Luke 1:19

‘And the angel answering said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you, and to bring you these good tidings.” '

The answer comes. He can know that a son will be born to him because of the authority and position of the one who speaks. ‘I AM Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God.' The ‘I am' is emphatic. Could such a one lie? For one who stands in the presence of God could not come with lying promises. What he promises is directly from God. And he had been sent specifically to bring him these good tidings.

Gabriel (Daniel 8:16; Daniel 9:21) is one of two angels whose names are given in the Bible. His name means ‘man of God'. The other was Michael (Daniel 10:13; Daniel 10:21; ).

Bread is in fact very much connected with ‘the last days', a phrase which in the New Testament includes the life and ministry of Jesus, and this was what the feeding of the crowd had symbolised. And we must remember that to the disciples He had ‘brought in' these last days. And in the last days the belief was that the Messiah would give bread from Heaven, as Moses had (compare John 6:31 in the context of the feeding of the crowds with bread). And that is why Jesus referred to Himself as ‘the bread of life' (John 6:35). He said that He had come to bring God's bread to His people. He had come as God's Bread from Heaven, that men might eat of Him and not die.

Thus we may see here that Jesus' prayer, given for us to pray, should be seen as pointing to a prayer for the final fulfilment of God's purposes, a fulfilment to be achieved ‘each day' as we partake of His Holy Spirit. He is saying to His disciple, pray that the imminent approach of the Kingly Rule of God under the Christ, where you will eat of the bread of God, (which He later makes clear then refers to Himself), may not be delayed, but may be enjoyed now through the coming of His Holy Spirit. Pray that it will come ‘today'. It is essentially a prayer that they might almost immediately partake of the fullness of Christ and enjoy life with Him. It was an indication that the Kingly Rule of God was here in which they could daily partake. And they were to pray that they might have their share in it along with all His people. That they should not miss out on what God has given.

So we have ‘Tomorrow's bread' available to us today, while at the same time looking forward to the time when we will eat and drink with Him in His heavenly rule.

However, whichever way we take it the prayer is for daily sustenance, whether physical or spiritual, so that we can properly serve God. It is not a suggestion that we can ask for whatever we like.

‘And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive every one who is indebted to us.' Central to participation in the Kingly Rule of God is forgiveness of sins (Luke 3:3; Luke 5:20; Luke 7:41). Without forgiveness we can have no place there. We are thus called on daily to walk in His light and seek the forgiveness of sins (1 John 1:7). And He points out that in doing so we must also be those who forgive others. ‘Debtors' is a very Jewish way of looking at sin. We must forgive those who are indebted to us because they have sinned against us. Then God will forgive us our debts in that we have sinned against Him (Luke 7:41). In both cases there is the assumption of repentance. God will forgive us when we repent. We are to forgive others when they repent (Luke 17:3). And just as God is willing to forgive many times, we must do the same.

The thought is not that we will be forgiven because we forgive. The thought rather is that as already His believing people, and having because of that forgiven others, we are coming as those who have done all the preparatory work necessary for our own daily forgiveness. We have repented and set our lives right, and this is especially revealed in our forgiveness of others. We are therefore ripe for God's mercy to be revealed in forgiveness to us. This is not the initial forgiveness at our first repentance. As God's men we are coming to Him as those who are obedient to His ways. We are praying like this because having once for all been forgiven in the past, we have learned to freely forgive, so that now we have the confidence to come for the daily forgiveness that we need as well. Our forgiving others is an evidence of the fact that we are already His and that our lives have been transformed and that our approach is genuine.

But this forgiveness of sins is itself an evidence of the last days. The last days will introduce a forgiveness of sins that will spread throughout the world (Luke 24:47; Isaiah 43:25; Isaiah 44:22; Jeremiah 31:34). And it is noteworthy that in this prayer of Jesus there is no mention anywhere of God as in any way being restricted to Judaism. It is not a Jewish prayer, it is not a Greek prayer. It is a world prayer, for it is for His disciples who must have a world vision, and it is for all mankind.

‘And bring us not into testing.' We should notice immediately the implication of these words. It is that we are being ‘brought', we are being ‘led', in the way in which we go. They are words of personal care. The Lord is our Shepherd and we are His sheep. And what we are praying is that we will not have to face the tests that the world has to face, and especially the Scribes and Pharisees have to face, under the wrath of God (Luke 11:42) and away from the flock outside His protection.

But one thing we can be sure of, and that is that this is not a prayer that we will never be tested. For the Scriptures makes clear that testing is one thing that every believer can be certain of (Matthew 7:14; Matthew 10:28; John 16:33; Acts 14:22; Acts 20:19; James 1:12). To pray not to be tested would be to ask the impossible, because it would be to ask that the Scriptures are not fulfilled. We will be tested by our own desires (James 1:13), we will be tested in ways that are common to man (1 Corinthians 10:13), we will be tested by the activities of God's enemies, sharing His reproach (1 Peter 4:12), we will be tested by the Evil One as Jesus was (Ephesians 10:13). And when we are we can be sure of this that God will provide a way of escape (if we are willing to take it) so that we will be able to bear it (1 Corinthians 10:13), because He is leading us.

But what we are praying will not happen here is for  God  to bring us into His testing. For when God brings a man into testing he is naked and unprotected. He has no way of escape. He is laid bare in his sin. He is undone. To be led into testing is to be a lost soul. We do not want God to lead us there.

In other words what we are asking is that we may walk continually under God's protection, not having to face what His enemies have to face. This involves us therefore in walking where we know His protection is available. The sheep who deliberately goes out to face the wolf because he fancies a good scrap has lost his right to protection by the shepherd (and demonstrated that he is not a sheep).

So this is rather a prayer that we will be kept from the way of those who are tested by God, the way of the world, that God will walk with us and will never allow us to be tested in the way that cannot be overcome, that He will not bring us into a way in which we are without His protection. Note that the whole idea is that God is leading and bringing. God is here seen as a shepherd. It is spoken by those under His protection.

Of course the believer should certainly never seek for God to test him, for that would be to display arrogance. Those who sought martyrdom were often those who failed in the end. Rather, says Jesus, we should pray at all costs to avoid it. We should pray to be led safely in the ways where God does not test men, the protected way, safe from the trials and tests that God brings on the ungodly, and safe from His judgments.

We will be tested by sin (temptation), we will be tested by God's enemies and we will be tested by the Evil One. In those cases God is not leading us into them, He is bringing us through them (Isaiah 43:2). All these God will keep us in. But we do not want to be laid bare, we do not want to be tested by God, for those whom God tests are without hope. Nothing can protect them from it. They may build what shelters they may, but they will simply be blown away (Isaiah 28:17). And the command that we pray this is the guarantee that God will fulfil it. It is a prayer that we might walk under His umbrella, in the narrow way that leads us safely through all temptations as His own.

Those who pray this are praying to be delivered from evil and the Evil One, as Matthew 6:13 makes clear. Many manuscripts include the words here as well, but as other good manuscripts exclude the words (including p45, aleph, B and f1) it is likely that they have been added by copyists from Matthew. They are, however, quite Scriptural (they are there in Matthew).

For the idea of not being led into testing by God contains within it the opposite notion of being led in the way that is free from God's testing. Prayer for safety and deliverance is intrinsic within the desire not to be tested, for the only way in which we can be ‘not led into testing' is by our being protected from it, by our being led in the right way, in the way free from God's testing. Thus we are here asking to be led in the reverse of the God-tested way, in the God-protected way. We are asking God to drive us through the hail of His own missiles and bullets in a bullet-proof car. It goes without saying that we are also declaring by this that we ourselves will not walk into the way of testing. We will avoid all such ways. We will keep our eyes fixed on Him in the not-God-tested way. For the whole prayer is based on our being ‘led' and ‘brought'.

As we are constantly told elsewhere, testing is inevitable for believers (Matthew 7:14; Matthew 10:28; John 16:33; Acts 14:22; James 1:12), and sometimes it may seem to overwhelm us. (The bullet-proof car may be surrounded and put under huge pressure). But the believer knows that he will never be overwhelmed (Isaiah 43:2), for the Lord is his protector (Hebrews 13:5). Nevertheless there is in this the opposite lesson that testing must never be sought. That would be folly. But as Jesus makes clear in Luke 10:19; Luke 11:21, when we are tested we need not fear, for He has delivered from the Evil One.