by David Baker | Download PDF | Purchase Hardcopy

I have been reflecting on the beginning of the twenty-third Psalm. ‘The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.’ Psa 23:1. David was a man who believed the Lord would supply all his needs. He could say with confidence, ‘I shall not want’. If you reflect on your life, do you have that faith? Is that your testimony? It can be quite a journey to reach this kind of faith. At times, we all struggle with the fear of lack. We easily become worried or anxious about our basic needs. This type of anxiety has the capacity to grip the heart of every person. Why is this? We all have to negotiate anxiety for provision because the Lord has broken the ‘staff of bread’. This is an interesting theme in the Scriptures.

Speaking to the prophet Ezekiel, the Lord said, ‘Son of man, I’m going to break the staff of bread in Jerusalem and they will eat bread by weight and with anxiety and drink water by measure and in horror’. Ezek 4:16. In the first instance, a staff is simply a branch. When you go bush walking and you break a branch off a tree to support yourself as you walk, that is a type of staff. A staff is ‘what is in your hand’. When God spoke to Moses about bringing the people out of Egypt, He posed the question: ‘What is in your hand?’. And Moses replied, ‘A staff’. Ex 4:2. We should all ponder this question. What are your skills? What is your capacity in life? Further to this, a staff equally refers to a ‘tribe’. It is the branch of your family. So a staff also describes your family’s situation in life. Did you grow up in a wealthy family? Were you raised in a poor family? What is your family like now? We all know this makes a big difference to the way we perceive our needs. And it also affects our capacity to supply those needs. I would define the ‘staff of bread’ as our capacity to supply our needs according to what is in our hand and our circumstances in life.   

In response to the fall of mankind, God subjected the world to futility in hope. Accordingly, what we produce in life is often not commensurate with our effort. We work hard, we ‘till the ground’ in our particular genre of life, but it only produces ‘thorns and thistles’. That is the fruit of the curse. God cursed the ground for our sake. He wants us to seek Him for provision. And yet, throughout the ages, mankind has become reasonably good at negotiating the curse. Even though the ground is yielding thorns and thistles, we’ve progressively made ourselves a staff. All the nations of the world have aspired to do this. Australia is often described as the lucky country. On the whole, we have a good amount of resources at our disposal. We have a good capacity to supply our needs. We could say that our ‘staff’ is reasonably thick and strong. So we are not particularly thinking about the Lord breaking the staff of bread. However, in many third world countries, this issue is constantly before their eyes. How do they supply their basic needs?

We read in the book of Leviticus, ‘When I break your staff of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven and they will bring back your bread in rationed amounts and you will eat and not be satisfied’. Lev 26:26. This is the basic quandary of world economics as a result of the curse. We have limited resources; only one ‘oven’, so to speak. Economists have looked at this in the wisdom of men and concluded that every country should specialize and then trade. This has proven to increase the amount of ‘rationed’ products and services available. And it has helped ‘satisfy’ more people. By this means, the world has progressively strengthened a ‘staff’ for itself. Of course, this is true in our local economy as well. We all specialize and then trade to some degree. Some are doctors, some are builders, some are salespeople, some are teachers, and so on. From a biblical perspective, it is completely right and proper to specialize. Each person has different God-given abilities and talents. The body of Christ is built up in love by the ‘proper working of every individual part’. Eph 4:16. The body is more than the sum of every individual part because of this capacity to give and receive. However, in the worldly sense, this principle has been corrupted by trade.

The economies of the world have been ‘filled with violence’. Instead of giving and receiving, they take by gaining advantage. The rich exploit the poor and the strong rule over the weak. One of my favorite little passages on this is found in the book of Proverbs. ‘“It is good for nothing” cries the buyer, but when he has gone his way, then he boasts.’ Prov 20:14.That is, when a person is buying something, they’ll call it ‘good for nothing’ to force the price as low as possible. However, when they come to sell it, they will ‘boast’ profusely to inflate the price as high as possible. By this means, they make a profit. However, it bears no relationship to the quality of the product. They only do it by exploiting another. This is the meaning of being ‘filled with violence’. Satan fell like lightning from heaven over this very issue. The Scriptures say of him, ‘By the abundance of your trade, you were internally filled with violence’. Ezek 28:16. This is the reason why the Lord is intent on breaking the staff of bread. ‘They will eat their bread with anxiety and drink their water with horror, because their land will be stripped of its fullness on account of the violence of all who live in it.’ Ezek 12:19.

As Christians, we definitely aspire to live another way. We live to make offering and give to another. We are not ‘of the world’. Nevertheless, we still live ‘in the world’. John 17:11-16. For this reason, the judgement of God concerning the staff of bread will touch our lives. It will affect our capacity to supply our needs. It will subject us to the same anxiety and horror as the rest of the world. When Joseph was sown into Egypt, God ‘Called for a famine upon the land; He broke the whole staff of bread’. Psa 105:16. This affected the entire known world. In that sense, no one was excluded. Everybody needed to negotiate the issue of anxiety for provision. The Lord did this for a reason. He wanted everybody to look to Him for the supply of their needs. He is the great Shepherd, but as Joseph quickly learnt, ‘Shepherds are despised in Egypt’. Gen 46:34. When the Lord breaks the staff of bread, we are presented with two options. We are driven by anxiety to trade our way to advantage. Our anxiety and fear leads to violence. Or, conversely, we learn to cast our cares upon the Lord. We find the capacity to deal with all our anxieties.

Fear and anxiety can easily debilitate us in life. This is the lesson of the thorny ground. Jesus likened this ground to those who are consumed by the worries of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desire for other things. You are deceived if you think that material possessions will make you happy. But more than this, you are deceived if you think you possess the capacity to make yourself rich. All things come from His hand. And He has broken the staff of bread in Jerusalem. This realization immediately brings the issue of worry and anxiety to the fore. The worries of this life have the capacity to choke you. Concerning the thorny ground, Luke wrote, ‘As they go on their way, they are choked with worries’. Luke 18:14. If a giant man has latched onto your neck, then it’s easy to know why you are choking! However, the worries of life are often a lot harder to pin down. All you know is that your oxygen is being restricted. You are not functioning at full capacity. Something is choking the life out of you. I’m sure we’ll all be familiar with this feeling. We feel ‘weighed down’, as the book of Proverbs says, ‘Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs it down’. Prov 12:25. However, there is no need for this to be the case. 

Jesus told us not to worry about what we will eat, what we will drink, or what we will put on. Matt 6:31. He was evidently picking up the ‘staff of bread’ theme, talking about our basic provisions in life. It doesn’t get any more basic than our need for food, water, and clothing. He then continued by saying, ‘Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things, but seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things will be added to you’. Matt 6:32-33. This is a marvelous passage. It is impossible to add anything to our lives by the strength of our own hands or by worrying. Jesus had just finished saying, ‘Which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his life’s span?’. Matt 6:27. In fact, I’m sure the opposite would be true. If you are consumed by anxiety, it will shorten your life. It will certainly destroy your quality of life. We need to seek first His kingdom. Often, this is easier said than done. When we feel like we are losing something, the hardest thing to do is give. However, when we’re gripped by anxiety we should immediately seek His kingdom. We should pray and we should give. This is the antidote to anxiety. And this opens the door for the Lord to add substantially to our lives. He supplies our needs, and He reckons righteousness to us.

‘Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.’ Matt 6:34. I interpret this verse to mean, ‘Do not compound your anxieties’! Don’t be anxious about what might happen in the days ahead so that all those anxieties come upon you today. Equally, don’t let today’s anxiety roll-over to tomorrow, and the next day, and so on. Don’t let your anxieties compound either by pulling them forward or letting them carry over. ‘Each day has enough trouble of its own.’ Every day you must bring your cares and anxieties to the Lord in prayer. By this means, you find the Lord’s provision for each specific day.

This is the significance of the manna in the wilderness. The children of Israel had no capacity to provide for their own needs. They were wanderers in a foreign, barren land. When they first saw the manna, they all exclaimed, ‘What is it?’.  Ex 16:15. They were unfamiliar with it. It was something that only God could provide. We could say it was not produced by their ‘staff of bread’. It was bread from heaven, their ‘daily bread’. And, accordingly, they could only collect enough for the current day. There was no provision to store it up or save it for a rainy day. If they kept anything until the following day, it ‘bred worms and became foul’. Ex 16:20. So they had to negotiate that if the Lord didn’t meet them each day, they would lack. For an independent person, this can be difficult to swallow. When we become sick, we often find it difficult when we have to rely on other people. In the same way, we don’t like the idea of relying on God. However, we have no choice because the staff of bread is broken. Jesus taught His disciples to pray, ‘Our Father … give us this day, our daily bread’. Matt 6:9-11.

Even Paul, the great apostle, had to negotiate anxiety for daily provision. He wrote to the Corinthians, ‘I have been in labour and hardships, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure’. 2 Cor 11:27. Paul was lacking the very things that Jesus told us not to worry about. He didn’t know what he would eat, what he would drink, or how he would clothe himself. And he continued, ‘Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure upon me of concern for all the churches’. 2 Cor 11:28. The same Greek word is translated both ‘anxiety’ and ‘concern’. However, there is a difference. It is right and proper to be concerned. We’re all concerned about our families, about those we love, about our work situations. However, as Jesus said, we should never be anxious. An anxiety or fear is something that consumes you. It’s gone beyond concern to something that is debilitating you. It’s choking you. We must translate our anxieties into appropriate concerns. This is where prayer is so important. We could say that a concern is an anxiety that has been cast upon the Lord. How did Paul cope with the lack of basic provision in his life? I’m sure he would have reminded himself of the words of Jesus, ‘Do not be anxious … for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things’. Matt 6:32. But more than this, he learnt to pray. He learnt the secret of dealing with anxiety by prayer. He learnt to cast all His cares and anxieties upon the Lord. Hence he could write, ‘In any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of abundance and suffering need’. Phil 4:12.

With this in view, we understand why Paul could say, ‘Be anxious for nothing’. That is an absolute statement. Paul could only say this because he had negotiated the lack of all things. He knew that prayer worked in ‘any and every circumstance’. The Lord was faithful in supplying all his needs. ‘Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer, supplication and thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God’. Phil 4:6. Like the four components to the sweet incense that ascended in the tabernacle, there are four primary types of prayer. We come before the Lord with petition, supplication, intercession and thanksgiving. Together, all of these types of prayer ascend before the Lord as the sweet smelling aroma of worship. It is important to recognize that petitions are an important part of our prayer lives. Sometimes we can be too noble for our own good. We almost feel selfish for praying about our own needs. Or, we feel ashamed about admitting we are anxious about life. Of course, we should be continually praying for others. However, petitions are still a legitimate ‘one quarter’ of a balanced prayer life. If we don’t pray about our needs and seek God for provision, we will be anxious about life.

We read in one of David’s great Messianic Psalms, ‘He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted … the afflicted shall eat and be satisfied’. Psa 22:26. What a beautiful little passage. When the staff of bread is broken, we eat and can’t be satisfied. That is the judgment that weighs down the hearts of men with anxiety. But if we seek the Lord, we do find provision. ‘The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied.’ This became the testimony of Paul. In light of all his afflictions and lack, he was able to write, ‘Not that I speak from want’. Phil 4:11. Those words are full of meaning. They are a testimony to Paul’s trust in the Lord and his life of devotion and prayer. He had fully digested the beginning of the twenty-third Psalm.

We don’t know what is going to happen in the days ahead. We don’t know what will happen in our country’s economy. And we don’t know what will happen in our own lives. But we do know that we can commit all of our cares and anxieties upon the Lord. He will supply our needs. We can testify, ‘The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want’. Psa 23:1.

Author: David Baker | Toowoomba Christian Fellowship TCF
Published by Vision One at Toowoomba Christian Fellowship TCF
Christian Resources

Download PDF | Purchase Hardcopy