One of the most quoted verses in this week’s parashah, Eikev, is also one of its most misunderstood.

“He humbled you, made you hungry, and fed you with the manna… to teach you that man does not live by bread alone, but by everything that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Deuteronomy 8:3)

Of course we live by bread. Without food, we die. So what was Moses teaching?

Perhaps the answer begins with a forgotten detail. When the Israelites left Egypt, they did not leave destitute. The Torah says they departed with gold, silver—and large flocks and herds.

If they already possessed wealth, why were they hungry? They had plenty of cattle to satisfy their needs.

Perhaps God was interrupting a dangerous transition.

In Egypt, Israel depended on Pharaoh. After the Exodus, they could have concluded, Now we provide for ourselves. We have the means, we are self-sufficient. But alas, God “made you hungry.”

For what purpose?

Had Israel been sated with eating meat for their entire sojourn in the desert, they might have entered the Promised Land having consumed much of its productive wealth. Instead, God preserved those assets by first making them less appealing, and then supplying a substitute for their daily needs.

Read this way, the manna was both sustenance and strategy.

That sheds new light on Moses’ warning just a few verses later:

“Beware lest you say, ‘My power and the might of my hand have made me this wealth.'” (Deuteronomy 8:7)

That wealth would had been long decimated without the daily manna.

The point of the manna was both the immediate sustenance and the vehicle with which to preserve future sustenance (the cattle). And it was God who gave the manna to not just keep people alive, but to position the nation to succeed in the future in the Promised Land.

The same is true today.

We need jobs, businesses, investments, and income. Eikev asks us to appreciate the means of our immediate livelihood, future savings and the source for both.

God was not preparing Israel for perpetual dependence. He was preparing them for covenantal partnership. Today and tomorrow.

Consider the lesser known phrase of “He made you hungry” rather than “man does not live by bread alone,” to appreciate the gifts of today and what it enables tomorrow.