And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the Lord, to be kept for your generations. Exodus 16:33
I’m enjoying my time of daily Bible reading and am in Exodus today. I like reading through Old Testament stories which I learned as a child in Sunday school. Blessings and much appreciation to those teachers who plant the Word of God in young, impressive minds.
Although I’ve heard these stories over and over again in my lifetime, God’s Word is always fresh. There’s always more there to squeeze out of it. Like today, in Exodus 16.
The children of Israel were in the complaining and casting blame mode, a place they went quite often, in fact. They seemed ever ready to turn back to Egypt whenever something didn’t go quite the way they thought it should. Ouch! How often are we ready to quit because something doesn’t seem to be going quite the way we thought God would work it out? Oh my, and we want to look down our noses as these people! That’s one take away I got from the Word today. Fresh bread.
Then, there’s the whole story of manna. You know, God’s people were starving to death in the wilderness and God sent them bread to eat...with instructions to follow. Collect enough for your daily consumption and don’t leave any leftovers. Then collect two days worth on the sixth day to cover the Sabbath.
Of course, as they were famous for, some Israelites tried God’s Word and didn’t dispose of the leftovers. Why? I have no idea; but the bread was ruined and wormy when they came back to it the next time. So, one would wonder how the manna collected on the sixth day would last two days without being in the same condition. However, as God instructed, at His Word, the manna stayed. God meant what He said, didn’t He? Same manna, different expiration date.
As if that wasn’t enough, God told Moses to gather some for a testimony which would be kept in the ark for generations. Wow! First, this bread wouldn’t last overnight. Then, on the sixth day it would last for two days so they could follow God’s command to rest on the Sabbath. Finally, the same manna would be kept for generations without spoiling when it was saved at God’s Word as a testimony. Amazing stuff!
Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t this scream to us? God has His own ways, timetable and plans; we simply have to trust Him enough to take Him at His Word.
God’s job is to take care of us; our job is simple: to trust and obey.
It seems simple and logical, doesn’t it? Our part, anyhow. You see, I’ll never understand God’s ways and neither will you, my friend; but we must trust and obey if we’re going to be provided for and thrive.
We cannot take God’s job into our own hands. We’ll be left with a spoiled, wormy mess every time.
If He’s telling us to move, we should move. If He’s telling us to wait, we should wait. We need not try to get ahead nor lag behind. Who wants to deal with worms anyhow? That’s what we get when we go off and try to do it our own way.
Just a simple thought today, but so powerful. God will come through in His own time and way. Let’s not make our part harder than it has to be. Just do today what He asks and leave the rest to Him. He will provide enough — and right on time. And, through it all, we’ll even have some left over to testify about later. How? Because God’s just good at being God and He only asks that we be His children. Trust and obey. That’s the only way to be happy and satisfied in this life.
Hope you’ll feast with me off of this fresh bread today. DON’T EAT A WORMY MEAL!
I challenge you to get in the Word too! What should you be gathering (reading) today which might help you through? Let’s not neglect to glean, or else we’ll starve in the wilderness. Aren’t we thankful God’s Word never gets stale and can still be applied to our lives generations later? Still true. Still fresh. Still effective. And, He’s still God!