We all should know "The Lord's Prayer" or "The Disciple's Prayer" by heart. It's definitely one of the most powerful prayers ever given to us and the earliest one that I ever memorized as a child. It was the first one that I taught my children as well. I think back on this one and it brings me to a time when I was just a pup in seventh grade. I was having a difficult time dealing some bully at school. This was one of the earliest times that HaShem spoke to me personally through His Word.
I had not read much of the Bible at that time but was taught a great deal of the wonderful stories within it, mainly from my great grandmother, who was born in 1907. I was fortunate enough to have gotten to spend a lot of time with my great grandparents on a small farm in the mountains of East Tennessee. I think back on those times so much these days and I wouldn't trade those memories for anything. Simpler times, getting up early every morning to milk Spot, our cow. Then going to the chicken coop to gather the eggs. There was no internet, no cable TV and very few earthly distractions over there. I remember my great grandmother having this massive old KJV Bible with tons of old artwork, and I would spend hours looking at those pictures and she would tell me the stories behind them.
Now back to my seventh grade experience. I grew up in a broken home and moved around a few times as a child and had just started a new school. The boy decided to make some sort of example of me and singled me out to pick on and of course I wasn't having that, so we got into this big fight and he laid me out. I was humiliated and was absolutely filled with anxiety. I was praying about it all and I just grabbed an old Bible from the bookshelf. I done the whole "Bible Roulette" thing and I just opened it up to a random page and landed on this page, in Matthew Chapter Six, where Yeshua was teaching us how to pray. I instantly committed this one to memory and have prayed it daily every since.
"After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen." - Matthew 6:9-13
Luke records a condensed version of this prayer in his Gospel as well:
"And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.
Give us day by day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil." - Luke 11:2-4
It's a bit of a mystery as to why Luke recorded a shorter, seemingly incomplete version of this prayer. The gospels were written by different authors who are giving us a their own unique viewpoint of The Ministry of Yeshua. I now see that this isn't simply a prayer in itself, but it can also be seen an outline on how we should structure our own personal prayers. Meditate and read through it with that in mind to see where I'm coming from and what I mean by that. That may very well be a nice subject for a future post about at another time.
The one thing that both of these have in common is the Greek word translated as "daily", which is the subject of this post. I recently learned something very interesting about this very unique Greek word, used in this prayer, that I never know before and wanted to elaborate on it and see where it takes us. In a few of my earlier posts, I touch on a couple different Hapax Legomenons. Hapax Legomenon is a transliteration of Greek ἅπαξ λεγόμενον, meaning "being said once" and is the term used to decribe any word that is only used once throughout the original language of scripture. Here we see this pnenomenon with the Greek word ἐπιούσιον (Epi-ousios), translated as "Daily".
"Give us this day our DAILY Bread" - Matthew 6:11
Τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δὸς ἡμῖν σήμερον·
"Give us day by day our DAILY bread." - Luke 11:3
Τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δίδου ἡμῖν τὸ καθ’ ἡμέραν
I feel that this particular Hapax Legomenon is so important for several reasons...so much so, I decided to devote an entire post to it. First off, even though it is recording twice in two different Gospels, it is used in the same context both times and in the same teaching. According to my research, this word is so unique, that it wasn't even used in the common spoken or written Greek of the day, Origen tells us that this peculiar word was not in use in ordinary speech. I have found that anytime scripture uses a word only once, there is always something divinely special to be learned about that word. Since this Hapax Legomenon, is in The Red Letters, really makes it stand out one of the Most Rare of All The Rare, so you know it’s a Real Pearl and is worth further investigation.
As usual, I started with the Numeric Value of this word and have been blown away by what I found here. Check it out!
ἐπιούσιον
(Epiousios)
"Daily"
Numeric Value = 895
The following words have the same numeric value of ἐπιούσιον (Epiousios):
ἐβαπτίζοντο (ebaptizonto)
*Root Word - βαπτίζω (baptizó)
I dip, submerge, but specifically of ceremonial dipping; I baptize.
Numeric Value = 895
"and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins." - Matthew 3:6
δικαίων (dikaiōn)
From dike; equitable; by implication, innocent, holy.
Numeric Value = 895
"So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous" - Matthew 13:49
μένω (menō)
To remain, abide, stay
Numeric Value = 895
"If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." - John 15:10
ἐμῶν (emōn)
My, mine
Numeric Value = 895
"but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep." - John 10:26
*Now pay close attention to these next two as they directly establish a very strong association with ἐπιούσιον as The Word of G*d:
εὐαγγελίζονται (euangelizontai)
To announce good news especially the gospel.
Numeric Value = 895
"the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them." - Matthew 11:5
εἴπω (eipō)
To tell, speak or say.
Numeric Value = 895
"Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” - Matthew 2:13
Here this word εἴπω (eipō) is used as divine instruction being told to Joseph, by The Angel of HaShem.
...by now you should be able to see that this Daily Bread is far greater than any food that we consume. It's The WORD!
The most remarkable discovery I made is the fact that 895 is The Numeric Value of one of the most, if not the most, repeated verses in the entire Hebrew Bible:
(and) The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
וידבר יהוה, אל-משה לאמר
This verse is repeated 70 times (7 x 10) in the original Hebrew; which makes sense. 70 is the product of 7, which is the HaShem's Number of Physical Perfection, multiplied by 10 - the Number of His Complete Perfection. 70 is a number of extreme significance in scripture in intself and I do multiple posts just on this number. The first 70, that is mentioned in the Holy Bible is in Genesis 10, the "table of nations", where it is recorded that 70 descendants of Noah repopulated the earth after the flood. These 70 nations represented all the nations of the world and their restoration after G*d’s judgment of the Great Flood (Genesis 6-8). In Luke, Chapter 10, Yeshua sent out 70 of His disciples to reclaim those 70, which is very symbolic G*d’s plan to restore all the nations through The Gospel.
"After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come." - Luke 10:1
The Number Seven in Hebew "Sheva" ( שבע ) and is The Numeric Value of the Letter Zayin ( ז ) - which the weapon, or axe; apart from the many times I've discussed the significance of this Divine Number, we can see that there are Seven Petitions of "The LORD's Prayer":
"After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven,
1) Hallowed be thy name.
2) Thy kingdom come.
3) Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
4) Give us this day our daily bread.
5) And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
6) And lead us not into temptation,
7) but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen." - Matthew 6:9-13
The Number Ten in Hebew is Esser ( עשר ) and is The Numeric Value of the Letter Yud ( י ) - meaning "Hand". We don't have to look far to see the signifance of this either. G*d created everything with 10 utterances in Genesis 1:1, 10 commandments, 10 plagues...etc.
Yeshua specifically tells us not to worry about where our next meal will come from. Our physical sustenance comes to us from Him. I've never known of anyone who put their complete faith in Him that wasn't provided everything that they needed. The Daily Bread that we ask for in our prayers is so much more than any food; it's Yeshua Himself, His Holy Spirit, His Word, His Wisdom, His Glory and Splendor.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,
yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. - Matthew 6:25-34
The Daily Bread that we ask for in The LORD's Prayer is not bread that comes from this earth, it is The Bread that Comes Down to Us from The Heavens Above. Yeshua is The Living Word and Scripture is The Written Word and He is are the source of all life. I don't feel this is a difficult concept to comprehend, but it's definitely something that we need to meditate deeply on and appreciate.
Of course, having complete faith that our needs will be provided for us doesn't give anyone any excuse to sit around in laziness and expect our rent to be paid each month. When we follow His Laws and He blesses us with the ability and the means to earn an honest living. This complete faith can be difficult for us keep when things aren't going well; which is most likely the fact that things aren't going well to start with. Every single obstacle in our lives comes from the purest of love and is sent in order to spur our own spiritual growth and we are tested daily. When Israel was wandering the desert, HaShem tested their faith with the manna; Bread From Heaven. They were told not to gather more than a day's worth at a time.
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. - Exodus 16:4
There really isn't any word in our language that justly translates this "Epiousios" and this is a prayer requesting the receipt of grace, love and light for the present day. It can't be daily, as in tomorrow or the coming day, as that would be a denial of His Promise of our needs being fulfilled day by day. Just as Israel was forbidden to store back any manna for a future day, we have no stockpile of grace put back for any future use. His Chesed (Loving Kindness) is dispersed to us at the exact moment of that we need it. Yeshua wanted us to understand these things and drew these connections to the manna of Exodus for us:
"Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” - John 6:31-33
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." - John 6:51
"This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever." - John 6:58
The more I dig into scripture and make all of these connections, the more that I see how Yeshua truly fulfills every single bit of it. I pray that these posts will enable others to see this as well. I've always got at least half a dozen posts in the works at any given time and the more important and revealing they are, the harder it is for me to put into coherence through written words. The Adversary (Satan) has really been working me over hard and doing his best to distract me as I've been working on this one, over the last week or so. Therefor, I know that this work is getting out to the right people and that others are becoming more and more conscious of this heavenly reality. The Rabbi's teach us that the reality that we live in is a mere 1% percent of creation and we must tap into the 99% percent that the majority never know. It is just so clear to me that we are all born into bondage and The Word breaks those chains and gives us freedom. The price that we pay for it seems so overwhelming to us sometimes, but it's nothing compared to the price that was paid for us on that cross by HaMelech HaMelechim (The King of Kings). Without His Daily Bread, we would all be completely lost, just wandering around aimlessly in the desert with no hope whatsoever.
All Glory, Blessings, Love and Praises to HaShem Yeshua, L'Olam Vaed (Forever and Ever). May it be More of Him and less of me in every single aspect my being.
Amen and Amen.
חסד ושלום עליכם והרבה אהבה וברכות
May Grace and Peace Be Upon You and Much Love and Blessings!
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