Thursday, August 11, 2016

Daily bread

DEVOTION
EXODUS
DAILY BREAD

Ex 16:11-20
11 The LORD said to Moses, 12 "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.'" 13 That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. 15 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. 16 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.'" 17 The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. 18 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. 19 Then Moses said to them, "No one is to keep any of it until morning." 20 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.
NIV

This reminds us of that portion of a prayer, “give us this day our daily bread”. It also has been on the lips of others within the scriptures. Here we see the same idea within the saying of Agur.

Prov 30:7-9
7 "Two things I ask of you, O LORD; do not refuse me before I die: 8 Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread 9 Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the LORD?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.
NIV

God was establishing the idea of relying on him for our daily bread. This means daily, not weekly, monthly, yearly or for a lifetime. Certainly this manna from heaven as well as the evening supply of quail did not last forever. God only supplied it while they were in the desert, this manna and quail being supplied by God ended at some point, once they, or their children had entered the Promised Land. So was the LORD teaching them anything in this supply of daily bread? Is he teaching us anything in this narrative? Seeing that some of them did not obey and after collecting enough manna, they did not eat it all, but thought they better keep some for the next day, just in case God did not supply a new batch of manna. We can see what happened to the stored up manna, it was full of maggots and it smelled. That is what God thinks about storing up his provision, not trusting him to supply more. He sends the maggots to eat it up and make it stink. We also see that no matter how much they gathered, whether too much or too little, they all had just what they needed. This comes down to trusting in God. Now in this county as well in many socialistic countries the government has attempted to replace God. They want people to be dependent on them for their daily bread. The all-powerful government will feed you, house you and clothe you. Give all praise to your leader, the President, dictator, king or whatever title they prefer. We can see the truth in this lesson about trusting God to supply our daily bread, not the government, but more importantly, not ourselves. We can see the truth about not storing up his provisions for the next day or in our case for our later years. Over and over again this lesson about storing up is brought to us in some form or another. It is unfortunate that some, like those in the camp of Israel, decide to store some up anyway. They were sort of like that rich fool of a farmer who built bigger barns to store up his wealth. We know want happened to him. The maggots got him. Why do we bother to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” if we don’t mean it? Does that imply we don’t mean the rest of the Lord’s Prayer? Certainly that does not mean we should spend every dime out of each paycheck. If we have a water bill, mortgage, gas and electric bills that is due on a certain date we need to have the funds to pay them, thus keeping that much in the bank. But the lesson is not about paying our bills, but storing up the provisions of God because we do not trust him to provide more, or keep providing. Yes we need to work, that also is his command. From the very beginning, because of Adams disobedience he and we are to toil the ground, work, be employed for our food, all the days of our lives. Gather the manna each day, just the amount we need. If we have too much we might become like Agur and forgot about God and his daily provision, or if we have too little we might lose faith in God and rely on our own skills to gather, even ill-gotten gains. No, we need to see the hand of God each and every day with his provisions. Keeping our trust in him, not in us, for our daily bread. 

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