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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. In the desert, the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."
Then the Lord said to Moses, "I will rain down bread from Heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow My instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days."
So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, "In the evening, you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, because He has heard your grumbling against Him. Who are we, that you should grumble against us?"
Moses also said, "You will know that it was the Lord when He gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because He has heard your grumbling against Him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord."
Then Moses told Aaron, "Say to the entire Israelite community, 'Come before the Lord, for He has heard your grumbling.'"
While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the Lord appearing in the cloud. The Lord said to Moses, "I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, 'At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.'"
That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was.
Moses said to them, "It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded: 'Each one is to gather as much as he needs. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.'"
The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. And when they measured it by the omer, he who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little. Each one gathered as much as he needed.
Then Moses said to them, "No one is to keep any of it until morning."
However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.
Exodus 16:1-20
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
After God miraculously made bitter water drinkable at Marah, we see in the opening verses of Exodus, chapter 16 where the Israelites "set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin” which was located “between Elim and Sinai”. The scriptures tell us that this happened “on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt."
As we see in this passage, God’s people still were a work in progress when it came to fully trusting their Lord and perhaps we’re more like them today than we would want to admit. In this instance, we read where the Israelites became hungry as they traveled through the desert, perhaps running short on the unleavened bread they brought with them out of Egypt.
Just as water is needed for survival, so too is food so it’s easy to see how the anxiety level of the people of Israel began to elevate some. Unfortunately, this anxiety manifested itself in complaining as they said to Moses:
"If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."
Here, we find the Israelites beckoning back to their days of Egyptian captivity and oppression. In their minds, although they were enslaved, they never were worried about having food to eat as they “sat around pots of meat and ate all the food” they wanted.
At the core of this issue was the truth that the people were unable to just appreciate that they were blessed to be alive, delivered more than once by their God and yet still reluctant to simply trust that He would never allow them to perish. And so, they resorted to direct their unhappiness toward Moses, accusing him of leading them to their demise rather the promised land filled with milk and honey. Indeed, within the hearts of the people of Israel, we see an attitude of complaining and blaming, two very counter-productive mindsets that only drew then further away from where God wanted them to be.
Let’s pause here for some quick self reflection questions.
For how many times do we complain about things in our own life?
Do we yearn and covet for more at the expense of appreciating what we do have and realizing just how very blessed we are?
And...have we ever chosen to blame others for our circumstances instead of facing challenges with the faith and trust that the Lord is always with us, never leaving or forsaking us and always ready to refine us and reveal His glory in due time?
I hope you can see why today’s message is important because I think it speaks to every believer and their struggles with their human condition, also referred to as the “flesh” in the scriptures.
Going back to the passage for today, the hungry people of Israel have expressed their need for food, even if it was inappropriately expressed and we find the Lord repond to their grumbling, saying this to Moses:
"I will rain down bread from Heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way, I will test them and see whether they will follow My instructions."
Friends, we serve a God who loves us and will always provide for our needs in accordance with His will. This is a truth I consider to be absolute and unchanging. As we enter each day, the Lord already knows our needs before we ask and already knows what will happen in the course of our day well before it happens. As Christian singer and songwriter, Steven Curtis Chapman, says in the song, Miracle of the Moment:
There’s only One who knows what’s really out there waiting in all the moments yet to be.
And all we need to know, is He’s up there waiting. To Him, the future’s yesterday.
In the case of the Israelites, they needed food so the Lord "rains down” manna and quail “from Heaven", providing just what they needed. The good news is that He will do the same for us as well, and if we really activate our memory in retrospect, we will see that He has been doing it through our entire life.
For the Lord still rains down His blessings from Heaven. He is the provider of every good and perfect gift from above (James 1:17) as He grants what we need to survive and accomplish His will on any one given day. And so instead of whining and complaining, we should be praying to our Heavenly Father as Jesus, His Son and our Savior, taught us, saying:
"Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…Give us this day our daily bread." Matthew 6:10-11
Just as the Lord delivered quail and manna to Israel, He is ready to deliver just what you need, in just the right measure, and in His perfect time.
All we need to do is wait for our daily bread with patience and faith
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.