus uses in this chapter—which the Jews considered to be horrific and macabre—parallels others found in Scripture like “putting on Christ,” “putting on the new man,” and “walking in His steps.” Notice John 6:56: “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” The verbs “eats” and “drinks” are active case present participles, suggesting ongoing activity. Those who continue to feed on or ingest Christ—symbolic of learning about Him, obeying Him, imitating His example, and growing spiritually—remain in an active relationship with Him.

When we ask God to give us our daily bread, we ask for far more than food for our stomachs. It is a request for complete nourishment for our bodies, our minds, and our spiritual lives, for the only sure, life-giving sustenance comes from God Himself.