Sunday Message: Lord's Prayer pt 6

Somewhere in between a Saturday nap and a phone call, I heard a snatch from a preacher pointing out that a father has a duty to pass the Word down to the children.  Otherwise, you end up like Israel- within two generations they're worshiping Baal and doing menial work for the foreign-tribe-of-the-week.   Thus I knew I had to rely on God to pull me out of a lethargy and get onto the next part of the Lord's Prayer.  And what I thought was an easy line proved quite a stickler....

Mat 6:11  Give us this day our daily bread, 

What could possibly be hard to understand in this?  Apparently, it is the word 'daily'.  Observe...

Adam Clarke:  The word επιουσιαν has greatly perplexed critics and commentators. I find upwards of thirty different explanations of it. 

Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown:  The compound word here rendered “daily” occurs nowhere else, either in classical or sacred Greek, and so must be interpreted by the analogy of its component parts. But on this critics are divided.

Robertson's Word Pictures:   This adjective “daily” (epiousion) coming after “Give us this day” (dos hēmŒn sēmeron) has given expositors a great deal of trouble.

So what is the controversy?  Well, I could copy-paste one of their descriptions, but you'd only get a headache deciphering it.  Let me, after a couple ibuprofen, give it a try.  Basically, this SEEMS to be a unique word in the Greek, and some speculate that the evangelists coined it to give the sense of an Aramaic original.  In essence, it refers to what is needed TOMORROW- but that would seem to contradict Jesus Himself just 23 verses later:

Mat 6:34  "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. 

But neither the term nor the explanation is quite that simple.  The thought that either Matthew and Luke, or a Greek translator, made up what is a compound word just for this spot (as the word never appears again in the Bible and very rarely elsewhere) seems plausible- until Robertson points out...

Epiousios has all the appearance of a word that originated in trade and traffic of the everyday life of the people ... The opinion here expressed has been confirmed by A. Debrunner’s discovery (Theol. Lit. Ztg. 1925, Colossians . 119) of epiousios in an ancient housekeeping book” (Light from the Ancient East, New ed. 1927, p. 78 and note 1). So then it is not a word coined by the Evangelist or by Q to express an Aramaic original. The word occurs also in three late MSS. after 2 Maccabees 1:8, tous epiousious after tous artous. 

So it was an existent, but rare, word.  And again, the sense of it...

The meaning, in view of the kindred participle (epiousēi) in Act_16:12, seems to be “for the coming day,” a daily prayer for the needs of the next day as every housekeeper understands like the housekeeping book discovered by Debrunner.

And again, we ask, how does this fit with Jesus's teaching on tomorrow?  Well, frankly, the expositors might be picking a nit on this one.  If you are praying for TODAY'S bread, you are praying about provisions in the future anyway, right?  The key here, to me, is Jesus did not say, "Do not PRAY about tomorrow,"  He said don't BE ANXIOUS about it.  Praying is not supposed to be a worry-driven activity... it is to be a CONFIDENCE-drive activity.  Listen to what James, The Lord's brother, says...

Jas 1:5  If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 

Jas 1:6  But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 

Jas 1:7  For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord...

One more thing about the time-order of this:  I think Adam Clarke actually hit the whole of the point in this statement:

There is probably an allusion here to the custom of travelers in the east, who were wont to reserve a part of the food given them the preceding evening to serve for their breakfast or dinner the next day. But as this was not sufficient for the whole day, they were therefore obliged to depend on the providence of God for the additional supply. 

So we all start out with a basic beginning each day:  Air, life, basics depending on the culture and part of the world we live in.  And sometimes these things are not enough; we need what only God can give.  Clarke goes on:

 Indeed, many of the primitive fathers understood it as comprehending that daily supply of grace which the soul requires to keep it in health and vigor...

But, isn't bread, bread?  Sure, but the word that gives us bread- the Greek Artos, refers to the lifting and raising of the bread as the yeast acts on it; and that word comes from another which has this meaning:

A primary verb; to lift; by implication to take up or away; figuratively to raise (the voice), keep in suspense (the mind); specifically to sail away (that is, weigh anchor); by Hebraism (compare [H5375]) to expiate sin: - away with, bear (up), carry, lift up, loose, make to doubt, put away, remove, take (away, up).

So now, read the passage with this in mind:

Give us our daily lifting up;

our mental stimulation (keeping the mind in suspense);

our ability to move on (sail away);

our ability to bear up;

the expiation of our sins.

Jesus really taught us to ask for everything in a little.  And to find everything in a little.