Simply the Bible Blog

“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Look, I’m going to rain down food from heaven for you. Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day. I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions.’”

Exodus 16:4 (NLT)

Tests come in many shapes and sizes. When I was in school we had pop quizzes. We also had final exams. Each was designed to assess what we had learned.

Today we see where God gave His people a test to see if they would obey Him. They had already seen Him at work through the plagues, the cloud that led them, the Red Sea crossing, and the bitter water that became sweet. But would they simply do what He said?

They complained against Moses and Aaron because they were hungry. I must admit, I can get a bit “testy” when I have gone a long time without eating. But they were so “hangry” that they said it would have been better for them to have died in Egypt. Really???

God did not deliver them from Egyptian bondage to starve them in the wilderness. He had a meal plan in mind. It was called “manna”, and it would rain down from heaven six days a week for the next forty years. But there was one requirement for getting this free lunch: they had to gather it every day.

Forty years later, Moses would reflect on this:

“Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

Deuteronomy 8:3 (NLT)

God wanted them to be dependent upon Him for their daily provision. This is also reflected in the Lord’s Prayer:

“Give us this day our daily bread.”

Matthew 6:11 (NKJV)

I believe this applies to our spiritual as well as our material provision. In other words, we must gather our daily allotment of the Word of God. As bread is to our bodies, so the Word is to our spirits. We need our daily dose to grow spiritually.

So as you listen to the Word today, pray that God would help you gather your daily dose and live by every word that comes from His mouth!

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