It’s terrifying what we are capable of doing, of what we will agree to, when we are trying to meet our most basic needs. A common method of torture and manipulation is literal starvation. From sadists terrorizing a single prisoner to dictators exercising control over a country, history has shown that when people are starving, they will cast aside reason and morals to stave off hunger.

This is why that very first temptation that Satan dangled before Jesus in the wilderness was so important. He had been without food for 40 days, the Bible tells us, when Satan appeared to remind Him of His own power. The tempter said, “tell these stones to become bread.”

What an easy choice that would have been, right? Jesus did not take the bait, quoting Deuteronomy 8:3, “man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

In the United States, we’re not so easily tempted out of the scarcity of food. Even the poorest of Americans are obese. The free market has removed the most basic of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs from the grip of politicians seeking to manipulate the citizenry. Until now.

Washington’s corrupt spending practices have gamed our fiat currency to the extent that rampant inflation has made a casual trip to the grocery store an exercise in fiscal terror. How long until, in exchange for a little more obedience from the population, the government promises a program to lower those prices by dictate? Some fresh government eggs? A nice slice of government cheese?

But that’s still to come if we allow it. If we give in to it.

We certainly have indicated a willingness to give in to that temptation. Politicians got us hooked on the allure of a tax-subsidized retirement and now regularly manufacture reasons to take it away.

Government retirement plans. Government health care. Government housing. So, why not government food?

Yes, sure, man does not live on bread alone. But, if some politician will stick someone else with my tab…?

The problem is that we are allowing ourselves to be tempted into bad behaviors by corrupt individuals who steal from others.

The government only has to give us what it first took from us. Satan did not want Jesus fed any more than the politicians wanted your retirement or housing secured. The goal is our acquiescence to their agenda by appealing to our “needs.”

Let us instead follow Jesus. We must have the faithful fortitude to reject manipulated pleas to our needs, knowing God will provide for us.