Cover to Cover
Reading: Exodus 15:1-17:16
Focus: Exodus 16:13-30
Why is it so hard to trust in God? When Jesus taught, “Do not worry” on the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:25-34) and that God would provide the needs of His people, Jesus meant that we could trust God to provide for our daily needs. Yet, we start thinking about the future and how we’ll ever be able to afford a house or raise a family, how we’ll ever live after retirement…the list goes on. Even when we’ve seen God provide amazingly in our times of need, we still forget and look to heavens in torment, “Why me, God, why me?”
Not much different from the Israelites on the Exodus journey. At the point we join them, they had already witnessed the Plagues, the division of the Red Sea and destruction of the Egyptian army. After all this, they still complained that Moses had brought them out to die! First, of many repeated episodes, it was the lack of water which God resolved quite simply and then led them to an oasis to camp. Following, they began to complain about food and their lack of it. Again, God resolved the matter with the well-known provisions of manna and quail.
In the provision of manna, God gave specific instructions regarding His provision. Each day, people were to gather what they needed for that day with none left for the following day. On the sixth day, they were to gather twice the amount for the sixth and seventh day—the seventh day being their Sabbath day. Nonetheless, there were those who thought to keep some for the following day, only to wake up to a dreadful smell and maggots in their food store. Those who only gathered provisions for the sixth day and not the seventh were left wondering what to eat on the seventh when they discovered none had been provided on the Sabbath.
Yet our human nature is just the same and gets the better of us. Even having seen God’s amazing provisions, we still question God’s ability to provide in our time of need. It’s not to say that we don’t save, nor is it that we don’t work and labour, nor is it to say that we foolish expend our resources trusting that God will provide after our lack of wisdom; however, understanding that God provides to those who trust in Him, who call upon Him, and come to realise that their provisions are all, solely, provided out of His abundance. If we would only learn to trust…
Next Reading: Exodus 18:1-21:36
