Here, now, we consider the poor breadbasket,
the necessaries of our body and of the temporal life. It is a brief and simple
word, but it has a very wide scope. For when you mention and pray for daily
bread, you pray for everything that is necessary in order to have and enjoy
daily bread and, on the other hand, against everything which interferes with
it. Therefore you must open wide and extend your thoughts not only to the oven
or the flour-bin but to the distant field and the entire land, which bears and
brings to us daily bread and every sort of sustenance. For if God did not cause
it to grow, and bless and preserve it in the field, we could never take bread
from the oven or have any to set upon the table.
To comprise it briefly, this petition includes
everything that belongs to our entire life in the world, because on that
account alone do we need daily bread. Now for our life it is not only necessary
that our body have food and covering and other necessaries, but also that we
spend our days in peace and quiet among the people with whom we live and have
intercourse in daily business and conversation and all sorts of doings, in
short, whatever pertains both to the domestic and to the neighborly or civil
relation and government. For where these two things are hindered [intercepted
and disturbed] that they do not prosper as they ought, the necessaries of life
also are impeded, so that ultimately life cannot be maintained. And there is,
indeed, the greatest need to pray for temporal authority and government, as
that by which most of all God preserves to us our daily bread and all the
comforts of this life. For though we have received of God all good things in
abundance we are not able to retain any of them or use them in security and
happiness, if He did not give us a permanent and peaceful government. For where
there are dissension, strife, and war, there the daily bread is already taken
away, or at least checked.
Therefore it would be very proper to place in the
coat-of-arms of every pious prince a loaf of bread instead of a lion, or a
wreath of rue, or to stamp it upon the coin, to remind both them and their
subjects that by their office we have protection and peace, and that without
them we could not eat and retain our daily bread. Therefore they are also
worthy of all honor, that we give to them for their office what we ought and
can, as to those through whom we enjoy in peace and quietness what we have,
because otherwise we would not keep a farthing; and that, in addition, we also
pray for them that through them God may bestow on us the more blessing and
good.
Let this be a very brief explanation and sketch,
showing how far this petition extends through all conditions on earth. Of this
any one might indeed make a long prayer, and with many words enumerate all the
things that are included therein, as that we pray God to give us food and
drink, clothing, house, and home, and health of body; also that He cause the
grain and fruits of the field to grow and mature well; furthermore, that He
help us at home towards good housekeeping, that He give and preserve to us a
godly wife, children, and servants, that He cause our work, trade, or whatever
we are engaged in to prosper and succeed, favor us with faithful neighbors and
good friends, etc. Likewise, that He give to emperors, kings, and all estates,
and especially to the rulers of our country and to all counselors, magistrates,
and officers, wisdom, strength, and success that they may govern well and
vanquish the Turks and all enemies; to subjects and the common people,
obedience, peace, and harmony in their life with one another, and on the other
hand, that He would preserve us from all sorts of calamity to body and
livelihood, as lightning, hail, fire, flood, poison, pestilence, cattle-plague,
war and bloodshed, famine, destructive beasts, wicked men, etc. All this it is
well to impress upon the simple, namely, that these things come from God, and
must be prayed for by us.
But this petition is especially directed also
against our chief enemy, the devil. For all his thought and desire is to
deprive us of all that we have from God, or to hinder it; and he is not
satisfied to obstruct and destroy spiritual government in leading souls astray
by his lies and bringing them under his power, but he also prevents and hinders
the stability of all government and honorable, peaceable relations on earth.
There he causes so much contention, murder, sedition, and war also lightning
and hail to destroy grain and cattle, to poison the air, etc. In short, he is
sorry that any one has a morsel of bread from God and eats it in peace; and if
it were in his power, and our prayer (next to God) did not prevent him, we
would not keep a straw in the field, a farthing in the house, yea, not even our
life for an hour, especially those who have the Word of God and would like to
be Christians.
Behold, thus God wishes to indicate to us how He
cares for us in all our need, and faithfully provides also for our temporal
support. and although He abundantly grants and preserves these things even to
the wicked and knaves, yet He wishes that we pray for them, in order that we
may recognize that we receive them from His hand, and may feel His paternal
goodness toward us therein. For when He withdraws His hand, nothing can prosper
nor be maintained in the end, as, indeed, we daily see and experience. How much
trouble there is now in the world only on account of bad coin, yea, on account
of daily oppression and raising of prices in common trade, bargaining and labor
on the part of those who wantonly oppress the poor and deprive them of their
daily bread! This we must suffer indeed; but let them take care that they do
not lose the common intercession, and beware lest this petition in the Lord's
Prayer be against them.