The Fulcrum in the Balance

I've solved the equation of life!   Or at least I may know where the balance point may be...

​1 “All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, so that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to give to your forefathers.

2 You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, so that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.

3 He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, so that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds0 out of the mouth of the LORD. Deuteronomy 8:1-3

These three verses all have one tiny word in the middle that connects cause and effect.  It’s tempting to mentally edit what’s being said here and focus just on the result and not what made it happen.  Each is a balance, with a fulcrum: 

למען.    

It's repeated three times so we won't miss it.    Each verse says one says “למען L’ma'an”:   this thing happens “so that” the other thing will result.   

God gives you commandments to keep …so that you may live and increase.

God tests you in the wildernesses of life … so that He can know your heart

He humbles and lets you hunger… so that  you may know the source of your LIFE   because 

man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.


Which makes me ask a question:


Does it really work that way?  God’s Word turns into reality, increase, and fullness of life?  It’s not just a good question.  It's the BEST question.    It’s the first question Satan*** himself asks Yeshua, when He was alone, hungry after forty days of fasting, and in the wilderness


And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”  But Yeshua answered and said, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’”   Matthew 4:3-4


The reason this sanctuary is full of people is that almost every one of you had a moment in your life just like this, where the voice of God, the direction of God… was so powerful, so impactful that you wanted to learn and hear God’s voice forever.  And if you haven’t, there are plenty of folks you can ask about it.  


Nonetheless, there is at least one person here today who has questioned this perplexing mismatch between the promise of God and the realities of this life (...me!)    Yet I/we are so captivated by the eternal weight of God’s Word, we come day by day, week by week to be refreshed in the power of God’s Word, and the miracle of Yesuah’s sacrifice that opens it up to our spirits, so that we are certain back again and again to be refreshed in this truth.   


So my suggestion, my challenge is… THIS WORD of Torah, the parts that require faith the parts that require obedience, the parts that require sacrifice, the rejoicing parts… any of it, all of it, memorize it, meditate on it, wait patiently for it to come to pass.  Why?  Because It is life to our souls and our life because … 

לא על הלחם לבדו יהיה האדם

Man doesn’t live by bread alone, but by EVERY WORD that proceeds from the mouth of God. 


8/23/25


*** “ha Satan”... “the adversary” of our souls appears 27 times in the Hebrew Scriptures.


I couldn't help but notice a little mnemonic. That word "l'ma'an", which means

"this condition FOR that result" is quoted twice with that exact same verse numbers in two different books  (for... four...get it?)

This… FOR … that  MATT 4.4 and also Luke 4.4. 

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